What are the best charts to buy?

[scottpaddlerboy]

Looking for some advice on the best charts to buy either Imray or Admiralty, can anyone shed any pro's and cons of both.

Thanks

Marc

Happy paddling

[carlos the shackle]

I'm seriously considering the Memory Map £50 version of the Admiralty charts & printing up as A4 and laminating them.

http://shop.memory-map.co.uk/acatalog/I ... Folio.html

I'm just not sure as to the quality of their image & how good my printer needs to be.
Can anybody shed any light on this ?

[ls]

I've been using the Memory Map Landranger series for 5+ years and did get the £50 Charts package about 3 years ago, and get on well with printing A4 with a middle of the road bubblejet printer and laminating them. The OS Maps I can print at a variety of scales, generally I like the look of and am used to the scale on the normal map so use 1:50,000 scale (or the same image can easily be printed at double size effective 1:25,000 if I feel the need and want to eat through paper or 1:100,000 if the eyes are up to it and you want to have a bigger area on your A4). The Charts I can aso print out, but find a minor niggle in that I haven't figured out a way to print them out at the same or any standard scale (a bit like the paper ones each chart is at a different scale). I've been happy with using both.

I think the charts have been repackaged / rebranded since I bought my copy, so someone who's got a more recent version may have a different experience (also I tend to paddle using OS maps 95% of the time, so have't spent that much energy in figuring out a work around). If you are going to laminate, it's worth trying lamination pouches from different manufcturers - I've found Texet from Maplin to work well, others not so well.

[TechnoEngineer]

I've found Texet from Maplin to work well, others not so well.

Good tip - I've used the laminating service at Staples which is £1 a shot, so if you're going to do a lot then it's certainly worth getting one of those:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Texet-LMA4-V-A4 ... 922&sr=8-1

In terms of charts I've found that Imray have all of the symbol meanings on the back of them, whereas Admiralty tend to have better current (tidal diamond) info. Buy some old ones of both varieties on ebay.

[Chris Bolton]

Memory map seems a good way to buy them, if you need them. whether you need them depends on what you're planning to do. OS 1:50 000 give you all the shore features you would normally use to navigate by; I rarely use anything else. Tidal diamonds are useful, unless you have the tidal atlas, and lights are important for night paddling. Depth is largely irrelevant apart from predicting local tide and wave effects; unlike the yachts, we can usually see where it's too shallow for us.

Chris

[PeterG]

OS maps often don't cover open crossings, sometimes the old 1" or 1/2 inch Baths. do, but generally you need a chart. Lundy for instance looks ever so close on the 1:50,000! Sometimes you can continue the OS grid out into the sea far enough. I used to be an Admiralty man but now lean towards Imray, they do seem easier to read as you start to need glasses which are never to hand. In France there are editions of kayak specific coastal charts/maps of a useful size, waterproof with land and water features for popular areas like Brittany http://www.navikayak.fr/boutique/cartes/details-carte-navikayak.html. Could there be a market in this country?

[Yakdiver]

I've got Memory Map 3500 GPS with marine charts and the mapping is very good, but make sure you are getting the new 2012 charts and not the 2009.

[scottpaddlerboy]

cheers thanks for the help

Marc

Happy paddling

[Jim]

I've found Texet from Maplin to work well, others not so well.

Good tip - I've used the laminating service at Staples which is £1 a shot, so if you're going to do a lot then it's certainly worth getting one of those:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Texet-LMA4-V-A4 ... 922&sr=8-1

I have laminated some maps/charts at work, however I can also recommend the tough paper that memory map can supply, works with an inkjet and reasonably waterproof and tear proof so works well with lots of sections printed double sided in a map case. On our cross Scotland canoe trip we were referring to them frequently on the portages and the sheaf was more often stuffed damp in a pocket than put in the map case (we had snow and were wet from paddling), all sheets were dried out afterwards and as I recall are none the worse for their ordeal.

For A3 I use the expensive laminating pouches at work (ask the boss first) for A4 I bought some from Asda which work OK, do go for a heavy pouch if you want to use the map/chart more than once (which means choosing a suitable laminator). My dad used to do maps with really thin pouches but they used to crease up a lot going through the laminator (which then irons the creases flat) so there would be bits where creases hid info, and then they would crack at the folds and delaminate....

[Grahamd]

Does anyone use the admiralty tough charts, and if so how do you find them?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tough-Chart-1 ... 1969092774

[GrahamKing]

Does anyone use the admiralty tough charts, and if so how do you find them?

The last time I looked at these, they had no tidal stream info on them. None at all.

[Jluc_NAVIKAYAK]

......... In France there are editions of kayak specific coastal charts/maps of a useful size, waterproof with land and water features for popular areas like Brittany http://www.navikayak.fr/boutique/cartes/details-carte-navikayak.html. Could there be a market in this country?

Hello Peter
Yes there is a market, a small one.

I have to translate my website in english (be forgiving for the syntax errors). If you want to paddle in Britanny or anywhere in France we have all the coast available. We can send you in UK. Actually we research dealer for UK.
http://www.navikayak.fr/en.html

Jluc