for your information:
http://ocsdata.ncd.noaa.gov/BookletChart/
They can be down loaded free, and are from the exact same charts that you pay $20 for in a marine store.
The neat thing about them is they are in note book size.
The experimental BookletChart is made to help recreational boaters locate themselves on the water. It has been reduced in scale and divided into pages for convenience, but otherwise contains all the information of the full scale nautical chart. Bar scales have also been reduced in scale, and are accurate when used to measure distances in a BookletChart. Excerpts from the United States Coast Pilot are included, and chart notes are consolidated on a single page for easy reference. Emergency information for the charted area is printed on the back cove
jack L
Thanks for posting
just the ticket for us coastal paddlers.
Thanks Jack (nm)
I ended up paying more than $30 anyway
…after printing a booklet chart and laminating it at Kinko’s. Waterproofing will make these things cost more than a regular waterproof chart bought from a store.
Advantage: If you only want to take a small section of a chart on the water, the Booklet format makes that easy to do. Nicer than folding and re-folding $30 charts. And if you only need to laminate a few sections, the cost will be less than doing the whole set of Booklet pages.
Disadvantage: As with 1:24000 topos, there’s a good chance that where you paddle will sprawl over 2 or more Booklet pages. So then you end up lining them up, in which case they don’t stay put, so you might as well use the big, folded chart in the first place.
BTW, trimming the Booklet printouts so that I could align them properly took a LONG time.
If you have waterproof inkjet paper at home, though, the Booklet charts make sense in that you can print a page or 2 as you need it.
I like that Uncle Sam is making this kind of info readily available, and even aimed toward “rec boaters.”
Cheap Waterproofing
I have printed probably 100 11X17 topos on regular printer paper. Then at Lowe’s buy the Thompsons Waterproofing in a SPRAY can. Spray each side once, ensuring thorough but not dripping coverage. After hanging to dry (laundry pins a line work great) ready to do. Foldable over and over again, you can still write on the paper for notes, and between the paper and spray can the maps cost maybe $0.50/sheet.
Randy
Thanks Jack
Just printed out the map for the Upper NY harbor.
Good tip about the WP paper Randy. Thanks!
NOAA - OCS has had another way to …
........ print the info. you want from a chart for quite some time now .
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/OnLineViewer.html
You may have to download the "Zoomify" tool for Adobe Flash Player (on site) .
Pick the region you want ... then choose the chart you want .
I just checked it against the Booklet charts (which I've ignored for awhile) . With the OnLine Chart Viewer you don't have that wait period for the Booklet PDF . For printing purposes the Online Chart Viewer can be enlarged to 200 % greater than the Booklet view (w/clearity) . Also you don't "have to" print the whole page/quad like you do in Booklet ... just pan area to desired location , enlarge to max (if desired) , and print . I could get the PDF to enlarge to 3200 X's but could only get the full page view to print ... maybe I couldn't figure out how to enlarge a page , chop and print (??) .
The Booklet is good too but the Chart Viewer gets alot larger in detail if that's desired . You can chop the Chart Viewer into the same quads as the Booklet , or chop out an even larger area . You have more area control for what you want .
http://www.nauticalcharts.gov/staff/chartspubs.html (see Nautical charting Utilities)
For covering large areas in a power boat , nothing can beat the full size Chart book for the region . The GPS and Chart book for the Cheasapeake make a winning combo . The bay here gets over 25 miles wide but is 10-15 on avg. .
I guess if one was expecting to check out many areas of the bay by paddling on different occassions , the Chart book would be good for that too . I do know it can be drenched and drenched in rain and not rot .
Just put it in a small zip lock baggie
or what I use is one of the “Coghlan’s” water proof clear chart bags with the velcro closier.
I even use one with the big NOAA chart, because when I get it folded nice and small to the area I am using, it holds it nice and neat
jack L
Historic charts
They also have a great stash of historic charts going back to the mid 1800’s.
Thanks for the tip
I have a bottle of map-waterproofing liquid that must be brushed on. PITA.
Reason for laminating
I didn’t want to keep reprinting pages as they got ratty. Lamination solves that issue. Unfortunately, crayons and grease pencils don’t write well on it (which they do on the Waterproof Charts that are based on NOAA’s).
it’s been book marked
thanks
before
I write on it before i laminate it. I try not to go to a same place twice in a season. Places near home that I paddle frequently I don’t usially need a map for but I do bring a GPS (turned off) in case of some emergency like fog etc…
Thanks
Got it bookmarked.
Free NOAA charts: Arrrggghhhhh!!!
After struggling for many hours with the sizing, printing, trimming, waterproofing, etc. I finally gave up in disgust, went to Boat U.S. and shelled out 30 bucks for a chart book of my area on waterproof paper. It has the same charts that are free on NOAA, but much, much, much, much, much less hassle to just buy the damn things. Did I mention it was a lot less hassle?
Online printouts good for prelim
They give me a way to look, on paper, at some place I want to go later on, because there are no places to buy marine charts in my home area. And then, if I actually will go there, I’ll mail-order the waterproof chart rather than go through the hours of work (and greater expense) I did trimming and laminating the booklet pages.
online booklet works well for me
I simply print them without any special extra manipulation and put the pages I’ll be needing in a large double zip lock baggie. I generally make a second copy just in case the first set gets ruined or lost somehow. What I like is that I can then markup the maps for that one trip. If I make a different trip to the same area I’ll print up new ones and mark those as I need. I generally add markers for way points I add to my GPS and I also add lines parallel to magnetic north to make compass work easier.