Stan Winikoff wrote:
Seems to me that eventually,someone is going to figure out a way to
use free ENC charts on proprietary chart plotters. I agree with the
analogy to razors and blades or computer printers and replacement
cartridges. But the stuff is out there, free to anyone who wants it,
theoretically as useful as any other system of electronic navigation
charts, so the potential market is there. Stan

Although ENC vector charts are supposed to represent the "way forward",
hence the current tendency for the commercial shipping world to move over to
these, I remain to be convinced that a graphics system based on mathematical
formulae can ever faithfully reproduce the myriad of curves and shapes that
is a true reprsentaion of our coastlines.

This is not to say that other beneficial aspects of a vector system may
outweigh any slight deviations from the true representaion of the coastline
as depicted in an aerial photograph, which tells you little or nothing about
depths and dangers.

I think it is time someone sat down and defined just what is it that we, the
non-commercial, leisure-oriented sailors want out of electronic navigation
systems. I cannot help feeling that some of the old monochrome engraved
charts, with their "views from seaward" and other myriads of useful
navigation features, would contain some of the answers. I met a guy the
other day who was busy pouring over an electronic chart of the local area on
his laptop, despite having sailed in these waters continuously for over 30
years! Is the laptop taking over from the brain these days?

Many of the raster charts being marketed today are only fit for the garbage
can, whilst others are superb reproductions of the cartographer's art.

Do we want the technology to be driven by mathematicians, or artists?