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Finally—classic
paper-chart lovers, brace yourself—NOAA envisions the day when these
will be printed directly from the ENCs. While I rather like picturing
a stuffy traditionalist sauntering into his chandlery, only to find a
new chart that “looks like a damn plotter screen,” I actually
hope that day won’t be too upsetting. Efficient as they may be, ENCs
could definitely be made to look better and show more information. NOAA
is already considering incorporating street and topo data available in
vector form from the National Geodetic Survey. Nobeltec has already shown
how shading and other nuances can dress up the chunkiness of computer-drawn
images. Developers there are currently working on ways to make text (like
port names) place themselves just right, even lay on a curve, as though
inked by an artist with an eyeshade.
Of course ENC development,
and the larger S57 bureaucracy behind it, will not move with the speed
of the private companies, for whom that’s probably a relief. I heard
one chart company manager joke that NOAA’s give-it-away policy “puts
an expiration date” on his business, at least in the United States,
but I doubt it. Some users will download ENCs, others will buy cheap compilation
CDs, but I’ll bet most will stick to the big companies that will
use the ENC database to update their own products more efficiently and
then turn to the freed resources to improving them.
Actually, the chart
companies are already hard at work making their cartography more than
just a copy of the government’s. We’ve seen features like on-screen
tides and marine-facility info for some time; we’ll see more. Now
rumor has it that several firms are doing their own surveying and mapping
of areas particularly interesting to recreational boaters. In fact, the
new spring edition of C-Map will include about 1,000 C-Marina macro maps,
which will tickle boaters who visit those marinas. First traced over high-resolution
aerial photography, then checked by foot with GPS, the resulting vector
charts let you zoom right down to dock numbers and restrooms.
Meanwhile, over in the
Bahamas, a cartography competition is underway that suggests another trend.
Admittedly the official charts of that country, which has no hydrographic
office, are antiquated, plus its waters are crawling with cruisers. A
number of resourceful ones have put their boats and GPSs to work making
chart books for their fellows. It sounds like my kind of fun and deserves
in-depth coverage at a later date. At any rate, now the electronic chart
people have joined the game. For a while Maptech offered raster scans
from three different mom-and-pop chart operations; now it’s gone
to more uniform-looking CYC charts from Nautical Publications. Then Nobeltec
licensed and uniformly traced the work of the original three—Explorer,
White Sound Press, and Wavey Line—plus made its own photomaps. Now
Garmin has licensed these same vector charts for use in its plotters.
All look great, as shown in examples on page 48.
Lastly, Steve Dodge,
proprietor of White Sound Press, has also charted the tricky, shifting
southeastern U.S. inlets that NOAA leaves blank. Dodge often surveys on
a PWC! Wouldn’t those gents who sounded the Golden Gate from a rowboat
be jealous? Dodge’s inlet work is not yet digitized, but surely that
will happen. Between NOAA, the big vendors, and these seat-of-the-pants
hydrographers, we’re living in chart-happy times.
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