Yachting

PRACTICAL SEAMANSHIPPRACTICAL SEAMANSHIP

Lucy Wilson is the seventh generation of Wilson to work at nautical chart and book publisher Imray, Laurie, Norie and Wilson

How to keep your

paper charts up to date

T

o navigate safely using

paper charts, you

ought to be using the

most up-to-date chart

available. You need the

most recently published edition,

then check for updates

to that edition and take

the time to mark the

corrections on the chart

before you sail.

Although most

landmarks and features

like rocks remain

unchanged for years,

there are obvious

safety implications

when buoys or light

characteristics change, sands

shift, traffi c separation schemes

are introduced, wind farms or

new harbours and marinas are

built. Chart correction notices,

known as Notices to Mariners

(NMs), indicate these changes.

Most publishers produce a new

edition of a paper chart followed

by a series of correction notices

for it. When it becomes so full of

corrections that it looks cluttered

and unclear, when major new

hydrographic surveys have taken

place, or when changes have

occurred so as to make it unsafe

for navigation, a new edition is

published and correction notices

are no longer made available for

the older edition.

Admiralty charts are sold hand-

corrected to date of sale. They

are hand-corrected by the seller

each week to the latest NM, and

stamped with the number of that

NM. Once you have bought the

chart, it’s up to you to check NMs

and keep it updated.

Frequency of

new charts

New chart editions are published

as often as once a year in areas

such as the southern North Sea,

which is frequently changing

and a well-sailed area, but in

very remote places, those rarely

surveyed or not often changing,

it may be fi ve years or more

before a new edition is printed.

Although this sounds like a long

time, you can still keep your

chart up to date by marking

corrections. The area may have

changed so little that only three

or four corrections are needed.

How to check if your

chart is up to date

Admiralty charts have a stamp

on the back that shows the

printing date and the latest

correction date. Imray paper

charts show the edition and

printing date on the cover

and in the bottom left-hand

corner. The chart is correct

to date of printing, and after

that a correction notice can be

downloaded from http://www.imray.

com/corrections. Search by

chart number.

How to fi nd updates

Correction notices are issued

by offi cial hydrographic offi ces,

or can be found on the chart

publisher’s website. Most

people download the notice,

or send away for print-outs by

post, then make the corrections

themselves. Once you know how

to do it, it’s not complicated.

Once you’ve found the

relevant correction notice, it’s

worth knowing a bit more about

the different types of corrections.

PHOTO: ALAMY

You can fi nd Notices to

Mariners and corrections at

the websites below:

■ UKHO

http://www.ukho.gov.uk/nms

■ Imray

http://www.imray.com/corrections

■ SHOM (France)

http://www.shom.fr/en/services/

keep-documents-up-to-

date/gan/

Or use bit.ly/1SVSeEo

■ The Netherlands

http://www.defensie.nl/english/

topics/notices-to-mariners

Or use bit.ly/1UGtIEY

■ BSH (Germany)

http://www.bsh.de/en/Maritime_

shipping/Small_craft/

Chart_correction_service/

index.jsp

Or use bit.ly/1QERcJu

Useful websites

Both Admiralty and

Imray charts have a

space that lets you

keep track of how up

to date your chart is

34 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com MAY 2016

Lucy Wilson, director

at Imray, Laurie, Norie

and Wilson, explains

how and why to

update your charts

CHART CORRECTION SERVICES

There are chart correcting services. Most are for commercial shipping, but

B Cooke & Sons (www.bcookeandsons.co.uk) of Hull caters for cruisers.

Imray (www.imray.com) also offers a hand correction service for its charts

and the cost is £5 with a limit of 10 corrections, or £10 for a chart folio.

Wind farms are

among the hazards

that won’t be marked

on older charts