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Maramu 46 · 19-05-2011, 05:49

Hello, We will soon be sailing around the world, Starting from our home port in Chioggia (Venice) in June. Trying to keep the costs of nautical maps on a low, I have found a company out of WA, (USA), selling copies at 5.95$. What do you think? Also,With nautical guides and the GPS, is it really worth the cost of buy nautical maps of ports (sorry but I'm not keen on the name) those in small detail? Grazie, Stefano

captain58sailin · 19-05-2011, 05:56

Welcome to the forum Stefano, sorry I do not know the answer to your question, I have no experience with the company you speak of. Personally I like the paper charts.

**boatman61** · 19-05-2011, 06:12

Many long distance cruisers have for years been doing a chart swap/copy system in places like Gibraltar/Carib/La Coruna and other places around the world for at least as long as I've been cruising...
With CP's now growing in popularity maybe we'll find cruisers leaving the Med will be exchanging their 'Chips' at Gib for Carib/US/Nth Europe instead....

Stranger things have happened.. many passage charts like the La Coruna to Gib one have insets of the important/secondary ports along the way...

**GordMay** · 19-05-2011, 06:16

Bellingham Chart Printers produce quality full size & reduced size charts (2/3).
➥ Discounted Nautical Charts, Reproductions, Electronic Charts & Navigational Software | Bellingham Chart Printers

MarkJ · 19-05-2011, 06:34

Cost of charts for a circumnavigation is ridiculously high. All those cheap charts and those swap charts will be old, obsolete, un-updated and useless as 2 nipples on a bull.

Go buy the current chip for your first year or 2's cruise.

At least your charts will be from the right millennium

Mark

**boatman61** · 19-05-2011, 06:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Cost of charts for a circumnavigation is ridiculously high. All those cheap charts and those swap charts will be old, obsolete, un-updated and useless as 2 nipples on a bull.

Go buy the current chip for your first year or 2's cruise.

At least your charts will be from the right millennium

Mark

MarkJ's got a very valid point there....
I believe that in the last 10yrs NZ Nth Island has moved about 4'5ft Nth and following the Quake/Tsunami Japan is no longer exactly where it was...
Or you could be a dinosaur and update the important stuff by going online and updating the paper..

smurphny · 19-05-2011, 07:08

I print my own charts as needed from plotter software. With a small inkjet, you can very effectively make charts at just the magnification you need. I make handy, disposable booklets of charts that I leaf through and can write on with log notes. They are small enough to have on deck where they are needed, not spread out below on a nav. table. Singlehanding, this is really important and works quite well. You have the plotter AND paper as backup. The only paper charts I buy are those where I think the electronic versions are not accurate enough.