US Coast Guard Cartes allows digital maps and publications to replace paper.

The U.S. Coast Guard has published The Navigation and Vessel Inspection Circular, NVIC 01-16establishing a uniform a uniform guideline for boaters using digital charts and publications.

Published last Friday, the document states that for the U.S. Coast Guard, the electronic charts distributed by U.S. hydrographic authorities, such as NOAA, and the Electronic Chart System (ECS) standards published last summer by the Radio Technical Commission for Marine Services provide mariners with all the appropriate information they need to navigate safely. In fewer words, this means that the U.S. Coast Guard considers that digital charts and publications, meeting official standards, can now officially and adequately replace official USCG paper charts.

“After consultation with our Navigation Safety Advisory Committee, the U.S. Coast Guard will allow mariners to use official electronic charts instead of paper charts, if they choose to do so. With real-time trip planning and information control at their fingertips, navigators will no longer have the burden of maintaining a complete portfolio of paper charts,” said Capt. Scott J. Smith, Chief of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Office of Navigation Systems.

According to the press release issued by the USCG, the new guidance applies to vessels required to carry U.S. charts or publications, codified in Titles 33 and 46 CFR, and offers an alternative means of complying with these requirements.

Smith points out that electronic charts, when combined with modern AIS systems, can provide real-time data to improve navigation, which in turn enables skippers to make the safest possible choices during navigation.

“Navigators have repeatedly requested recognition of this possibility,” said Smith. “When you combine the new requirement of the expanded Automatic Identification System and the capability that ECS now officially authorized, it should provide a springboard to modernize U.S. waterways into the 21 ^st century.”

Here’s the French text for us:
Arrêté du 2 décembre 2014 modifiant l’arrêté du 23 novembre 1987 relatif à la sécurité des navires (division 240 du règlement annexé)

Art 240-2.06 Coastal armament and safety equipment
5. Official nautical chart(s), or extracts thereof, based on information from a national hydrographic service. They cover the navigation zones frequented, are placed on paper, or on electronic support and its reading device, and are kept up to date.
Art. 240-2.07.-Semi-shore armament and safety equipment.
Charts: idem to coastal
Art. 240-2.08.-Offshore armament and safety equipment.
Charts: idem to coastal

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