Navigating the Download of Navigation Charts

Update Your Charts

Nautical charts provide navigators with vast amounts of information including the depth of the water and objects under and on the surface, features of the land, man-made features, information on tides and currents, facilities ashore, and restrictive laws and regulations, and more. Charts are published with an edition number and the date to which the information it contains has been corrected. Out-of-date charts can lead you into unsafe situations on the water.

If you have not updated your chart within the last week, it may not contain information critical to your safe navigation.

Traditional Paper Charts
The edition number and date (month and year of printing) of are found in the lower left corner of each paper chart. The dates of the latest Notice to Mariners and Local Notice to Mariners corrections applied to the chart are also listed. It is you, the purchaser, who is responsible for updating your chart. To update your paper chart with changes in aids to navigation, hazards to navigation, and other items of marine information of interest go to the U.S. Coast Guard Local Notice to Mariners web page and download recent corrections and additions for your chart(s).

Print-on-Demand Charts
NOAA’s Print-on-Demand nautical charts are updated weekly and include all critical chart corrections when they are printed. To maintain your Print-on-Demand chart you will need to regularly &%150 weekly is recommended – follow the directions listed for other paper charts: check the Notice to Mariners and Local Notice to Mariners corrections and make the corrections on your charts.

Raster Navigational Charts (RNC)
Weekly updates to the RNCs are available free on the NOAA website in the BSB format that is used by many types of electronic charting systems .

Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC)
NOAA ENCs are provided with incremental updates that supply Notice to Mariners corrections and other critical changes. Both charts and and updates are available for free download. When downloaded, these update cells can be applied to the base ENC cell to produce an up to date ENC.

BookletCharts™
You can update BookletCharts™ by using the information given for regular paper charts, or you can download and reprint entire charts or selected pages. Since these charts are "experimental" and not necessarily updated each week, it is prudent to check Local Notices to Mariners and Notices Mariners for recent chart corrections (see traditional paper charts above).