When did you last buy a chart?

[cpedw]

If you want to buy a chart, you'd better hurry! Imray will stop producing new paper charts at the end of 2025.

[BlowingOldBoots]

A bit surprising considering they claimed that they would continue to produce paper charts.

I tried to use their Explore with Imray App a couple of times and the set up was terrible and I never really got it working as claimed. Paid subscription twice and got a refund twice. That was this year. I did give feedback around the App i.e. no help pages, just a "coming soon" note on the help page. Perhaps at some future point it will be better as I like the idea of integration with the CCC pilot books.

Anyway, will they be missed? I have a full set of charts for the west coast, I never use them, it is either plotter or tablet charts. Digital is almost superior in every way over paper, except when the battery is flat or the device shuts down due to high temperature.

[Gardenshed]

Can't remember the last time
Chart plotter, iPhone and iPad (Navionics) and the charts are used as a "back-up" i.e. left in the chart table or only brought out for passage planning.
That said, I do like to have the appropriate charts on board and the Admiralty Foilio for the West Coast

[marisca]

2 years ago, Northern bits of west coast Admiralty folio to add to a chart table full. I have up-to-date Admiralty on my 'puter and, of course, Antares. I can't imagine an affordable non-paper system that meets my comfort zone.

[stevepick]

I bought the clyde folio last year. I will buy up some more charts over the next months. Not sure we are ever really going to have good enough electronics ( back up power supplies, navigable screens for when GPS is spoofed) etc setups on small boats. Having had a chartplotter fail on me a few years ago , the comfort of having a set of required pper charts was immense. I still do most of my nav on paper. Having spent a career designing electronic hardware , I have the usual hardware engineers mistrust of both transistors and software.

[Bodach na mara]

I can't remember when I last bought one but over a few years I bought the three folders that cover the west coast of Scotland of the Admiralty Small Craft Charts. I had previously built up a collection of standard charts covering the Clyde and the West coast from MoK to Mallaig and the Small Isles. The small craft versions are more convenient for reference in the cockpit.

When cruising I usually have in the cockpit the relevant folio with selected charts at the front and rear of the transparent cover so that they are instantly ready for reference. I have a chart plotter on as well but I find that if the plotter is zoomed in enough to see the chart details, the screen doesn't show a big enough area of the chart around our position.

I am mindful of the tragedy of several years ago when I crew of one of the large sponsored racing yachts ran it onto a reef in mid-Pacific ocean. The reef was clearly marked but not at the zoom level that they were using. I remember being surprised that only one plotter was available as I thought that two plotters would have allowed one to be in zoomed in mode for the helm to see hazards while the other could be in zoomed out mode for the navigator to track the progress.