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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Chart withdrawal......

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Oscar
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2030 Posts

Initially Posted - 11/25/2004 : 12:06:23

Help, all my charts and cruising guides are on Lady Kay, (I filled my carry on with dirty laundry on the way home from Lauderdale, shows you where my priorities are...

) But now I'm arm chair sailing in the blind! I'm trying to plan some of the family outings we are fortunate to have scheduled on Lady Kay, but I have nothing to look at.....I don't want to order a duplicate $et, so, the question is:

Please save me all the time and aggravation, and tell me where to download free charts and a chartviewer so I can dry sail on my pewter.....anyone?

Oscar
C42 # 76 "Lady Kay" (Ex. C250 WB #618)
Georgetown MD/Fort Lauderdale FL

Edited by - Oscar on 11/25/2004 12:08:38

ClamBeach
Master Marine Consultant

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3072 Posts

Response Posted - 11/25/2004 : 14:24:00

Comments below based on my limited research...

In the USA the words "charts" and "free" don't go together much anymore... even though your tax dollars are used to do most of the cartography. Ditto the way your tax dollars are used to fund medical research at the universities that is subsequently licensed to private companies for profit. (hint: there's a pattern here)

At any rate, I have seen a few inexpensive 'shareware' charting programs out there... (haven't used any personally) but not much in the way of free charts. Commercial charting software and electronic charts are gonna cost a half-dozen boat units. (for starters!)

Edited by - on

Stu Jackson C34
Admiral

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844 Posts

Response Posted - 11/25/2004 : 19:12:10

From www.catalinaowners.com earlier this year. There was also a more rcent thread there. Try their Forum Archive search, exact phrase: electronic charts.

#65279;Submitted by Richard Marble of Harpswell, Maine on 02/24 at 02:40PM regarding General_interest:
Title: Free Electronic Charts for all
"A few days ago I asked people for help on electronic charts. I have found out quite a
bit. Some of you may know this but I can see a lot more of us don't. Here is what I've
found... so far. Get on www.fugawi.com/viewenc/viewenc.html This will get you to a
Fugawi demo that will read free NOAA enc charts. You can download this demo and
with it load three NOAA charts at a time and try out this program. The full version will let
you download more than three charts at a time. You can also customize the NOAA
charts with full version of this program to do many things. For instance color the
contours on the chart so that depths that are too shallow for the draft on you boat are a
different color. Select depth shown on the charts to read in feet or meters and a bunch
of other stuff. Now to get NOAA charts free go to
http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/enc/index.htm at the top of the page click on
"Download NOAA ENC@s" Scroll down the next page to where it says "Proceed to
NOAA enc downloads" click on it. You will now see a list of about 500 charts. check the
ones you want to download then at the top of the page click on "Download selected
NOAA encs" You can save in a you computer, zip file or on a CD. These are NOAA
charts Suitable for navigation and are completely free. All you need is the Fugawi
program to use them $200.00.

Edited by - on

existentialsailor
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1180 Posts

Response Posted - 11/25/2004 : 19:58:39

Stu,

That is outstanding!

Thanks for sharing it.

Oscar, thanks for asking something I'd not have thought of asking.

Edited by - on

Ben - FL
Admiral

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880 Posts

Response Posted - 11/25/2004 : 20:38:34

I've been going to [url="http://map.marineplanner.com/mapping/chart/chartindex.cfm"]MarinePlanner.com[/url] to look at downloadable charts. But I don't download them. I save them as a bitmap and print out the part I want. Have not done this in a while so it may not work any more.

Edited by - on

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 11/25/2004 : 21:46:19

[url="http://mapserver.maptech.com/homepage/index.cfm?BPID=MAP0060030900%2C1%2C1%2C0&CFID=866255&CFTOKEN=18515998"]MapTech MapServer[/url] has nautical, aeronautical, topographic and historic charts plus Satelite/Aerial photos.

Edited by - on

Oscar
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2030 Posts

Response Posted - 11/25/2004 : 21:52:28

Thanks for all the comebacks. I saw maptech's server. Iddiebiddie screen, but yes it's free. Also free, after a quick scan, appears to be the teaser level services at marineplanner.com I'll have to peruse that more in depth, It looks like it might do the job, as I really don't need to download anything. Just get an itinerary going in my head. Once on board I have all the paper and the plotter to make it happen. The Fugawi demo also looks like something to peruse, thanks again all.

Oscar
C42 # 76 "Lady Kay" (Ex. C250 WB #618)
Georgetown MD/Fort Lauderdale FL

Edited by - on

cathluk
Admiral

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USA
513 Posts

Response Posted - 11/25/2004 : 22:05:49

Marine Planner is good. You can view charts all you want for free, but they've started charging for route planning, etc. One nice feature is that you can display Notice to Mariners changes on the screen.

