John Vigor's Black Box Theory - The Fifth Essential

There is much good wisdom to be found - and applied - in the world of sailing, in technology, in business, and in everyday life - from reading John Vigor's "Black Box Theory" - aka "The Fifth Essential"

https://goodoldboat.com/vigors-black-box-theory/

https://kith.co/blog/black-box-theory/

United Kingdom Hydrographic office (UKHO) to withdraw official paper charts by 2026

•  Tom Cunliffe: ‘Why I was left speechless over UKHO phasing out paper charts!’
• "Recently, the United Kingdom Hydrographic office (UKHO) announced that it was now policy to withdraw their official paper charts by 2026. It seems that NOAA in America and SHOM in France have made similar decisions. For the record, I am advised by Norcom (Meridian Chartware), that the Admiralty Raster Chart Service (ARCS) is also to be discontinued. "
• "The UKHO’s announcement states that their decision is based on diminishing orders for paper charts. I’d liked to hope that they were delivering a service, not operating as a business driven by profit and loss priorities"
• "Routeing options are varied and choices must be made. Try managing that on a screen the size of a tablet with a vector chart system."
• "Panning out either side for as far as we may possibly divert is unrealistic. It becomes more so as passages increase in length. The world of litigation is full of sailors who hit rocks ‘not on the chart’. The bricks were there all right, but the casualty didn’t zoom in tightly enough for the layering arrangements to reveal them. The classic incident of the Volvo boat on an Indian Ocean reef is a case in point. There are many others."
• "...my first call when passage planning is the paper chart. It’s big. I can see where I’m going and make sensible decisions regarding routeing."
• "...more probable is that the GPS signal is interrupted, switched off for military reasons, or otherwise corrupted."
   
• 2020-12-16 [YachtWorld] Pro navigator Mike Broughton explains why paper charts are still irreplaceable 
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