Sharing your boating thoughts and opinions
I have been concerned about the UK Hydrographic Office’s decision to stop producing paper charts for a while, but recent events [GPS jamming] in the Black Sea have brought this into sharper focus for me. There are other very valid reasons to continue using paper charts for leisure use as well.
My husband and I sail out of Cowes and we use electronic devices when we go out of the Solent for any extended trip. We also take paper charts with us because: 1. Paper charts require no power when under sail, whereas a tablet or chart plotter may require the use of the engine on a cloudy day.
2. It’s easier and more pleasant to plan the next day’s sailing sitting around a paper chart on the table (with a glass of wine in hand) than all trying to peer at an electronic device to see what someone is talking about.
3. Paper charts can be used even when damp: trying to operate a touch screen in the rain with wet fingers is a nightmare.
4. Paper charts are cheaper. Once produced and purchased they require no ongoing costs. Apps such as Navionics require annual subscriptions as well as electrical power.
5. There are black spots. We were fortunate enough to sail in the Scottish Isles last summer and there were places where there was not only no wifi coverage but no GPS either, because of the steep sides of the lochs we were entering, unless I suppose the satellite was directly overhead. Certainly, it was impossible to zoom in to look at the shoreline to ascertain the location of rocks as we entered.
6. For teachers, it is surely easier to teach the principles of taking bearings and checking positions using a paper chart.
7. Paper charts require skills to produce that it would be a desperate shame to lose– skills that may be needed again one day.
8. Paper charts cannot be interfered with or blocked.
9. Finally, paper charts are more environmentally friendly. Paper charts require no further power generation or resources, other than a pencil, no matter how many times they are reused (one friend was trying to use his phone to navigate but because it was getting old it had to be kept permanently plugged in while he sailed).
And at the end of their lives paper charts are much easier to recycle. Old charts can be framed, used to paper a room, given to schools to use as art materials, folded into lampshades, etc. and finally put into your recycling bin. Surely we should be encouraged to use fewer fossil fuels, not more, these days. Jacqueline Spalding
