Practical Sailor's gear and boat reviews take the guesswork out of your buying decisions.

Volume 29
Number 17
September 2003

Electronic Cartography Update

Ever get confused about the names and types of electronic charts out there, and what runs on what, and where the data comes from? We do, too, so here's a review, and a handy reference guide.

Here are two views (zoomed out on top of zoomed-in) of NOAA's new, free ENC vector charts, seen through Fugawi's ENC software.

There's a Gary Larson cartoon that shows the homeowner outside the house with a can of paint and a brush in hand, and everything in the picture is drippingly labeled: The House. The Dog. The Tree. The caption says "Now!... That should clear up a few things around here!"

We will endeavor to do the same thing for electronic cartography here, as we do every few months: Recap the basics, touch on what we've covered before, and when, and say what's changed since then. Bear in mind that it's entirely possible, even likely, that what you're reading here will have been updated, expanded, discontinued, renamed, or sold since we wrote…

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