It is possible to buy USA - NOAA, Department of Defence, CHARTS, as used by the US Navy, for as little as £3.16. each or less if you buy a portfolio.
I used them almost exclusively during my circumnavigation and recommend the 2/3rds size.
I purchased from
who were very helpful and totally reliable.
If you want a c-map system to run electronic 'charts of the world' on a laptop with a gps dongle making it into a 'chart plotter' there is a freeware C-Map type system available at:-
http://opencpn.org/downloadwww.mlww
WHAT YOU MUST NOT DO, BECAUSE IT MAY WELL BE ILLEGAL, IN THE UK, IS TO DOWNLOAD THE ELECTRONIC 'CHARTS OF THE WORLD' including all UK waters
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5044693/C-MAP_93v2_may_2009_Marina_Charts
IF YOU DOWNLOAD THESE CHARTS OF THE WORLD YOU WILL BE DEPRIVING BA CHARTS, WHO CLAIM TO HOLD COPYRIGHT OF THEIR COPYRIGHT FEES,
SO DO NOT DO IT!
It is very difficult to justify the prices Admiralty Charts charge for their products.
They are able to do this because they 'claim' they, and they alone, own the copyright almost world wide to all navigational charts.
The is actually somewhat dishonest and disengenus.
Ǻdmiralty
In the UK, copyright is only protected for 50 years from publication.
The works of Shakespeare, Sheridan and Shaw, Enid Blyton and the Bible are all free to copy, reproduce, sell or use as we please.
What you cannot do is change bits of them, add colour, modernise them and alter the typescript details, then say that the entire work is now your copyright and anybody wanting to copy it, must pay you a fee!
In a few years even Beetles music will be copyright free!
All present day Navigational Marine Charts are based on work that was completed, sometimes hundreds of years ago.
To quote the Admiralty web site:
In 1795, King George III appointed Alexander Dalrymple as the first Hydrographer. The first Admiralty Chart appeared in 1800. The second Hydrographer, Captain Thomas Hurd, 1808-1823. received permission to sell charts to the public, oversaw the production the first chart catalogue. Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, was appointed in 1829. to expand and improve chart coverage. By the year 1855, the Admiralty Chart Catalogue listed 1,981 charts
Every one of the charts in the 1855 catalogue was out of copyright by 1905! In fact, every chart published in the UK up to 1960, is out of copyright and the information contained in those charts is available to us without copyright fees.
You cannot add ‘colour’ and the position of some buoys and claim it is 'a new work' but this is what the BA does.
Money are wasted on extensive web sites, staff paid solely to 'protect' copyright and the expansion of an 'empire'. Advertising, extensive colour brochures, stands at boat shows are pointless because you cannot actually legally buy these products elsewhere. Stamfords etc all pay a copyright fee in order to be allowed to publish their own editions.
British boat owners are obliged to pay very high prices for charts whilst in the USA you can buy the same products at 'normal' commercial rates or make legal copies for a few pence.
Interesting 83.2% of all the merchant ships in the world do NOT use ADMIRALTY CHARTS charts preferring American NOAA US Navy charts. Apparently often a commercial decision.
The 'electronic charts' for our plotters run on software designed by others and the same electronic charts are available in the USA, free of copyright.
BA even claim 'copyright' for the entire Caribbean and much of the world, which is actually nonsense.
I have had correspondence with BA charts, who confirm they use their copyright claims to maintain a monopoly on all charts sold in the UK. They refuse to disclose exactly how much their mark-up is and appear admit their copyright claim is dubious! The only legal confirmation they have to their copyright ownership, is a rather 'Mickey Mouse' judgement in Malta!.
In the USA, the government accepts that the original work, done to create all their charts, was all finished well over 50 years ago, and allows anybody to access charts, in either paper, electronic form or on the internet - Free of Charge!
Visit the US Bellingham Charts company web site http://www.tidesend.com/ and buy a US Navy version, of any international chart, for as little as £3.16. I have no commercial interest in that company except as a very contented customer.
Admiralty
If you agree that the ‘copyright fee’ and monopoly is unfair then write or email the RYA -
and request they begin to campaign for the right to publish charts, without copyright fees, as in all other major countries of the world.
Contact your MP via
http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/
and request him to ask them why such extortionate and unfair charges are levied on ordinary people with small boats by a department which contributes nothing to the exchequer except to self fund.
If you have contacts in the boating press then please contact them and ask them to publish details of the unfair price fixing by the ADMIRALTY CHARTS.
If you want, point them to this web page, write that you agree and want changes to this unfair and possibly illegal price structure.
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Contents 1 – Planning the voyage 2 – South coast to Chenal du Four 3 - Chenal du Four to La Rochelle 4 - La Rochelle to Spain overview 5 - La Rochelle to Coruña 6 - Coruña to Gibraltar |
Why not take your boat to the Mediterranean next summer?
There are several ways of getting your boat to the Mediterranean. On the back of a lorry, via the French canals, four or five day’s non stop across the Bay of Biscay then down the Portuguese coast or spend the summer or two, gently coasting southwards, enjoying the harbours, cities, towns and villages of France Spain and Portugal.
This is not a pilot book, rather a passage plan and guide to the nicer places between the South Coast of the UK to the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. It can all be done in easy stages, to suit a lightly crewed boat, with perhaps only a couple of people on board who are without ‘offshore’ experience. Actually, it is a lovely way to explore a lot of delightful foreign places.
The Ebook version is available now £4.50 |
Specially drawn charts of:
Cherbourg to L’Aber-Wrac’h. Chenal du Four to La Rochelle La Rochelle to Spain La Rochelle to Coruña Coruna to Gibraltar + illustrations, pictures, paintings |
