David,

I admit that this was a bit of an experiment to see if I really wanted them. But the cost of CHS charts is quite high (at least when compared to NOAA...). To get from Toronto to Maine required these CHS digital sets: Lake Ontario, Kingston - Montreal, Montreal - Quebec, Newfoundland East and South, Quebec to Anticosti Island, Gulf of the St. Lawrence South, Nova Scotia South - Bay of Fundy. These are between $80 and $180, I think I spent about $900 total. I also spent about $700 for the Navionics cartridges for the Raymarine. (And, $19 on Navionics charts for the iPhone covering the entire region and more!!!). The CHS paper charts average around $20 each. Covering the same region as the digital I guestimate there are about 400 paper charts. Purchasing them all would cost an astonishing $8000. Now one could sort through and not buy the charts of areas not intended to be visited (if only one knew where one was going), that might cut the total in half to $4000. And if you wanted to sort through them at a store (none are available where I come from) or with the pathetic online viewer to remove the less interesting ones you might throw out one half again, getting it down to $2000. Still a pretty penny. Even in inflated Canadian fuel prices the diesel for the mostly windless trip was less than $1000. Just buying a few large scale charts would not help - it is the medium and small scale that are the most useful. The large scale planning charts of the region are available from NOAA for free (if you own a printer).

It would be far easier on the mariner (not to mention the forests) if CHS would let you print the charts you want in paper from the digital set, already costly enough. Or allow someone to publish chart set books, like the Maptech ones. After all, safety is the only reason for CHS existence, why price them so that people are reluctant to use them?

The two printed Maptech sets for Maine - Delaware bay are only $80 each.