TWL: Chart storage
How do you store your charts?
Chart storage is a real challenge on our trawler. We must store and have
available over 150 charts for WA, B.C.,and AK., and
the list is growing as we expand our cruising area. At from $15 to almost
$20 a chart, the investment becomes considerable.
The larger trawlers have storage drawers. We don't. We keep ours in
tubes made out of 2" PVC pipe which has been cut into 40 inch
segments with a hacksaw. The PVC end caps are color coded with paint to
define each cruising area for easy recognition. The contents of each
tube is then additionally identified with a magic marker on the white surface
of the tube. We store about 5 to 7 charts in each tube so we are now
faced with storing about 30 tubes.
Question. Is there a better way? What do you do?
Sandy and Dawna Floe
Sea Eagle (39 CHB)
Day Island, WA
I fold mine in quarters. Have found the creases present no problems and
much easier to handle and store. Can always be opened up flat when in use.
I must admit they are there mostly for backup purposes with the exception
of a few very large and very small scale charts. For all normal navigation
I use either Transas vector charts with Nobeltec's VNS or BSB regional
chart books. One takes no space and the other is a better size for handling
underway.
Tom
At 08:25 AM 1/24/2001 +0000, Sandy Floe wrote:
How do you store your charts?
At 08:25 AM 01/24/2001 +8000, Sandy Floe wrote:
How do you store your charts?
Chart storage is a real challenge on our trawler. We must store and have
available over 150 charts for WA, B.C.,and AK., and
the list is growing as we expand our cruising area. At from $15 to almost
$20 a chart, the investment becomes considerable.
Question. Is there a better way? What do you do?
Sandy and Dawna Floe
Sandy: We keep our charts rolled up and hung on top of the fishing rods in
the main cabin. The rods holders are hung from the ceiling. If you don't
have fishing rod holders, you could make something out of teak...jd
Joe DellaFera / Margaret Murray
36' Prairie DC "SAMAKI"
Pompano Beach, Fl.
We use a Yeoman plotter, which requires that most chart be folded twice so
that they are 1/4 size. So far, we just stack them together in numerical
order. Our plan is to make two (or more) heavy fabric "envelopes" to
contain them, one (some) for US charts and one (some) for Canadian. We
plan to store them under the guest cabin mattresses.
We saw a neat way to store charts on a new boat at the Seattle Boat
Show. They had a ceiling-hung swing down tray large enough to hold
unfolded charts in the forward stateroom. It was a much larger boat than
ours, but the concept bears looking into. Our forward hatch wouldn't allow
a full size tray... but, maybe 1/4 size ones....in a couple of different
locations...? But there are and awful lot of charts!
We are just getting started, so we are in learning mode.
Ben Lewis and Mary Wilson
"BenGeM" 34' 1981 CHB Trawler
Poulsbo Yacht Club, Poulsbo, WA
blewis@oz.net
At 12:25 AM 1/24/01, Sandy Floe wrote:
How do you store your charts?
nippety-snip
Question. Is there a better way? What do you do?
Sandy and Dawna Floe
Sea Eagle (39 CHB)
Day Island, WA
I went to Industrial Plastics and gave the dimensions of a single chart
folded in half. Told them to make a holder that size and about 2" thick
with a little door at the top.
We've had our chart holder for the past 2 boats and it is presently attached
to the roof (american pronuciation "ruff") of the pilot house. Works great
and it's easy to find charts and put them back.
Shaun aboard Rana III
How do you store your charts?<<<<SNIP>>>>The larger trawlers have
storage drawers. We don't. We keep ours in tubes made out of 2" PVC pipe
which has been cut into 40 inch segments with a hacksaw.<<<<
I used the tube system for a while, and it protected the charts very well
on my small (7.5m), wet sailing cat, being robust and watertight. However I
got fed up with the way the charts coiled up like watch springs if I didn't
clip them firmly down to the chart table.
On my next boat (a 9m sailing cat), I had more space vertically in the tall
narrow hulls than horizontally, so I adopted a "drawing office" model which
worked quite well. The chart table was mounted at a steep angle like a
draughtsman's board, and I hung the charts vertically in flat lockers built
against the inside of the hull. To do this I glued wide perforated plastic
strips to one long side of the charts, and then hooked them over wooden
pegs. This system is widely used in architects' offices to hang drawings in
"plan tanks", and that's where I obtained the plastic strips. This system
gave me a large chart table, allowing me to work with unfolded charts, and
even to have frequently used charts plastic laminated. The chart storage
was space efficient, using areas of little use for anything else.
Unfortunately the steep chart table was not a complete success. It was not
difficult to develop plotting methods which worked on the steep surface,
but it's just hard work when you can't put anything down on the table.
Nowadays I go with the traditional gently sloping chart table with the top
forming a hinged lid like an old-fashioned school desk over a storage box
underneath for the charts. A useful addition is to cut 50mm diameter holes
in the base of the storage box. This allows me to insert my fingers to push
the charts up from below, which makes it easier to pull out the required
chart without creasing it or the other charts in the box.
The size of the chart table has a lot to do with how best to store charts
in this way. The smaller the table, the more the charts have to be folded,
so taking up less area but more thickness. It would be a rare boat that had
a chart table large enough for an unfolded RAN chart (about 1100x750mm). A
table large enough for a chart folded once is more feasible, and can still
hold a reasonable number of charts without becoming impractically deep.
Regards, Robert Bryett
Sydney, Australia.
mailto:rbryett@ibm.net