Nautical Boating Charts
Purchasing Chart Disc Requires Agreement of NOAA's User
Agreement:
USER AGREEMENT
By using this website and the NOAA Raster Navigational Charts (NOAA RNCs™)
distributed here, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and accepted
the terms and conditions stated in this User Agreement. NOAA reserves the right
to change this Agreement at any time and without notice. Your use of this
website and/or the Raster Navigational Charts available here shall constitute
your agreement to be bound by this Agreement and any changes.
1. Description of NOAA Raster Navigational Charts (NOAA RNCs™)
The NOAA RNCs™ distributed here are geo-referenced, full-color images of NOAA’s
paper nautical charts, published by NOAA in the .BSB format. NOAA updates the
RNCs for Notices to Mariners on a weekly basis. They are an official product of
NOAA, and meet the S-61 Standard, “Raster Navigational Charts”, of the
International Hydrographic Organization.
In the future, NOAA plans to distribute the same images in a geoTIF format from
this website. These images will not be considered as NOAA RNCs™, are not updated
for Notices to Mariners, and do not conform to the S-61 Standard.
2. Permitted Use
NOAA RNCs™, and their geoTIF version (future), are intended to be used in their
electronic form only. You may download, use, and redistribute them without
restriction, and without payment to NOAA, except as noted herein.
The NOAA RNCs™ are intended for navigational use. They may be used to meet
federal chart carriage regulations published in the Code of Federal Regulations.
On November 15, 2005, the regulations were as stated below. These regulations
may change, and mariners are advised to check the Code of Federal Regulations
for their current status.
1) In December 1998, the IMO's Maritime Safety Committee approved amendments to
Resolution A.817(19) stating that some ECDIS equipment may operate in Raster
Chart Display System (RCDS) mode when the relevant chart information is not
available in vector mode (e.g., NOAA ENC). The amendments state that when used
in RCDS mode, ECDIS equipment should be used together with an appropriate folio
of up-to-date paper charts to meet chart carriage requirements.
2) On May 2, 2001, the United States Coast Guard amended the United States chart
carriage regulations to permit government vessels to use electronic charting and
navigation systems in lieu of paper charts.
3) On August 15, 2002, the United States Coast Guard issued a statement of
policy to bring its regulations into agreement with SOLAS Chapter V (as amended
by the changes taking effect July 1, 2002). The policy statement said that, if a
ship has an approved ECDIS installed according to SOLAS, Chapter V, the ECDIS
will be considered as meeting the ship's nautical chart carriage regulations.
The ships that are affected are:
a. U.S.-flagged ships of 150 or more gross tons that engage on international
voyages.
b. U.S.-flagged ships certificated solely for service on the Great Lakes and the
St. Lawrence River.
c. Foreign-flag ships to which SOLAS, Chapter V, applies that are operating on
the navigable waters of the United States.
This policy is not applicable to U.S.-flag ships engaged only on domestic
voyages. These ships must continue to comply with existing navigation equipment
requirements until the chart carriage regulations are formally amended.
3. Limitations on Use
NOAA RNCs™ may be redistributed, but redistributed NOAA RNCs™ are NOT considered
official NOAA RNCs™, and do not meet federal chart carriage regulations for
regulated vessels. This official status attends only to the original downloaded
files. At a future date, NOAA intends to establish a program under which
distributors may be certified to redistribute NOAA RNCs™ such that they will
retain their official status and meet chart carriage regulations.
NOAA RNCs™ and their geoTIF versions (future) may not be used to print
commercial products. Individuals may print the NOAA RNCs™ or their geoTIF
versions for personal use, but the result is not a NOAA chart, and may not be
used to meet federal chart carriage regulations.
Copying of the NOAA RNCs™ to any other server or location for further
distribution is discouraged unless the following guidelines are followed: 1)
this User Agreement is displayed and accepted by anyone accessing the NOAA RNCs™,
and 2) a reference to this Web site is included so that anyone accessing the
NOAA RNCs™ is advised of their origin.
If these NOAA RNCs™ are incorporated into any other product in a form other than
as provided by NOAA, the producer of that product assumes full liability and
must adhere to conditions described in the paragraph above concerning copying.
4. Warnings
Weekly updates to the RNCs are done on a “best efforts” basis. The timing of
their availability is not guaranteed. You are responsible for ensuring that your
RNCs are the most current edition and that the most recent updates have been
applied.
NOAA RNCs™ were made by scanning the NOAA paper chart printing materials. Any
inaccuracies due to old methods of collecting, processing and displaying data on
the paper chart were transferred to the RNCs. As a result, the accuracy of
modern positioning systems such as GPS may exceed the positional accuracy of the
RNC. The impact of positioning accuracies can be minimized by not zooming an RNC
beyond the scale of the original NOAA chart.
While NOAA has accuracy standards for each step in the data collection and chart
production process, much of the depth information found on NOAA charts is based
on surveys conducted before 1940, the shoreline is more than 20 years old, and
paper charts used to be compiled manually. For more information regarding the
accuracy of electronic charts, click here.
5. Trademarks and Copyright
The BSB file format is the sole property of Maptech, Inc. and as such is
protected by U.S. and International foreign copyright and patent laws.
“NOAA ®” and the NOAA ® emblem are registered trademarks of the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration.
NOAA RNC™ is a trademark of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NOTE: Clicking on the purchase button located on the 'home' page of this
website signifies acknowledgement of having read the above statement and the
wish to proceed with the purchase.
Order Chart DVD today
Ordering your very own Nautical Chart Disc can't be simpler just use our secure ordering process.
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| DVD format compatible with all Windows
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| One Disc with over 4 Gigabytes of data! |
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| CD-ROM format compatible with all Windows
Computers |
| Six Discs with over 4 Gigabytes of data! |
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Clicking on the purchase button above signifies
acknowledgement of having read the
terms of use statement and the wish to
proceed with the purchase. | 
