NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Navy Grounding in PI Digital Charts Blamed
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2013 Jan 31, 14:23 -0800
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2013 Jan 31, 14:23 -0800
I don't know about US Naval practice, but right now commercial chart plotters that handle digital nautical charts (the official kind called ENCs or DNCs, not the kind that come with recreational chartplotters) are so good that international law has been changed so the commercial ships can use these chartplotters and no longer need to carry paper charts. (I assume that paper charts are still very much required where ENCs of an area do not exist.)
I'm not sure what other countries practices are, but NOAA produces their ENCs from the same computer database as is used to produce their paper charts. (Oh, you thought there were still eye-shaded people at drafting tables producing those paper charts? Nope, it's all computer drafting now).
It would be interesting to hear from list members who have actual experience with these commercial systems. Can they, for example, replay a ship's track over time?
I'm not sure what other countries practices are, but NOAA produces their ENCs from the same computer database as is used to produce their paper charts. (Oh, you thought there were still eye-shaded people at drafting tables producing those paper charts? Nope, it's all computer drafting now).
It would be interesting to hear from list members who have actual experience with these commercial systems. Can they, for example, replay a ship's track over time?
From: Bill Morris <engineer@clear.net.nz>
To: luabel@ymail.com
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2013 11:29 AM
Subject: [NavList 22206] Re: Navy Grounding in PI Digital Charts Blamed
When I crossed the Pacific from Auckland to Oakland a couple of years ago the ship's position was plotted on a paper chart every hour by the captain's standing order in spite of there being two independent GPS systems with chart plotters. This appeared to be a very sensible precaution especially when passing through region of the Cook Islands, to ensure that the course did not pass over any reefs or islands. The Captain had trained in the days of sextants, chronometers and paper charts.Is it naval practice to use paper charts and would it have made any difference in this case?Bill Morris
Pukenui
New Zealand
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