Edited by - on

lcharlot
Master Marine Consultant

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Antigua and Barbuda
1301 Posts

Response Posted - 11/26/2004 : 00:35:08

You can download "historical" NOAA Navigation charts at this URL (you can search the database of what's available by chart number or keyword):
http://historicals.ncd.noaa.gov/historicals/histmap.asp

These charts are 250DPI Raster scans of actual Nav Charts, in MrSID format. The average size is 12 megabytes, so you need cable internet; don't try to download these on a dial-up connection. You will also need a graphics viewer that has MrSID capability, like Lizard Tech's "MRSIDGEOVIEWER".
Download viewer at this URL: http://www.atlas.lsu.edu/MrSIDViewerSetup.zip

Here are two more freeware MrSID Viewers that I think are more recent technology than the one listed above (I haven't tried these yet):
http://download.tatukgis.com/pub/TatukGIS_VWR.exe
http://gis.leica-geosystems.com/erdascentral/Files/VF_Setup_21.EXE

As for the historical charts themselves: What NOAA is offering are scans of obsolete Nav charts covering almost all U.S. Navigable waterways. The "newest" charts are from the late 1980's, and the oldest go all the way back to Colonial times. Needless to say, these charts should not be used for actual navigation, but the newer ones are okay for trip planning at home. For the price (free), you can't complain. There is one notable ommission: these free downloads do not include "small boat charts". These are the small, multi-page foldable chart booklets that replaced the full-size charts for certain waterways like the San Joaquin River a few years ago. I asked the NOAA historical charts project supervisor about this last year, and he said they were working toward adding the small boat charts, but this was supposewd to have happened last spring and still hasn't. I suspect that NOAA is suffering budget cuts like practically every other Government agency, and have probably had to curtail the program until more money is available (if ever).

Edited by - on

ClamBeach
Master Marine Consultant

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3072 Posts

Response Posted - 11/26/2004 : 13:57:23

Wow! I take back all the nasty things I said about the govt... a number of years back (which is when I was looking around) these charts weren't available... only the old, obsolete stuff. If you wanted the real charts you were sent to a private site.

Maybe somebody was listening somewhere.

Edited by - on

Oscar
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2030 Posts

Response Posted - 11/27/2004 : 01:04:24

I actually suspect that the govt is realizing that they can save money by going paperless....

Oscar
C42 # 76 "Lady Kay" (Ex. C250 WB #618)
Georgetown MD/Fort Lauderdale FL

Edited by - on

lcharlot
Master Marine Consultant

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Antigua and Barbuda
1301 Posts

Response Posted - 11/27/2004 : 09:06:33

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Oscar
 I actually suspect that the govt is realizing that they can save money by going paperless....
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Actually, the idea that computer technology is allowing the government to "go paperless" is false. I work for the California State Department of Transportation, and I can say with certainty that the presence of computers in the workplace has caused government to use MUCH MORE paper than it ever did before - and the reason is obvious: the availablility of low cost computers and printers has made it a snap for any office worker to run off multiple "check prints" of documents. For example, in the old days an engineering drawing had to be reproduced in an ammonia-process diazo blueprinting machine. These machines were rather expensive, most drafting shops only had one machine which everyone had to share, and the paper was VERY expensive. So, in the whole life of a drawing, from initial conception to final release-for-construction, that drawing was probably only printed three or four times for interim checking and review by the engineering supervisor.
Nowadays, with a amall laser printer in every design section, and two full-size laser plotters on every floor of my building, we probably make at least 15 to 20 check prints of every drawing during it's development and revision process.
We are actually being drowned in paper thanks to computers. The only aspect of office work that computers have managed to save paper on is the "interoffice memo". Most of these are now circulated by e-mail, although some of the more important ones that dictate employee policy directives are still distributed on paper.
In fact, one of the blessings of sailing I enjoy most is that I can't receive any kind of paperwork, phone calls, or e-mail when I am on my boat.

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 11/27/2004 : 10:27:34

Hey O
I added an Uber chart to the nationals posting for you.

Edited by - on

Oscar
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2030 Posts

Response Posted - 11/27/2004 : 11:01:54

Thanks, that'll help with my re-entry.

Oscar
C42 # 76 "Lady Kay" (Ex. C250 WB #618)
Georgetown MD/Fort Lauderdale FL

Edited by - on

Gloss
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1916 Posts

Response Posted - 11/27/2004 : 11:04:38

Hey Oscar
I have an extra chartbook for the Florida Keys.
Would you like to borrow it?

If you think it will help you out I could send it to you

Edited by - on

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