Paper & Electronic Charts
Force 4 stock Paper Charts from Imray and Admiralty and Electronic Charts by Navionics, Garmin and C-Map
Marine or Nautical Paper Charts are a graphical representation of a sea area and the adjacent coastal regions. They contain a wealth of relevant information which can include water depth and land height, Wrecks and other hazards, seabed features, as well as aids to navigation such as buoys, and channel markers where relevant. They also can include some tide and current information and points of interest like anchorages, harbours, marinas, bridges and buildings.
We recommend carrying paper charts wherever possible as a solid back up to your chartplotter.
Marine Electronic Charts come on a card to go in to the chartplotter on your boat or your hand held GPS; normally in 1 of 3 formats - MicroSD Card, SD Card and Compact Flash. Providing all of the information of a paper chart and many more features beyond. Marine electronic charts can include detailed 3d images of sea beds, photographic panoramas of harbours and marinas and more.
When selecting your chart it's important to know your chartplotter make and model to ensure compatability.