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Old 20-03-2019, 04:08   #1
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Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

Now that the ice is melting, Canadians can dream of summer...

I'm planning to sail from Georgian Bay to the Atlantic provinces. For safety, I want redundant Nav systems with accurate Chart data. But to acquire a two year license for all CHS RNC and ENC charts covering the Great Lakes to Maritimes will cost roughly C$5000. Yikes! That's more than the entire trip budget for Charts alone; it's not a viable option.

As an OpenCPN enthusiast, o-charts.org offers reasonable license fees for official Hydrographic agency data for a growing number of countries around the world, but not Canada (yet).

Questions:

- does anyone else care about current CHS pricing?

- anyone interested in CHS data being available via o-charts.org?

cheers!
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Old 20-03-2019, 07:28   #2
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Re: Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

I've found that the best pricing for electronic CHS charts is from within apps. Somehow, they get much better licensing deals than the consumer going directly to CHS. You still pay through the nose for any paper charts though.
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Old 20-03-2019, 08:52   #3
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Re: Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

That’s a lot! I’ve always used Navionics or C-Map. Much cheaper! I always view the CHS charts as more directed at commercial users rather than recreational boaters.
That should be quite a trip! You have a good boat for it. Enjoy!
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Old 20-03-2019, 08:53   #4
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Re: Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

Best electronic redundancy imo is Garmin charts on your chartplotter and an independent handheld that can display the micro sd chip as well. If your chartplotter has gone down after something catastrophic (batt/elec system failure, major water intrusion etc etc a laptop or tablet will most likely also be toast or will be soon) I always keep a stash of AA and AAA for various reasons on board, handheld gps units are waterproof, shockproof and just as accurate. Bonus is you can use the anchor drag alarm beside you when sleeping rather than hoping you’ll hear the CP in the cockpit from where ever you sleep.
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Old 20-03-2019, 08:59   #5
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Re: Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

I’ve been using CHS charts on iNavEx that were provided via Fugawi. However Johnson Outdoors bought Fugawi and then put them out of business. (What the heck!?).

iNavEx is supposed to be negotiating another source for CHS charts but do not have a specific availability date yet.
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Old 20-03-2019, 13:53   #6
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Re: Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

Thanks all for the input. It does seem that most of the commercial vendors like Navionics, INavX, Garmin, etc. are actually repackaging CHS data at a much lower cost to the end user than purchasing charts, either paper or electronic, directly.

But I'm wondering: how do we know how often a particular vendor updates the app data based on CHS updates? I've not seen any assurances about this. Navionics for example, just say they update their data frequently, but only they know where those updates come from. The "sonar" chart option in the Navionics app is IMO dangerously inaccurate. There is no way to tell which sonar contours are based on actual soundings and which are pure fiction (interpolated, whatever, but plain wrong: showing 5 meters depth instead of less than 1m). But I digress

At this point, I'm pretty heavily invested in a Linux and Android device ecosystem. That's the subject for another thread. I'll look into INavX, now that they support Android. But what I really want is CHS charts on OpenCPN, running on Android (and Linux laptop/desktops) at a reasonable price. The o-charts.org approach seems like the most likely approach to bring this about before I'm too old to sail anymore, in a few more decades
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Old 20-03-2019, 14:42   #7
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Re: Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

Maybe in just too casual about it but I don’t worry too much about updates. Some charts in Newfoundland carry a note to the effect of: “Based on data taken from a French Survey of 1887.” The rocks don’t move too much. I came down from Lake Erie a couple of years ago, the charts were old but fine. Not a lot of navaids anyway. The only thing I hit was a bouy on the St Lawrence but that was my fault.

You may want Cheryl Barr’s book: the DownEast Circle Route, lots of help with timing the tides.

https://www.amazon.com/Down-East-Cir.../dp/0973165928
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Old 20-03-2019, 14:58   #8
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Re: Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

Thanks for that. The tides (and currents) in the St. Laurence will be a novel experience to someone like me coming from the Great Lakes.

Agreed the rocks generally don't move. Perhaps that's why it bugs me to pay so much for charts based on surveys from the 1800s. Those surveyors actually did an amazing job, considering the tools of the time. Today we have to be very suspicious, because some charting applications will display extensive detail in areas which should be left blank because there is no survey data to support any display!

Warnings about missing survey info on some CHS charts help remind us too.

p.s. I'm really POed at Navionics (now Garmin) on this issue
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Old 20-03-2019, 15:10   #9
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Re: Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

Yeah, I’m no fan of Navionics in particular and raster charts in general.
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Old 20-03-2019, 15:17   #10
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Re: Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

There are a number of places on line selling digital Canadian charts. I use raster and the entire West Coast is about $500. Checking a couple places I buy from, it looks like less than $1500 for raster of the Great Lakes and East Coast. You have to download. Some have dvd.

https://www.nauticalmind.com/blog/ca...igital-charts/
https://mdnautical.com/715-canadian-...-raster-charts
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Old 20-03-2019, 15:27   #11
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Re: Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

Alright, thanks. Even though CHS vector charts seem to be more oriented to commercial shipping than the raster charts, I would like the ENC charts as well. Have you checked the price on those puppies? Whoo-eee

As long as you don't over-zoom, ENC are pretty sweet on a smaller screen like the tablets and phone that I use at the helm.
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Old 20-03-2019, 15:52   #12
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Re: Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

For Android, AquaMap Canada was pretty good on our Down East Loop trip.

As for current charts, no, the rocks don't move much. But new rocks are "reported" all the time. I'd rather not be the one to "report" one.
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Old 20-03-2019, 16:27   #13
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Re: Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

I don’t know the interval between updates for Navionics but when I discovered a discrepancy between bouy locations and the chart a couple years ago, Navionics updated their chart within a couple weeks and let me know.
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Old 20-03-2019, 16:45   #14
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Re: Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

Quote:
Originally Posted by hpeer View Post
Yeah, I’m no fan of Navionics in particular and raster charts in general.
I’m no fan of VECTOR charts, prefer raster. Rats! Another brain fart.
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Old 20-03-2019, 18:34   #15
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Re: Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

I'd still prefer raster, too. Not only because I'm a curmudgeon who doesn't like change, but also when these things are digitized, a LOT of information is lost. Shoreside structure and, more importantly, many place names, are simply not transferred over.

Some day I'll be off an unfamiliar coast and have to call in my position. Lat and Long are great, but even better is to add a local place name, so anyone nearby knows where I am without having to figure it out. Plus, it's easier to mis-communicate digits than names.
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