I should mention that I am not old school at all but like paper charts for the following reasons.

1. I find that no NAV screen is big enough with enough resolution to show a large enough area in enough detail to do good route planning.  Although we mainly use the electronic charts, we have the appropriate paper chart handy for a quick look to see where we are going, or in detail where we are at.  Scrolling around, zooming in and out and all of that takes much more time and attention.  It is like taking your paper chart and cutting it up into little napkins and then (on my machine) and then having your partner hide them from you for 20 seconds whenever you want change which one you want to look at.

2. For a long time my chartplotter showed rocks that dried as rocks that were underwater.  They forgot to display the little () so a rock that dried at a 10 foot tide would be shown as a rock that was 10 feet under water.  The paper chart verified that the seagull I saw standing above me wasn't a mirage.    My chartplotter also hated certain areas; it would always die off of Port Townsend and a certain area in the Broughtons, as well as once displaying all currents relative to today's date in 1990.  Various patches over the years fixed all of that, but what else was introduced?  The problem with electronics is that you never know when a bug will crop up; everything may work perfectly in every square inch of Seattle but die in Pendrel Sound for obscure reasons.  I am a programmer and don't trust any programmer as far as I can throw them (which is why I am sensitive to bugs; support either loves or hates me).

3. Corrosion.  The sea environment will kill all electronic devices eventually.

4. I have been many places where I was unable to get a GPS signal, usually up inlets surrounded by high mountains.

5. I have lost signal for mysterious atmospheric reasons related to sunspots or the like.

Of all those, #1 is probably the strongest reason.  Really, try looking at the route between Pender Harbor and Desolation Sound on a typical chartplotter -- to see enough of the route to make any sense of it will make all of the rocks disappear.  Try figuring out military exercise WG on even the best chartplotter, it is nearly impossible since WH overlays WG and you end up with dotted lines all over the place and have to scroll way out to make sense of it, which means that the rocks around Winchelsea Islands disappear.  Do all of this with an angry helicopter overhead and 200kg practice bombs dropping around you...

I use the chartplotter mainly to show me where I am and the charts to get an idea of where I am going (even though I don't  plot routes on them.)

George Rankin
Silk Road Selene 48'

Subject: Re: T&T: Why carry paper charts?

I should mention that I am not old school at all but like paper charts for
the following reasons.

1. I find that no NAV screen is big .
   George and Emilie,

I'll second the motion too..!!

In Search and Rescue operations where we did not have the luxury of opening
our charts to navigate we used the plotter and the radar. I used the paper
charts to give a heads up to the crew, to situate and to plan our response
to an incident.

However to give an update and a situation report and to discuss the decision
making with the authorities we need to explain all the point on the chart,
everyone needs to see the big picture... not only the screen of a chart
plotter...

I/2 my two cents worth...

Roger Lalonde
Summerstown Ontario Canada

For what it's worth: I carry both paper and and electronic charts. While I
navigate exclusively with electronic charts, I found that the paper charts
were more convenient for planning. However, since getting the TimeZero
application on my iPad, I find that is the perfect tool for planning.

When we were out on the boat this summer, I never once referred to a paper
chart.

Scott Welch
Island Eagle