Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts

[mottseng]

Shawanaga, aside from the chart and nav issues I want to commend you on the upcoming trip and great boat. Would love to do the trip with you !! I see you are in Parry Sound where we will be on Canada Day.

I have always used Navionics on an iPad even in the Azores and found it to be very accurate. Just my experience here with Navionics.

Enjoy your trip !!!

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Must not say something disparaging about powerboaters… must be strong…

I'd challenge you on that if I could recall any example where you were wrong

In our area, they usually have one of those paper placemats from the seafood restaurant as their "chart."

But be fair, it's always the small power boats, not cruisers.

[RMatichak]

Originally Posted by Shawanaga

Now that the ice is melting, Canadians can dream of summer...

I'm planning to sail from Georgian Bay to the Atlantic provinces.....

cheers!

Make sure you stop by at the Tadoussac marina.
I’ll be working there over the summer.
http://www.marina-tadoussac.com/
Cheers!

[patja]

The $100 CHS charts for BC waters through Rose Point's Coastal Explorer was the clincher that made me pull the trigger on buying the software. I really wanted the route planning with current station data. The CHS chart pricing tipped the scale well into the "BUY" zone. https://www.rosepoint.com/coastal-explorer/bc_charts/

[hamburking]

Originally Posted by bgallinger

I care about CHS chart costs as I sail the great lakes. I know CHS charts are insanely expensive, but it would appear that you may own a boat. Therefore, you are rich and according to Canadian custom, you must share your wealth. Personally, I use C-map. Works great.

Digital charts should be free. The savings would come from reduced coast guard rescues.

One of the foundations of our country is that knowledge should be free. That's why we have free libraries.

If there are printing or shipping costs, sure, charge the fee. But digital? Only good things can happen with free charts. The opposite is also true.

Kudos to navionics for making digital charts available for no cost or small app fee.

Navionics ChartViewer

[hamburking]

Originally Posted by RMatichak

Make sure you stop by at the Tadoussac marina.
I’ll be working there over the summer.
Marina Tadoussac
Cheers!

Send me a PM when you get to Kingston! I'm happy to help/lend a hand or provide local knowledge.

FWIW, Confed basin marina in downtown kingston is a terrible marina (no secret) in a great location. My unsolicited advice is to come in before 11am, before the "wind machine" picks up, so you can get into a slip safely. Almost all slips are beam-on to the prevailing, strong wind, with no lee at this marina at all. And give yourself as much time as you can spare in the 1000 islands...you won't be disappointed, and you'll finally get to use all your gear.

https://www.cityofkingston.ca/reside...deration-basin

[victor15]

Shawanaga,

You were looking at the wrong page of CHS for prices. Just check at:
Price List



Sure those charts are expensive while Admiralty and other European are just beyond and believe. For Great Lakes just few paper will do. St. Lawrence doesn't have tides, only river currents. Just get yourself V-CEN-C, V-ATL-A, V-ATL-B & V-ATL-C and you will have more than enough for $2400,-

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by victor15

...Sure those charts are expensive while Admiralty and other European are just beyond and believe. For Great Lakes just few paper will do. St. Lawrence doesn't have tides, only river currents. Just get yourself V-CEN-C, V-ATL-A, V-ATL-B & V-ATL-C and you will have more than enough for $2400,-

Just to clarify, the St. Lawrence does have tides. Starting at Trois-Rivières, the tides become very large by the time you get down to Quebec City. We experience 25-foot tides in the area.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Shawanaga

Now that the ice is melting, Canadians can dream of summer...

I'm planning to sail from Georgian Bay to the Atlantic provinces. For safety, I want redundant Nav systems with accurate Chart data. But to acquire a two year license for all CHS RNC and ENC charts covering the Great Lakes to Maritimes will cost roughly C$5000. Yikes! That's more than the entire trip budget for Charts alone; it's not a viable option.

As an OpenCPN enthusiast, o-charts.org offers reasonable license fees for official Hydrographic agency data for a growing number of countries around the world, but not Canada (yet).

Questions:

- does anyone else care about current CHS pricing?

- anyone interested in CHS data being available via o-charts.org?

cheers!

We did that trip three years ago. We had Navionics on the Simrad and on an IPAD. We were able to hunt down chart books covering significant parts of the Canadian sea way. We also bought several expensive and nearly useless Canadian Hydrographic bed sheet sized paper charts. Beware of the stated depths on ALL Canadian navigation material. We found water often deeper than shown by up to 2X. We also found the charted navigable inlets on the north of PE Island to be dead wrong shallow boat killers. The IPAD Navionics shows current and tide information and was invaluable.

[Shawanaga]

A big thank you to everyone for the advice and offers of assistance! I'm looking forward to this immensely. For a variety of reasons, I may have to defer the trip down the Saint Lawrence until next summer. But that gives more time to plan and anticipate.

I've been in touch with Hubert Kleis recently and there may be a path forward to offer ENC material sourced from CHS in oeSENC format for use with OpenCPN. That would make me very happy to have chart data as-good-as-it-gets on my various electronic devices for the trip. Fingers crossed, no promises, stay tuned!

Andy

[Northbound44]

Most electronic charts use CHS charts. See the following link:
http://www.charts.gc.ca/copyright-dr...icants-eng.asp