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Do you use Admiralty Small Craft Folio charts? UKHO has just announced that it is planning to withdraw them. The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) has made the following announcement: Following market research, the UKHO intends to withdraw the supply and maintenance of ADMIRALTY Small Craft Folios. However users, your members and/or customers will continue to be supported via a digital solution. The intention to retire the ADMIRALTY Small Craft Folios is in response to the changing requirements of users and to increase the frequency of updates. As an alternative to the ADMIRALTY Small Craft Folios, established suppliers in the small craft market will continue to be able to license data from the UKHO to serve those who do not wish to operate digitally. You are requested to provide feedback to products.feedback@ukho.gov.uk before Friday 11 October 2019. More information on how this will be implemented will be shared later in the year. Please note – Standard Nautical Charts are unaffected.
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+x+x+xIn fairness the Admiralty have been trying to phase out these charts for about 15 years or so, who knows if they will succeed this time around. As for ECDIS not being reliable, It's well used commercially and so long as you keep it updated (like you all do with your paper charts!), it works well. Don't forget ECDIS is not just charts, it covers all ADPs, pilots, ADLL & ADRS so you have an integrated system, that is great for producing passage plans, etc. There is plenty of info on what standard the charts need to meet to be classed as an Electronic Navigation Chart (ENC) in MIN455 (link below), it's well worth doing to the MCA generic ECDIS course if it's in your budget. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/282385/min445.pdfOpen CPN is a pretty good system if you get hold of the latest version of the charts that seem to be continually floating around the cruising world, but it depends on how good your free charts are... I have a subscription with Wärtsilä iSailor (used to be TRANSAS) as a back up in work (I do work at sea full time as well as sail), and it's the system the UK & Dutch Pilots use. The cartography is very good, it's easy to use and even the leisure version App's update every 3 months. If you buy into the PC version they update weekly the same as the Admiralty do. I'm more than happy to use it as my primary system, along with electronic pilots, as I've them in work for the last 7 years without any issues, but I do carry Imary charts just in case my laptops, tablet, phone and GPS all decide to pack up at the same time... I wasn’t suggesting that ECDIS isn’t reliable, rather that any system which relies entirely on electronics and satellites can’t be 100% reliable. The potential risks of GPS being put out of action are small, but do exist. I didn’t understand that you were suggesting that ECDIS would be suitable for most yachtsmen? The costs are likely to be well outside the budget for everyone except superyacht owners. I also understand that leisure folios must be less and less economic for the UKHO, as evidenced by the increasing number of yachts sailing with no paper charts on board. However, although I now use TZ iBoat on board running on an iPad, I remain a keen user and lover of paper charts. One of the reasons that I much prefer the raster version of electronic charts. ;-) I posted the system I use, it's much cheaper than paper charts, but like paper, it's only as good as the user and corrections. Using paper charts and Pilots is a good skill to maintain, but ENCs are much more efficient for a small boat. I'd rather load a USB of corrections, than wade through a months worth corrections on a 50+ chart folio. 🤔 Neither system is wrong, its what works for the user. Being safe is what counts. 😎 Hi all I wrote this a while back: Charts in the modern era On Alchemy, we do all our navigation electronically and have for years. It is my take (with some caveats: there is a learning curve) that electronic navigation is far more accurate, faster and safer than traditional navigation working paper charts. (The transition is very like celestial navigation: now mostly a hobby for offshore sailors if learned at all.) That said, I believe all those who go to sea should have both the knowledge and have practiced with traditional coastal navigation equipment: dividers, parallel rules etc. as well as work with the compass and its readings. (Similarly, offshore sailors often carry a sextant, but it does not get dusted off too often.) We are lucky to have started out our sailing careers doing navigation in this manner: those starting out will have to push themselves (I would suggest) to learn these traditional navigation skills, either self-taught (it is not rocket science) or one of the excellent courses that exist. Then ensure skills are sharp by doing a cruise or two a year by traditional non-electronic means. Paper charts find their way on Alchemy two ways. First, and most important, we plan for something catastrophic: most likely a lightening strike, but also a GPS shutdown our electrical problem on the boat. So we want paper charts to cover the catastrophic. We call these charts our “bail-out” charts. They are small scale paper charts that would allow us to get into major harbors safely in the areas we are cruising. We are fortunate and we have never needed to use our “bail-out” charts. The aforementioned charts on Alchemy are for safety. The following are for pleasure. The other way paper charts find their way on board is that paper charts still, to my mind, provide the most satisfying way to plan poking around an area. This is the case for all areas, but is especially the case in complicated areas such as the archipelagos of Finland or Sweden or the coast of Maine. It is with paper charts that certain potential harbors emerge or a meandering beautiful passage appears possible that would not been so apparent in an electronic display. It may be me, but I can spend long periods with a paper chart on the table or in my lap soaking up an area and its particularities and pleasures while that seems not to happen with electronic displays. Lastly, it is incredibly gratifying to mark off your daily position on long passages on a small scale paper chart. My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
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