Are paper charts as a backup still necessary?

[Adagio01]

I like papercharts for the Big picture overview. When I'm planning to travel a distance greater then 50 miles I find the detail on the electronic charts gets too small. Sure the larger chartplotter helps, but for me laying out the paper chart on my table gives me a Great overview and select waypoints for use on me electronic charts.

[bill good]

Just noticed my Norie's Nautical Tables 1967 on my book shelf. Still works!!


Regards


ps not far was Burton's Nautical Tables price sticker $5.75

[ALEXDEV]

at sea now planned our trip well printed off charts a third of the way and haven't used them, I found an application called I boat from Microsoft it can be used online or offline, I aslo screenshot it and printed the charts on A2 came out well, you can download the app on your phone for free you, but you can only use one zone at a time which is doable, the download for PC is $42.
00 aus, we have been using it the whole time online but we are hugging the coast, haven't used navigation equipment apart from it.

[Kanani]

Paper charts are not "Necessary" until they are.

Having said that, I enjoyed sailing in out-of-the-way places. I was the 1st US cruising yacht to sail Fiordland in New Zealand in 1986. I sailed single-handed to Antarctica in 1995.

During my 2 circumnavigations, I used very few "New" charts. 90% of my charts were photocopies (to keep cost down). Back in the 80's, full size copies were rare. I often had to make several 8 1/2 x 11 copies of one chart. A lot of my explorations were not necessarily planned in advance so I had to make due. Even if I had electronic charts back then, I would have done the same.

When venturing into some of the complicated, remote, tropical islands I would sometimes sit down with color pencils and color the different depths. By the time that I would arrive at a place, I was intimately familiar with the bottom contour and hazards.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by sailingharry

I am a Navy Surface Warfare Officer, and so have a lot of bridge experience on large ships. I've also sailed a great many miles beginning in the mid-70's where the only way to sail was with paper charts, and the only way to get a fix was with a hand bearing compass. For a large ship, "True" is the order of the day there, and works fine. However, "True" is an absolute disaster on a sailboat. It provides no benefit and nothing but confusion. Everything on the boat reads magnetic -- your compass card on the binnacle, your hand held (or binocular held) bearing compass, your autopilot, everything. Why would you plot it in True, and then apply variation? Why would you take a bearing in magnetic, and then apply variation, to plot a LOB? There are two compass roses on the chart, just use the one that aligns with the systems on your vessel and skip the extra step.



You may be right that "professional navigators use True," but that is only because professional navigators are on vessels with gyro compasses -- and since a gyro reads in True, that's what they use. But skilled recreational sailors use what they have -- which is magnetic.

I don't have the ship experience, but agree wholeheartedly with the above...and have posted similar thoughts on CF before. The usual response has been that only newbies and idiots used magnetic bearings for navigation, so I'm happy to hear from a pro with similar ideas!

The big thing IMO is to keep all bearings in the same format, either all magnetic or all true, thus avoiding confusion and possible large errors. Since I rely upon magnetic compasses (ship's binnacle and HBC), the choice is obvious, and I set up all the electronic gizmos to read out in magnetic.

Has worked for me for quite a few years and miles.

Jim

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Chris Whitney

Short answer is YES. Next shorter is S/V Vesta 2015. If you don't follow the Volvo ocean race that boat ripped off the back of the boat on a charted reef at 20+ knots in the dark of the night, because they had zoomed in to close on their chart plotter and didn't see the warnings.

Quite the opposite. they didn't zoom in far enough so the reef wasn't shown.

[Paul Howard]

Originally Posted by LadyStardust

I should check out the Faraday bags, but of all the people I have met who have lost equipment through lightning strikes, and that's about ten, it always happened when they were in a marina or at anchor, and generally when the strike happens, it has taken out most of the electronics, depth/speed/log instruments, fridge, autopilot etc.
I wonder how many people have lost their nav gear when actually on passage. The risks are probably quite small.

