Where to Purchase Paper Charts

[Nightdiver]

I'm going to be sailing in the Adriatic and Aegean seas. I want to purchase paper charts (in English) as a back up to the chart plotter. Any advice on best charts and place to purchase them?

[SVTatia]

Originally Posted by Nightdiver

I'm going to be sailing in the Adriatic and Aegean seas. I want to purchase paper charts (in English) as a back up to the chart plotter. Any advice on best charts and place to purchase them?

Imray.com is one source.

[Dsanduril]

Online, of course, but you have to do the leg work yourself. If you are in SoCal there used to be a Safe Navigation shop in Long Beach that was pretty good about getting foreign charts. Good people to go in and talk with. Those kind of shops are getting as rare as hen's teeth, no idea if they are still in business.

[Edit]

Address: 225 E 6th St, Long Beach, CA 90802

Phone: (562) 590-8744

They have print-on-demand services (at least for British Admiralty charts) so should be able to help.

No affiliation, just a customer although it has been a very long time since I used their services.

[Paul L]

If you are looking for paper that is only for backup, you can get low cost charts in color on good paper from
http://www.frugalnavigator.com
I just bought some for the Indian Ocean.

[Nightdiver]

Thanks SVTatia and Dsanduril. I took a look at Imray. I don't know much about their charts. I'll have to study them a little more. The boat I purchased has a 15 yr old chart plotter but I haven't been able to get it working. I'm going to have a technician take a look at it. I bought the Garmin G3 Bluecharts for my hand held so at least I have that, but paper charts are my security blanket. Safe Navigation is still in business. I'm going to check them out this Saturday. Thanks again

[SVTatia]

Originally Posted by Paul L

If you are looking for paper that is only for backup, you can get low cost charts in color on good paper from
http://www.frugalnavigator.com
I just bought some for the Indian Ocean.

Thanks for sharing the source. How is the chart quality? Did you get the BW or color?
This is in Spokane, and I wonder if they are the Bellingham Chart Printers successors...

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by SVTatia

Thanks for sharing the source. How is the chart quality? Did you get the BW or color?
This is in Spokane, and I wonder if they are the Bellingham Chart Printers successors...

The paper quality is heavy. I got color prints. Price wise they are very good. For international charts you are getting the US versions of them. Fine for planning and backup.

[Nightdiver]

Thanks for the suggestion Paul. I took a look at their site. I don't think they would work for me. What they had on the Eastern Med was really old. They are still showing Yugoslavia which was disbanded in 1992. The US charts are probably more up to date.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Nightdiver

Thanks for the suggestion Paul. I took a look at their site. I don't think they would work for me. What they had on the Eastern Med was really old. They are still showing Yugoslavia which was disbanded in 1992. The US charts are probably more up to date.

The US charts are the current NOAA charts. The international charts are the DMA international charts that were published by the US gov. I use tgese as planing charts and backup. I like to get large area, ocean crossing charts. For backup they are fine for getting close in and then I have a local guide book to get to an anchorage.
Carrying detailed, up to date paper charts isn't practical for cruisers these days.

[SVTatia]

Originally Posted by Paul L

The paper quality is heavy. I got color prints. Price wise they are very good. For international charts you are getting the US versions of them. Fine for planning and backup.

Originally Posted by Paul L

The US charts are the current NOAA charts. The international charts are the DMA international charts that were published by the US gov. I use tgese as planing charts and backup. I like to get large area, ocean crossing charts. For backup they are fine for getting close in and then I have a local guide book to get to an anchorage.
Carrying detailed, up to date paper charts isn't practical for cruisers these days.

+ 1 on the above. Thanks Paul, I agree.
Although it may not work for the OP, for planning and backup it makes sense.

[Nightdiver]

Originally Posted by Paul L

The US charts are the current NOAA charts. The international charts are the DMA international charts that were published by the US gov. I use tgese as planing charts and backup. I like to get large area, ocean crossing charts. For backup they are fine for getting close in and then I have a local guide book to get to an anchorage.
Carrying detailed, up to date paper charts isn't practical for cruisers these days.

First, I have to admit my ignorance when it comes to charts. Second I want to thank everyone for taking the time to help me increase my education.

Up until recently I've been strictly a local sailor. I had to look up what a DMA chart was (gotta love google sometimes). The Frugal Navigator NGA section has a nice selection of charts for other areas, but they only have two charts that cover the entire Med. They have to be at least twenty years old since both still show Yugoslavia.
I can see where an older small scale chart would be good for long range planning, and I may purchase those two if I cant find a newer one. But what I'm most concerned about is Croatian waters are full of hundreds of little islands as is the Aegean. I'll be transiting both of those along with the Gulf of Corinth.
So bowing to my paranoia, what I would like is more recent large scale charts that show the northern coast of Croatia, the Gulf of Corinth and the Aegean between Greece and Turkey.
Does that sound reasonable?
(just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean something isn't out to get me)

[geoff3nebel]

IMRAY have excellent chart coverage for the area. You might like to buy one of their pilot books of the area by Rod Heikel too.
All available for on-line purchase

[Dsanduril]

For a lot of your proposed trip HHI is probably the source material for most of the charts you might buy, followed by British Admiralty. Probably cheaper/easier to go with Imray, but if you want to see what is officially available....

[Ken Z]

I like waterproofcharts.com, a little cheaper wwwnauticalchartsonline

[Cheechako]

Depends on your budget but used boat gear places may have stacks of paper charts. Things get outdated but the land doesn't change much! Also check local sail mags etc for people selling large sets of charts.