On the U.S. S-57 charts I think all the same details are there, at least
on the water anyway, on both the vector and raster charts.

(CUT)

I've downloaded the whole NOOA pack, and "flew" to San Francisco and New
York.

When zooming-in, the charts show much greater detail then the med maps I've
seen. Plenty of detail here, fair enough to say bye-bye to raster, at least
for the "offshore" side; for the inshore, yes, raster maps still rule, but
with such a detail, you can easily approach a port allready knowing what to
expect.

Great work done by NOAA.

Maybe someone did the same work for med, who knows.