Where can I find a free online database for navigational charts anywhere in the world

[fif.ed]

Hello Mariners! Wondering where I can find charts online for free?
At the moment specifically searching for charts Massachusetts in the U.S and also U.K. and Europe. Thank you

[tkeithlu]

For the US, you can download them online from NOAA.

[fif.ed]

Originally Posted by tkeithlu

For the US, you can download them online from NOAA.

I tried to search here but they were zip codes that wouldn’t open with any computer programme. What do you open them with?

[letsgetsailing3]

on a related note, is there a place to get free pilot charts online?

[fif.ed]

Originally Posted by letsgetsailing3

on a related note, is there a place to get free pilot charts online?

Start your own thread!!! [emoji23]

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by letsgetsailing3

on a related note, is there a place to get free pilot charts online?

https://msi.nga.mil/NGAPortal/MSI.po...2&pubCode=0003

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by fif.ed

I tried to search here but they were zip codes that wouldn’t open with any computer programme. What do you open them with?

Try https://www.charts.noaa.gov/ENCs/ENCs.shtml

I have used OpenCPN to read them after extracting them.

[capt jgw]

Depends on what you want to display them on. On a dedicated chart plotter you probably can't get them free, you have to purchase from the plotter maker. To display on a computer, the NOAA charts work great and are free. Most other countries have their charts available for download, but usually not free. You need a display app to show them, and as Jackdale said OpenCPN is about the best, and is also free. It runs on Windows, Mac, Android, and Linux. (There are two Android versions on Google Play, one is an old version with no support for free, the current version with support is I believe $12.) There are other apps out there but I haven't looked at them since I found OpenCPN.

[Pete17C]

For NOAA charts..

Go here https://www.charts.noaa.gov/Interact...log/nrnc.shtml

make sure you click 'paper charts' in the upper left title bar

select chart on interactive map, click 'pdf' button, middle right

[amanoni]

Navionics is a small fee, but provides a wealth of info. It is Andriod/iOS based

[Peter Marx]

Originally Posted by tkeithlu

For the US, you can download them online from NOAA.

Love your Quote of The Day!

[fogmachine]

The OpenCPN people keep a good list of pointers to chart sources, both free and for-fee.

https://opencpn.org/OpenCPN/info/chartsource.html

[jmschmidt]

Not so fast buckaroo. The tax laws have all changed, there was a period after the great recession when you could basically deduct the cost of a business boat but no more. But that deduction still had to comply with what I say below.
If you own the boat (title in your name) and manage it yourself (good luck) and spend at least documented 750hrs a year doing so, you generally can consider it as an active income or loss producer. But if you have it owned in a pass-through entity like a corporation or LLC and you aren't the full-time operator/manager, it is considered a passive activity. This means any bottom-line profits are fully taxable to you personally each year but any passive activity losses are carried forward until you terminate the activity, i.e. sell the boat.
That's right passive activity gains are fully taxed to you every year but passive-activity losses must be carried forward to the end of the activity.
And then, and only then, do you get to offset your personal income with the accumulated losses, if any. But, at that point you also have to recapture all that depreciation that gave rise to those passive losses carried forward and pay tax on them at a higher rate than long-term capital gains.
When you sell the boat, if there is any profit left in the venture at that point you get to pay taxes on that at long-term capital gain rates.
Most of us are only doing this to get our two-weeks use of the boat per year (Oh, sorry, almost forgot that part, yep, just like your mountain cabin, two-weeks a year personal use, that's all you get, more than that your management company is supposed to 1099 you for the value of your personal use. Foreign (BVI) manager usually don’t do that so it is a case of “do you feel lucky today punk, well do ya.”
Like they say, "if it were easy lawyers would do it." No, they just bill you for their time when you've screwed it all up.
Not so in the 1950-60, then it was the Wild West and that's how a lot of people got rich on real estate.

[fogmachine]

Just a little off-topic

[hamburking]

Navionics allows you to view (for free) charts of the world, but only in a web browser. Good for planning and research. Useless if you are on a boat (until we get decent global wifi...nudge, nudge, Elon Musk!). A favorite of armchair sailors everywhere.

Navionics ChartViewer

Enjoy.