What changed?

The UK Hydrographic Office, the people behind Admiralty charts, have opened a survey asking chart users what they make of some proposed changes to the paper charts themselves. It is open to leisure sailors, and it is closing soon, so we wanted to put it in front of our community while there is still time to answer.

The proposal itself is a bit of a tidy-up. At the moment there are two families of Admiralty paper chart. Standard Nautical Charts (SNCs) are used by everyone from big commercial ships down to leisure boats, and Small Craft Charts (SCCs) are aimed more at us. The plan is to trim the number of charts down, cut the duplication between the two, and move to a smaller set of standard scales. Instead of the current spread, we would get a single service built around two sheet sizes, A0 (the big ones) and A2 (a bit smaller), covering both commercial and leisure use. Some areas would also get new editions more often than they do now.

Why the shake-up? More and more navigation is done on electronic charts, so the digital data, the ENC, is becoming the main source the paper charts are drawn from. Rather than keep two overlapping paper ranges going, the UKHO wants to simplify how the paper charts are structured, updated, and sold.

This is not the old “paper charts are being scrapped” story from a few years back. That plan to stop making Admiralty paper charts by 2026 was pushed back, and the current expectation is that they carry on well into the 2030s. What is on the table now is a reshaping of the paper range, not the end of it.

Who does it affect?

Anyone who navigates on Admiralty paper charts. For our students, that mostly means the folks working through the chartwork side of Day Skipper Theory and Coastal Skipper / Yachtmaster Theory, plus boat owners who keep a paper folio aboard as backup to the plotter.

Good news for anyone mid-course. RYA theory exams use dedicated RYA training charts, the practice charts like RYA 3 and RYA 4, not live Admiralty charts. So none of this changes what we sit in the exam, or how we are taught to plot a course, take a fix, or work up an estimated position (EP). The skill is the same. What could change is the folio of real charts we buy when we come to plan an actual passage.

What does it mean in practice?

If the proposal goes ahead, the paper charts on the chandlery shelf would look a bit different. Fewer individual sheets, more consistency in the scales, and those two standard sizes rather than the current mix. If we are used to buying a particular Small Craft Chart folio for our patch, the exact products might get reorganised, so it is worth keeping an eye on what replaces what.

Why keep any of this in mind at all? Electronics fail. A chartplotter can lose power, a tablet can go for a swim, and GNSS can drop out at the worst possible moment. A paper chart and a pencil do not need a battery, which is why we still teach chartwork properly and why the RYA still examines it. Keeping a paper backup and knowing how to use it stays part of good seamanship.

What should we do now?

If we want a say in how our charts end up looking, the UKHO survey takes about 10 minutes and is open to leisure sailors, not only commercial crews. Some of the questions are worded with big ships in mind, but the UKHO has specifically asked for leisure input, so don’t be put off by the wording.

There is no firm closing date published anywhere, and the only steer we can find is that it is expected to close in mid-July. It was still live when we checked, but that means it could shut any day, so it is worth going straight there rather than saving it for later. The survey link is below.

Beyond the survey, there is nothing to do differently on the water. Keep practising chartwork, keep a paper backup aboard alongside the plotter, and carry on as normal.