I have been skipper of a friends 45' catamaran when it was struck by lightning while far at sea.
We were headed from Nassau, Bahamas, direct to New York in May, 2011. When a out 200miles south east of Cape Hatteras a severe thunderstorm engulfed us and we were struck at about 0300, killing all electronics, lights, nav. instruments, fridge, radios, inverter, melting the electrical panel and damaging the engine that the electrical system was grounded through, rendering it useless. We searched the boat and found some paper charts for the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay, the only paper charts onboard. The rig was still OK and no leaks, so we kept sailing, now headed for Chesapeake Bay. At almost exactly 24hours later we were struck again by a more severe strike, melting plastic from masthead instruments rained down on the deck, the spreader lights blew out, spreading broken glass (sealed beam bulbs) on the deck and the house batteries exploded and even the solenoid for the gas cook stove had to be taken out of the system so we could cook food. I was nearly deaf from the noise and sound waves from the impact. As skipper, I estimated our position and went to dead reckoning calculations to estimate the Gulf Stream and provide a course. I had made this passage several times before and had been an instructor for Coastal Navigation and was familiar with how to navigate without instruments. We spotted the light at Cape Henry and made our way into Little Creek under the single remaining engine about 36hours after the second strike.

The catamaran was equipped with a integrated nav. system and no spare handheld electronics other than a handheld VHF.

[conchaway]

It depends on whether or not you actually know how to USE paper charts. I f you can't calculate with them, put them in the trash.

[sailingharry]

A question that always comes to mind when I hear comments on ensuring you have a sextant, sight reduction tables, and a current almanac. Do you also carry an accurate mechanical time piece? Nearly all clocks these days are electronic, and so susceptible to EMP. Of course, you mechanical clock needs to be accurate -- position is off by 1/4 mile per second of time error.

[billknny]

Originally Posted by sailingharry

A question that always comes to mind when I hear comments on ensuring you have a sextant, sight reduction tables, and a current almanac. Do you also carry an accurate mechanical time piece? Nearly all clocks these days are electronic, and so susceptible to EMP. Of course, you mechanical clock needs to be accurate -- position is off by 1/4 mile per second of time error.

I am not sure what point you are trying to make. Maybe you are suggesting if I lose my electronics I should just jump overboard and drown myself because it is hopeless? That my paper charts are worthless? That without electronics I am lost forever?

But someone knowledgable would know that I can always take a noon sight, find my latitude, and then run along it to the port of my choosing. That's the way all humans navigated until the middle of the 19th century. No accurate clock needed, just something to wake you up 15 minutes before local noon.

No need for "current" annual almanac either. You can use a 50 year table and do a fine job. My great grandfather managed to do it with sandglass telling him the time. I think I can manage.

And of course if your electronics are dead, I'll need a way to mechanically measure speed for my DR plot. A chip log works a treat.

It is a lot more work than pushing buttons, but that's one reason the oceans were a lot less crowded back then...

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by billknny

but that's one reason the oceans were a lot less crowded back then...

Might have been because people could not afford boats back then,

[garrytas]

I would be asking my insurance company first ,you might find you are not insured unless you are carrying up to date corrected charts

[Capt. Ray]

For those who cannot afford charts to all their destinations - and it is a real problem - a Universal Plotting Sheet book is cheap. You can sketch the basic destinations on a plotting sheet when on land prior to setting off, with marks for key points of interest. That way yyou have a real paper backup AND you can plot on it.

[David Gunn]

We are Australian and 8 years into a circumnavigation (now in Caribbean) and ALWAYS carry paper charts- usually small scale for passage planning with pilots for areas that we intend to visit and anchor.
We know of at least 2 yachts that lost electronic navigation- one with a lightning strike and another with a wave onto the navigation computer.
We have several levels of electronic redundancy as well as placing navigation equipment in a Faraday shield when lighting storms approach.
We are risk averse but in 15 years of sailing have had no major issues.

[Milko Berben]

A solar controller would not be needed if you sit next to a voltage meter to keep an eye on the charging provided to your panel are like 24 volt and your bank is also 24 volt.
I like the sextant and paper charts as well.