NOAA is trying out a new paper charting product called a booklet chart. You can download them with your laptop computer and if you have access to a color printer you can print them out on standard 8.5 by 11 U.S. letter-sized paper. Interestingly, for legal reasons, these charts are not officially sanctioned for navigation. According to NOAA BookletCharts do not fulfill chart carriage requirements for regulated commercial vessels under Titles 33 and 46 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
From the NOAA website: The NOAA BookletChart is an experimental product that you can print at home for free. They are made to help recreational boaters locate themselves on the water.
The Booklet Chart is reduced in scale and divided into pages for convenience, but otherwise contains all the information of the full-scale nautical chart. Bar scales are also reduced in scale, but are accurate when used to measure distances in a BookletChart. Excerpts from the United States Coast Pilot are included. Most chart notes are consolidated on a single page for easy reference. Emergency information for the charted area is printed on the back cover.
Booklet charts are updated weekly for all Notice to Mariners.
NOTE: During this experimental period, BookletCharts are not being updated every week with Notices to Mariners. Further, some known errors are known to exist, e.g. the “Approximate Page Index” might not match the chart inside. You can tell us about such errors by using the Coast Survey’s Inquiry Page.
