Paper Charts, Plotting for practice

[danielamartindm]

With search engines, you'll find companies online who sell full-sized roll-up charts that, when fully spread out you'll have a hard time finding a table big enough to hold. I love these, and find them invaluable if I'm plotting close-to-shore transits anywhere. I much prefer raster charts (over vector charts), with their wealth of information; but they do take up a lot of space- on the table OR on your SD Micro card.

[roland stockham]

For practice charts A4 is fine. If you download USA charts (free from NOAA) you can print a section on any printer. If you want to go into it more seriously I suggest a wide format printer that will do A3 or A3+ (17x19") and water resistant paper. I find smaller charts much easier to handle and waterproof ones are great in the cockpit. A4 however is a bit tight for anything other than small habours and anchorages. You may still want to buy some full sized charts for coastal or offshore passages. With chart prices up to $20 in Canada printing 25 will pay for a wide format printer! My cost for a double sided 13x19" chart on waterproof paper is under $2.
If you buy an electronic chart package on CD that runs on a PC most will allow you to print carts of whatever are you want. SOB/Cmap is the one I use. The problem can sometime be getting a scale printed. As a min you need at least 2 lat & long lines on any chart. You can then print a scale to fit if your program does not put one in automatically.
When You do this it will say 'not to be used for navigation'. That is because the chart plotter is not certified for navigation!!! Unless you operate commercial most people are happy to ignore it.

[AJ_n_Audrey]

If you live near a place where the USCG Auxiliary has a presence, they may be doing a navigation course, which is a very good course, and for $40, you can get the equivalent of an ASA course. And they give you the charts.

Another source of charts is the Map Shop in Charlotte, NC. World Maps, Travel Maps, Decorator Maps, Globes and Wall Maps

[alansmith]

Heh Doc, yah, the flu season is killing all the medical staff off. It is ferocious season and some really really sick patients.

You don't say where you are from. I live in the San Francisco Bay area. If you live in an area where there is sailing there are 2nd hand stores where you can buy box load of charts for cheap. I like chart book style. So for example....San Francisco Bay, the Delta, Tomales Bay, Bodega Bay, and such are all in one chart book. When i lived in Southern California i still have the chart book for Channel Islands and Santa Barbara to (??) maybe Newport Beach.

It is interesting to the mind, da? With chart books...let us say you want to sail to Anacapa Island off of Ventura Harbor...whip out the chart book...plot courses from Los Angeles boat basin up to Ventura. Then plot direct course out to Anacapa...only like 12 miles off of the coast. What about the oil rigs? What if you get a Santa Anna wind (blows hard from East to West) and you are caught on a lee shore? Where will you go hide? All of these cool things can be preplanned on your chart books...Cause it is so easy to lay everything out instead of flipping little screens. I just love this shizzle...it is a seductive force for me.

So, in my area we have a second hand shop called the Blue Pelican. You can pick up charts so cheaply. I am sure if you are a sailor in southern florida they have something the same. I am sure in Ontario they have it....Seattle....Long Beach, NY, ...you name it...they got it.

Hope we survive the flu season...smile...alan

[AJ_n_Audrey]

Actually, I take back what I said about the Map Shop in Charlotte, NC - just checked their list of charts, and they have cut way back on their inventory. So I guess then it's Bluewater Books or Landfall, or one of the others folks have mentioned.

Funny this came up, I was doing chart exercises just yesterday with a friend.

[jmschmidt]

You can buy them by the tons from a Bellingham Washington company. They are very accurate reprints in full and 3/4 scale. Cheap. Make sure you get the right company and are buying the reprints or they won't be cheap.

[Lepke]

I'm an old, navy trained navigator. I still shoot bearings and take radar ranges for positions. Mostly in tight anchorages that only I use. A sextant turned sideways and a 3 arm protractor gives a very accurate position. Otherwise I use electronic charts, but use raster charts.
Anybody with a wide format printer can print charts for practice. I have a 13' on board for my plots.

[LouK]

Easy solution assuming you're looking for a US or boundary waters chart. Go to:
https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov

find your chart, download the pdf and have it printed at Kinkos

Lou

[ArmyDaveNY]

Try New York Nautical. They have pre-printed U.S. and admiralty charts as well as chart books, chart kits, etc. They also do print upon demand in various sizes and scales.

Give Smitty a call and he will hook you up. They are very knowledgeable.

https://www.newyorknautical.com/

[RaymondR]

I love the convenience of my chart plotter and before it the computer and OpenCPN but none of them have the romance and frisson of excitement that one gets from unfolding a chart of the chart table for a "where will I go next"session or the dream potential of a chart of say the South Pacific.

[ArmyDaveNY]

An interesting note about charts is that there are two ways to use them. The first is the traditional navigation, where one plots a course and then corrects for drift, currents, etc. This is what one uses when passage making.

The other is most often used when following a coast and is technically orienteering. One doesn't usually plot a course, but rather follows the terrain. They orient themselves based upon their observations of the features they can see. Naturally they will typically stay within one to three miles of the coast while they look for inlets, smoke stacks, bridges, buoys, etc. The features they follow are relatively close together and allow one to go from point to point while maintaining excellent situational awareness. An interesting benefit when using a chart in this manner is their head is up, looking at the surroundings, as opposed to looking down at the chart plotter while they follow an arrow.

Orienteering is a great way to introduce a person to using charts when they are first starting out sailing. It allows for learning even while they are focused on the fundamentals of sailing.