The current ADMIRALTY Leisure Chart Folio service contains A2-sized charts to support coastal navigation around the UK. Each regional folio includes several charts with appropriate coverage and scales of the respective region, to help leisure yachtsmen, motorboat cruisers, ocean racing skippers and other small craft mariners maintain safety of life at sea.
What is changing?
In response to user feedback as part of a thorough review of the service, the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) will be removing the regional folio structure for these charts, allowing charts to be purchased individually. This will allow users to purchase charts that are relevant to their needs without being required to purchase the full regional folio. These charts will be produced through a Print-on-Demand (POD) service, available via ADMIRALTY distributors.
New editions of these charts will also be aligned with the new editions of SOLAS-compliant ADMIRALTY Standard Nautical Charts (SNCs), ensuring all mariners have the same access to the latest navigational information for safe passage in UK waters. For chart updating, users will be able to apply the standard Notices to Mariners (NMs) using the SNC number from which the chart was derived. These combined enhancements will bring important safety, quality and flexibility benefits to the users who rely on them.
Additionally, newly purchased charts will include all updates up to the date of the last refresh of the chart images, which may be as frequent as after every NM. This means users can choose to buy a new chart instead of manually applying NMs to an existing chart.
Also, as these valued A2-sized charts are used by other small craft mariners, including the RNLI, the small craft fishing fleet, infrastructure maintenance workboats, small tourist cruise boats etc, the UKHO will be changing the name of this service from ADMIRALTY Leisure Chart Folios to ADMIRALTY Small Craft Charts.
As a result of these changes, the current ADMIRALTY Leisure Chart Folios will be phased out and withdrawn (along with the supporting Leisure Notices to Mariners), and the new service will be launched from September 2021.
To ensure that users have access to up-to-date charts, the UKHO will continue to issue new editions of the existing Folios, including the following:
- 5615 England – East Coast – Whitby to Edinburgh (to be updated 8 July 2021)
- 5606 Thames Estuary, Ramsgate to Tower Bridge (to be updated 5 August 2021)
- 5601 East Devon and Dorset Coast, Exmouth to Christchurch (to be updated 2 September 2021)
- 5603 Falmouth to Hartland Point, including the Isles of Scilly (to be updated 30 September 2021)
What to do next
Users of existing ADMIRALTY Leisure Chart Folios will continue to be supported with NMs for at least a year after the launch of the new service, either through the continued publication of Leisure NMs or by using the link between the Folio charts and SNCs to apply standard NMs. However, 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 they have the most up-to-date navigational information. Pricing details of the new paper chart service for small craft will be announced soon.