How to Read a Nautical Chart is an enlarged and enhanced edition of Chart No. 1, the official government publication that, until summer 2000, explained the correct interpretation of a nautical chart. Chart No. 1 was not really a chart at all, but a 100-page book catalogued all of the symbols, abbreviations, and special terms used on U.S. nautical charts. There are hundreds of symbols for features relevant to navigation - everything from bell buoys to underwater wrecks. Chart No. 1 showed the reader how to interpret correctly all of the graphic elements that make up a nautical chart. In the summer of 2000 the government stopped producing the print version of Chart No. 1 due to budget problems. One or two other publishers now offer facsimile reprints of Chart No. 1, but How to Read a Nautical Chart is the only book that not only replaces Chart No. 1, but improves on it in at least four important ways. First, How to Read a Nautical Chart reorders the presentation of topics to make the book easier to use and more intuitive for the average boater. For example, depth information is found in a section titled "Depths" - not "Hydrography," as in Chart No. 1.
Second, Nigel Calder will write a brief introductory essay for each section. For instance, before listing the symbols for navigation buoys, Calder will clearly explain the different buoyage systems the boater may encounter and discuss the accuracy of buoy locations on the chart (buoys are moored on anchor chains and will move). In other words, Calder will take the raw information contained in Chart No. 1 and put it in context, allowing the reader to use it more directly and with more confidence. Third, Calder will write an opening chapter dissecting and explaining every aspect of the nautical chart. The reader will learn how a chart is assembled; how to gauge the accuracy of chart data; how to read charts created by other governments; and how to use information such as scale and projection technique that every chart contains but many boaters ignore. In short, the reader will learn how to squeeze every ounce of information out of the chart that was put in. Finally, How to Read a Nautical Chart will also cover the symbology used on Canadian and British Admiralty charts as well as electronic charts. The result will be a powerful combination: a reproduction of Chart No.
1, annotated, enlarged, and explained by one of America's most trusted marine writers.
Author Biography
Niger Calder is the author of Marine Diesel Engines (1987, 1991) and Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual (1989, 1995), the success of which has made him the most sought-after marine how-to writer in the U.S. and U.K. He has published more than 800 magazine articles in SAIL, Cruising World, Ocean Navigator, Yachting World, etc., and lectures on cruising to sell-out crowds. He is also the author of The Cruising Guide to The Northwest Caribbean (IM, 1991) and Cuba: A Cruising Guide (Imray, 1996). He will be testing his newest ideas with his family during a six-month cruise to the Caribbean and South America this winter.
