Association Forum - Downloading NOAA Charts

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Downloading NOAA Charts

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

Member Avatar

USA
5885 Posts

Initially Posted - 04/05/2005 : 11:49:46

I've tried downloading charts from NOAA, but the charts I get are not the same as paper charts. The only depths shown are in the deep areas. They don't show the depths in the shallow areas along the shore, and they are very lacking in other details, such as the locations of water tanks, radio & tv towers, and other landmarks that help establish lines of position. Where do I find and download the nautical charts that have all the information that we're all accustomed to? What am I doing wrong?

Steve Milby J/24 "Captiva Wind"
previously C&C 35, Cal 25, C25 TR/FK, C22
Past Commodore

Edited by - on

Arlyn Stewart
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
2980 Posts

Response Posted - 04/05/2005 : 12:28:20

Steve,

I like [url="http://www.marineplanner.com"]marineplanner[/url]

Charts are $5 or cheaper if buying a quantity. Purchase includes any upgrades to the chart for one year and they notify of the upgrades, I've received such notices to upgrade.

Follow the Softcharts trail link near the bottom of the page.

You may have downloaded vector charts from NOAA. The vector charts don't show as much initial detail on the chart as a good bit of it is available by programming the detail desired in the viewing program and clicking on chart icons for displaying additional materiel.

Vector charts are more powerful than the traditional raster chart but they do require a viewer to make them happen and while there are some free viewers, there aren't any free chartplotting sofware programs for vector charts that I know of. Fugawi is the most reasonable I think at around $200.

Noaa provides free downloading of the vector charts however, so if a number of charts are needed, the Fugawi plotting program would be an excellent buy. I bought a 10 count bundle of charts (traditional raster) recently from marineplanner (softcharts) for $45.

Part of my issue is that I've used OziExplorer so long that I'm so comfortable with it and hesitant to make a change to a new program to take advantage of the vector charts. Also, vector charts for the Canadian waters which I sail more than US, are not free.

Very likely in the next few years we will see plotting gps units capable of loading the NOAA vector charts at which time I might reconsider going to vector charts and purchasing a plotting gps.

IMHO, if we were able to choose a chart, massage the chart, add waypoints, routes and special information on the home computer and write it to a memory disc and then carry that to the plotter in the boat... it would be ideal. With many of our printers now having memory card slots, one of those formats would be ideal.

As often, more than you asked for... I just got carried away in something I've been interested in.

Edited by - Arlyn Stewart on 04/05/2005 12:57:22

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
5885 Posts

Response Posted - 04/05/2005 : 13:49:51

Arlyn, when I'm gnashing my teeth in frustration, I can always count on you to push me in the right direction.

I downloaded the OZI Explorer and Fugawi programs in the past, but they weren't much good without good charts. As we speak, I'm downloading the Marineplanner program (full version). Five dollars for the softcharts is very reasonable, especially when you realize that you don't have to use your precious $2.50 a gal. gas to go to a store and get them. Oh, man, this is going to be a great summer!

Edited by - on

Arlyn Stewart
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
2980 Posts

Response Posted - 04/06/2005 : 00:12:56

Steve, the softcharts will auto calibrate to OziExplorer and I assume other programs like Fugawi. However, polyconic projections need a little personal effort in the check calibrate routine of OziExplorer to set the central meridian otherwise the calibration is off.

Yeah, gas is going to become a factor it seems... we have a scheduled 2600 mile round trip road haul to Lake Superior this summer....arrrgghh. But...we plan to cruise for a month which will hopefully make it cost effective.

Edited by - Arlyn Stewart on 04/06/2005 00:17:38

tmhansen
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
397 Posts

Response Posted - 04/06/2005 : 00:23:55

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">IMHO, if we were able to choose a chart, massage the chart, add waypoints, routes and special information on the home computer and write it to a memory disc and then carry that to the plotter in the boat... it would be ideal. With many of our printers now having memory card slots, one of those formats would be ideal.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Arlyn, I think I must be missing something. With my Garmin 276C and my laptop loaded with Mapquest I can do all of the above except "massage the chart". On our recent vacation I planned routes at home on the PC. The GPS guided us to the launch ramp in the truck. I popped out the memory card I had loaded with road data and popped in another loaded with all the charts for the SF Bay area. It then guided us on our adventures. When we pulled into Vallejo and discovered that the fuel dock is not open mid week I popped the land card back in and located a gas station within hiking distance. For our geocache explore of Angel Island I printed out a chart of the island with all of the cache waypoints highlighted. At night I could connect the GPS to the lap top and review our tracks, both on land and sea. I have not used the software you mentioned. I am new to this level of navigation, what am I missing?

Edited by - on

Arlyn Stewart
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
2980 Posts

Response Posted - 04/06/2005 : 14:25:20

Todd,

From your report, sounds like technology is about there. My position with chartplotting is a betwixt one. I understand the need to turn a profit and why chartplotter makers have only allowed proprietary charts with their hardware in the past and in fact they may continue that.

I come from the point of view that the hard chart is more important than the softchart... the hard chart can be scanned to produce the softchart. If softcharts can be printed... then it makes no difference... as long as a hard chart is obtainable.

In the past, softcharts were not printable and it seems that your current system has changed that for the good.

Edited by - on

tmhansen
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
397 Posts

Response Posted - 04/07/2005 : 00:31:49

There are a few areas where my current set up could be improved upon.
1. I really like your idea of making voyage specific chartbooks with sheets in plastic sleeves but I think I like the commercial chart books better for reference while sailing. The bigger format lets me see more area at once. If I had a larger format printer it might be better.
2. The screen on the 276C is adequate and can be read in full sun light but it is smaller than most permanent mounted ones like yours. While underway, to be zoomed in enough to see bottom contours I can not see very far ahead on the plotter and have to zoom out, but then I lose the details of what I want to see. I can scroll ahead and see things. I am still figuring it all out.
3. The interface on the routing software is OK but it is not easy to edit a route. If you make a mistake sometimes it is easier to start over. I hope that Garmin will fix this soon. Also I would like to be able to add together route segments to make a new route.
4. Updates to the charts are expensive, but they contain a LOT of information that someone has to manage. Being involved in a GIS project at work I can understand the scope of the work.

Anyway thanks for the opinion. I was afraid you might misinterpret my question.

Edited by - on

lcharlot
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Antigua and Barbuda
1301 Posts

Response Posted - 04/07/2005 : 08:07:42

You can also download "historical" charts for free from NOAA at this web site:
http://historicals.ncd.noaa.gov/historicals/histmap.asp

These are DRG's (digital raster graphics) in MRSID format, and are high resolution scans of the actual paper charts, so they contain all the detail of the original. For many waterways, this collection has charts as recent as the late '80's, which are usually good enough for general info and trip planning. These are all "obsolete" charts, and they are all stamped "NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION", but at least they are free. Since the "newest" charts in this collection are 15 years old or so, they should NOT be used for any actual navigation planning, as channel marker buoys, hazards, shoals, etc can change significantly in that amount of time. But for purposes like measuring distances or rough planning a route, they are fine.

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.