Stay Safe; Keep Nautical Charts Up to Date

Using outdated roadmaps when you travel by car can cost you a frustrating half hour or so if you have to backtrack and detour when the actual roadway doesn’t match your map. But keeping outdated nautical charts on your boat can result in serious watercraft damage or even kill you.

Too many recreational boat owners cruise into unfamiliar waters with outdated charts or no charts at all, warns The Alliance for Safe Navigation, a boat safety group supported by a broad alliance of national boating organizations. It’s not just boating newcomers who fail to carry or update charts, the group says. Many experienced boaters and anglers take a blase approach to charts, particularly if they are regular travelers on a particular waterway. But winter storms, spring floods, natural silting, dredging, upriver construction projects and a host of natural and manmade activities can create new boating hazards every year or alter the position or depth of safe navigation channels.

To ensure safety, boaters should update nautical charts every year and always have onboard current charts for the waterway they are traveling before they leave the dock. To make it easy for boaters to keep track of chart updates, The Alliance for Safe Navigation has created a chart database on its website. Boaters can enter a NOAA chart number to instantly receive a current list of chart updates. The Alliance reminds boaters that use of GPS systems and chartplotters does not insure navigation safety. Electronic charts must also be updated regularly.