Worldwide Admiralty Charts

[MattDamon2927]

Does anybody know if the British based 'Admiralty' still produce charts for the whole world? I am looking to cruise the USA West Coast and Mexico and wondered if any were avavilable instead of the US charts that are all I have so far been able to find. I do use eCharts etc but prefer to keep a good stash of paper ones.

James

[capt_douglas]

I'd suggest emailing Bluewater Books. They can probably tell you the exact chart number pretty quickly. The UKHO website can be a bit difficult to navigate. To the best of my knowledge, the answer is yes, although for the area of coverage, I've found little difference between the US/NOAA and BA aside from the price, size, and chart colors.

[fishwife]

Down loading NOAA charts and having them printed will likely be a lot cheaper than British Admiralty charts. A comprehensive West coast and Mexico portfolio is likely to easily top $1,000 if you buy UK charts.

It's worth noting that for the continental USA, 99% of the recent information on British charts of the USA is supplied by NOAA.

P.

[MattDamon2927]

Thanks for that folks. All of the charts on the US boat I just took over certainly did not look anything like the BA charts I am used too, with what seemed very little detail. Maybe it was just their age or a particular type I am not used too. I might try a mix of each to start with. Thanks for pointing out the book store too - it looks pretty good. A great shame you cannot buy BA charts of the US in England as you can the Caribbean, but maybe there is not much call.
All good practice though, so I will carry on with my strange old practice of using paper and pencil etc. Interestingly, it certainly does appear more expensive to have a full set of paper charts now compared to e charts!
James

[fishwife]

The charts you need are available in the UK here Admiralty Charts Usa (west) And Mexico R 125
Apparently at £21.30 each

P.

[poseidon]

The Defence mapping agency (US) does charts outside the U.S. They are only about $12 each. I bought some for Mexico-Central America and Tahiti.

[capt_douglas]

You can buy Admiralty charts of the US in the US. Bluewater Books sells a lot of them to yachts, commercial vessels, and cruise ships.

As for the cheaper US waters charts, you can get OGW print on demand that incorporate the latest NTMs for about $26.00ea. They're printed on good stock, are fairly water resistant, and current. Details on the NOAA charts can vary from chart to chart as opposed to the UKHO ones.

If you want current US waters charts and aren't tied to BA/UKHO then the OGW print on demand is a good alternative. For waters outside the US, you're relegated to NIMA/DMA/NGA and they don't print on demand.

FWIW, the BA/UKHO folks are experimenting with printing on demand charts similar to the US/NOAA concept. I'm not sure what you get with that as all BA/UKHO charts are sold with the most current published NTMs.

At one time you could get 4 Maptech Chartkits that covered all the US West Coast for a very reasonable price but that option's no longer available.

One option is to get some sailing charts (INT801 for example), some moderate detailed charts, and some cruising guides. The guides give you current port info and good chartlets of the areas.

NOAA Nautical Charts, United States Pacific Coast gives you an idea of what I'm talking about, chart wise.

Once you get out of the US, you need to move to the NGA Region 2 catalog for charts other than BA. I've seen Mexican charts but they were very old and I would not trust them for other than historical or artwork. For most of those waters the BA are the most accurate although they may not be current to conditions.

http://naco.faa.gov/content/naco/cat...s/Region_2.pdf will give you the Region 2 catalog of Central and South America.

If this is confusing, consider going further offshore where you have French, Fijian, Australian, New Zealand, BA, Japanese, Russian, private label (Imray, Explorer) and other nation state charts. That's where you need a spreadsheet!

[MattDamon2927]

Thanks folks, I got the supplier from above and now have a few BA charts of the area. I agree, good pilot books are well worth their weight in Gold in a new area. And local advice...

[tsmwebb]

This may be a tad off topic but my preference is to use charts from the national authority responsible for charting the area. To that end it might be worth noting that Mexico has recently released a series of comparatively to date, WGS 84 compatible charts from recent surveys. They are likely the best charts you can buy (electronic or paper) for Mexican waters. There is a catalog here: Secretaria de Marina-Armada de Mexico - Publicaciones Nauticas - Aviso a los Marinos

Tom