Author
|
Topic: Interesting note on a printed chart
|
David Burch
|
posted July 02, 2022 05:16 PM
By accident, I just ran across this chart note on the latest printed chart 18447 about the Nav Rules. I frankly do not recall having seen this before, but its first and last sentences bring up important points.
The first about "motorless craft" having right of way is almost dangerously misleading, especially in these days of stand up paddlers, often set afloat into traffic infested waters with essentially no knowledge of the Rules.
Our textbook (Inland and Coastal Navigation) has a section on rights and obligations of a "vessel," and a paddle board or kayak is indeed a vessel.
On the last sentence, I note that the USCG has not published a book called "Navigation Rules" for an extremely long time. In fact the last rules related USCG pub at all (called then a Handbook) was in 2014 (at the time of several inland rules changes). They did issue several updates to that pub, which were included in third party copies of the book. The USCG stopped its actual print publication long before.
Together, the first and last sentences, highlight the fact that NOAA is no longer updating paper charts except for crucial navigation data in anticipation of them all being gone in about 1.5 years from now. By that tine we will all be using ENC charts, and a new self-made kind of paper chart derived from then. Anyone who wants to look ahead to see how that will work, we have a new course on their usage called Introduction to Electronic Chart Navigation.
From: Starpath, Seattle, WA
|
|
|