“Thataway” and I touched on some of these issues in another thread (Kts/MPH) --Bob, I have been doing some research (see my post in What did you do ....?) and I’ll get back to you on the other thread.
After 9/11 a large number of coasties at our local station were sent to NY and other venues deemed more threatened than Wrightsville Beach (NC). I was already working at the station as an Auxiliarist, and the Officer-In-Charge asked me to take over the maintenance of the charts in the Watch Room and on the boats (a 41’ and a 47’ at the time). In the two years that I did this I was amazed at the number of changes, additions or deletions of aton’s, bridge construction, temporary discrepancies, etc., etc.
I had mostly done my boating in familiar local waters. Most of the local changes here were known to me and my boating colleagues as they ocurred. The station charts extended to waters well beyond those familiar to me. Suddenly I could see myself in unfamiliar waters facing an unexpectedly discontinued aton or some other disconcerting situation. Now, with our CD-22 in tow, we have widened our boating horizons south to the Keys and north to the Chesapeake.
As someone else pointed out, the Ocean Grafix charts are a great leap forward, as they incorporate all the changes (NtM & LNtM) to the current edition. With these paper charts, plus the necessary updates, I can go to Florida or Maryland with some confidence that what I see on the chart is what I get on the water.
What has not been mentioned is that, as far as I know, there is no procedure for updating electronic charts other than paying full price for a “new” disk. At least, as far as I can see, no company advertises any sort of update “subscription.” We are talking about bits, not atoms (as Nicolas Negroponte would say) so there would be next to no expense in allowing subscribers to download revisions.
The big CG cutters use electronic charts with a contract to obtain updates in the form of a “new” disk. Nevertheless, I have been asked to do paper chartwork for Diligence when she was headed to an unfamiliar port, and for Staten Island, in preparation for scallop fishery enforcement in the North Atlantic. On the station boats we use paper charts, in part because each Coxswain needs to keep a record of positions, courses steered, etc.
The whole issue hinges on whether you boat in familiar waters, where you would know how to cope with the unexpected. Unfamiliar waters are another matter.
I think that any process or method must stand on its own merits. Being an “advance” in technology, whether 8-track tapes or a supersonic airliner, supposedly superior to previous practice, has been no guarantee of actual progress. The current system of chartplotter software is actually a step backward, since it is impossible to update. To be sure, quite a few boaters can’t be bothered with updating their paper charts either, but it can be done. Anyone navigating unfamilar waters with outdated information will likely be standing into danger at some point.
It should be fairly easy to develop a subscription system in which updates could be downloaded to a laptop and ultimately directly to the chartplotter, once there is a shakeout of the multiple proprietary systems now in use.
