Managing nautical charts

My friend Jim and I are going to trailer Ms. Bettencourt to Savannah for a short cruise next month. We will launch from a little marina up a creek on Wilmington Island, then proceed circuitously to Beaufort, SC, and back. We expect be gone two or three days.

Checking and updating chart inventories ranks high on my list of stuff that needs to be done in preparation for a cruise. While Ms. Bettencourt has an excellent fixed-mount chartplotter, I still like to have the paper charts aboard in case of an electronic failure. For this trip we will need NOAA chart numbers 11507 and 11518. I have the charts, but they were issued in 2004 and 2006 respectively. It is time to update.

There are many choices for paper charts-- ranging from various free and paid printable Internet downloads to retail purchases from chandleries and other sources. I have come to appreciate "print on demand" charts from OceanGrafix  http://www.oceangrafix.com/. The firm constantly monitors NOAA updates of chart data. They only print a chart after an order is received. This means each order they print includes the latest NOAA chart changes, up to the time of printing. This is good.

But, from my perspective, there is one troublesome problem with this product: The charts come rolled up in a tube. They must be flattened and folded to be serviceable on a small boat.

Charts 11507 and 11518 came to me printed one-side only on 42 x 67 inch sheets. I folded 11518 first and made a mess. Look carefully at the folds in this photo and you can see they are unequal. The more I folded, the worse it got. The result was decidedly not neat, but it's usable. The final folded dimensions for this chart worked out to be 8 1/2 x 15 inches.

I got some help with 11507 and the result was somewhat neater. We worked for crisp, aligned edges and achieved a final folded size of 9 x 14 inches.

As is often the case, we figured out how to do the job just about the time was work was finished.



Anyway, it is now possible to open both the neat and the sloppily folded charts one fold panel at a time, which will yield a convenient size to work with in the limited dashboard space on the boat.

In addition to being up to date, these charts are very easy to read and are printed on substantial, durable paper. Because they are printed on only one side, the new charts make a bigger, bulkier package than do the NOAA printed versions. Both chart versions are pictured below to show the size contrast.

I think package size is an acceptable trade-off for getting the freshest chart accuracy available.

And it was speedy too.

I placed my order through the West Marine website about 1700 January 15. The imprint on the charts shipped to me said they were printed January 16 at about 1600.

The Postal Service delivered my charts about 1300 on January 18. Amazing.

Finally, here's  how the chart collection is stowed on board:

A heavy duty 20 x 24 inch storage bag is the perfect size for Ms. Bettencourt's chart library.







With the charts inside, I press the air out from the bottom, seal the top and fold the flap over.

Then the whole package goes in a locker under a bunk in the forward cabin, ready for use when needed.