Where to buy charts

Brunet33 · #1 10-13-2009

Where is the best place to buy US charts? I have viewed them online, but would like to buy bigger ones that I have on the boat.

Thanks for the help!

bubb2 · #2 10-13-2009

Have you tried the Sailnet store?

Brunet33 · #3 10-13-2009

They only offer charts for GPS. Not big paper ones.

fud · #4 10-13-2009

I recently bought some charts for a trip to the Chesapeake this summer from OceanGrafix They are NOAA approved print on demand (POD), meaning they include all Local Notice to Mariner Corrections issued prior to the time of printing. They are really nice large charts and they even gave me 2 free chart tubes with my order (not sure why, but I appreciated it).

fud · #5 10-13-2009

Not sure what happened to my link, I'll try that again:
OceanGrafix
Not sure if it's my connection, but their site seems a little slow. OK, I think I know what happened to my original link. The link itself contained an advertising keyword, "charts", so there was some additional markup inserted, which messed up my hyperlink. I changed the links to the main page so the "chart" keyword was no longer in the link. Looks like that fixed it. Sorry to digress.

Boasun · #6 10-13-2009

You can go to Landfall Navigation or Worst Marine...
If you have a Chart Catalog, the dealers are listed on it.

sailortjk1 · #7 10-13-2009

I beleive that a Chart Book is probably your best bet.
To buy individual charts for your cruising area can be very expensive.
A chart book can save you hunderds of dollars.
Any good chandlery will be able to help you.
Richardson's has already been mentioned on other threads.

FYI, Maptech makes some good inexpensive chart books that also included a DVD. Down load the DVD Chart to your laptop and plug in a USB GPS and you have a second plotter you can use at the nav desk.

speciald · #8 10-13-2009

US digital charts are available for free from many web sources. Most paper charts are now print-on-demand and are updated frquently.

sailingdog · #9 10-13-2009

Be aware that Maptech went bankrupt a while back and their paper chart business was bought by Richardson...

sailortjk1 · #10 10-13-2009

Right, I knew that...
Sorry about the error, I wonder if Richardson will change their strategy.

Another point, Print on Demand is very nice in that it gives you update the most current information, but at $28 a print, I would need to spend over $1,000.00 in charts to cover my area.