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So you're out #sailing in a new area and your electrics fail. No bother, just go back to using a paper chart for navigation (if you ever stopped: I didn't).

The only problem is that the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office is withdrawing its portfolio of Admiralty Standard Nautical Charts and Thematic Charts.

Thank Bob we still have Imray ... for now.

I'm also wondering what small or traditional boat sailors without electronics are meant to do.

rya.org.uk/blog/the-rise-of-en…

in reply to Paul Oldham 🏴󠁧󠁒󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 πŸ’› πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ πŸ‡΅πŸ‡Έ

quite! I note Westminster also planning to scan then eventually destroy all original birth marriage and death certificates ,if true , researching family trees and etc in future means there wont be access to these physical historical documents. This UK government has no understanding nor interest in our past
in reply to Paul Oldham 🏴󠁧󠁒󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 πŸ’› πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ πŸ‡΅πŸ‡Έ

That's interesting: it makes sense, I have hardly ever seen a paper chart in use.

That said, when I went deep sea fishing, they had all the paper charts they would ever need (this was NZ) as a backup. It feels... a bit presumptous to believe that e navigation will totally replace paper charts.

Unknown parent

@goatsarah @ajlanes @squishymage42
I think for me part of the reason I still value paper charts (other than then not needing electrons) that I sail on other people's boats and I can *always* navigate using charts whereas every chart plotter seems to have a different UI.
in reply to Paul Oldham 🏴󠁧󠁒󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 πŸ’› πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ πŸ‡΅πŸ‡Έ

Oh! One factor is that all mobile comms will go Satellite in the next 5 years. But it's not here yet and even then one's device could easily fail (and I'd bet it would be the software that failed first).
in reply to Paul Oldham 🏴󠁧󠁒󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 πŸ’› πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ πŸ‡΅πŸ‡Έ

I don't understand. The work of updating the charts remains necessary and relevant, so they'll still have to keep the actual data up to date. Doing as Ordnance Survey have done and providing a print-on-demand service for paper charts is surely much easier and more profitable than the work required to safely move everyone to digital-only?
in reply to Paul Oldham 🏴󠁧󠁒󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 πŸ’› πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ πŸ‡΅πŸ‡Έ

The US is well along the same path, and the answer for us is "online viewer for the chart database can generate custom PDFs for printing, and here's a world-wide vendors certified to print bigger (A2-equivalent) ones for you that meet carry requirements." Including Stanfords in the UK so I'd imagine a similar partnership would be easy to reach.
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