BCP Charts

[Sailmonkey]

Has anyone used the BCP 2/3 scale black and white charts? These look right up my alley.

Discounted Nautical Charts, Reproductions, Electronic Charts & Navigational Software | Bellingham Chart Printers

Looking for opinions before I buy a sample chart to look at.

[Euro Cruiser]

We've used them many times. Excellent service, even when needing to get charts in distant ports. Quality of the copies and paper is excellent. Jon, the owner, has a lot of experience as a chart agent, which these days means he's also knowledgeable about the electronic nav programs and knows which charting software best fits a given region. Good guy and a good vendor.

Jack

[Sailmonkey]

I got the samples friday. These charts are great!!! I can fold the 2/3 scale in half and it fits on the nav desk.

[idpnd]

I was wondering the other day, if you had complete electronic charts you could order only overview / large scale maps off BCP as a backup for GPS failure - how do you feel about that?

[Sailmonkey]

I've got electronic charts from garmin only for my handheld.....I like them for quick spot checks, but nothing beats, for me, being able to plot positions and tracks on paper.

[barnakiel]

It is not either / or. Unless this is what you are.

My attitude - have both onboard.

b.

[Euro Cruiser]

idpnd:

That's exactly what many long-distance cruising folks end up doing. In most cases, the crew is carrying a cruising guide that offers detailed harbor chartlets and even some coastal chartlets as part of the guide, and these guides offer lat/long references. (Examples are all the Imray & YM European guides, the Pavlidis guides for the Caribbean & Bahamas, Bauhaus for Panama and so forth). Once one confirms their accuracy and utility, buying the few medium or large scale reprints to support passage making and coastal hops is all one feels is needed for 'paper back-up'

Also, there are times when there is no guide or an older guide but without lat/long references. When that's happened to us (e.g. when we visited Haiti and the DR south coast), I just printed up screen-dumps from the NIMA electronic charts I had and then scotch-taped them together. Not very impressive looking, perhaps, but a reliable way to have a paper backup.

If a crew routinely hops around a given region - e.g. cruises the E Caribbean chain or hops back 'n forth between the ICW and the Bahamas - it's easy to overlook how much sheer bulk (and expense) is involved in equipping a boat with both charts and guides for extended cruising in one new region after the next. (And guides always seem to be preferred over charts because the regional detail, logistics info, etc. is so valuable). So for both these reasons - bulk & expense - it's very common for folks to rely on the guides to supplement that paper chart supply.

Jack

[idpnd]

Thanks for the info Jack, just what I was looking for.

Immensely enjoyed your (and sv sarah's) site btw