UKHO launches Admiralty Small Craft Charts service

The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) has announced the launch of its Admiralty Small Craft Charts service.

Formerly known as Admiralty Leisure Chart Folios, the new service will offer important safety, quality and flexibility benefits to all marine users who depend on these charts.

This follows the announcement in May 2021 that UKHO will withdraw the regional folio structure for these charts. Instead users can purchase only those charts that are relevant to their needs without being required to purchase the full regional folio.

Through this updated product, UKHO says it is providing all users – spanning the small craft fishing fleet, infrastructure maintenance workboats, leisure yachtsmen, motorboat cruisers, ocean racing skippers, small tourist cruise boats, as well as other small craft mariners – with greater coverage and access to the data required to support their navigational decision-making.

All users will have the latest updated versions of chart images, which may be as frequent as after every Notices to Mariners (NM) update, meaning users can purchase a new chart instead of manually applying NMs to an existing chart. Users will also be able to apply the standard NMs using NMWebsearch, which can be reached via a QR code on the chart.

In line with new editions of SOLAS-compliant Admiralty Standard Nautical Charts (SNCs), all charts will help to ensure users have the same access to the latest navigational information for safe passage in UK waters. UKHO has made the charts available through a print-on-demand (POD) service, purchasable via Admiralty distributors.

Until at least October 2022, users of the pre-existing Admiralty Leisure Chart Folios will continue to be supported with NMs, either through the continued publication of leisure NMs or by using the link between the folio charts and SNCs to apply standard NMs. However, UKHO says that Folio charts should be replaced by the equivalent new edition Small Craft Chart once a new edition of the source SNC has been published to ensure users have the latest navigational information.