While a GPS chart plotter is our primary source of navigation information, printed charts and chart books still have a place on our boats. The challenge, particularly on outboard skiffs, is keeping the charts in place. Lay a chart or chart book down, and it may blow away. Try holding it for a look while underway, and it will bend and flap in the breeze. The toggles have been pulled across a waterproof chart book and tucked under the holder, with the shock cords nestled in slots on the right side. A campsite guide protected by a plastic bag also fits under the cords. The compass is not attached to the holder.
Photographs by the author
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Nice!
Good design, I like the Ben’s wood-strip holder. I’ll construct similar holder – one additional thing will be some kind of box or something to hold pencil and a triangle and divider etc.
I’m going to add a flat waterproof plastic envelope to mine velcroed under the chart. I use the Small Craft Nav Aid, which means that all I really need is it and a pencil.
Those are great looking holders. I think the single large toggle could be omitted if the notches were slightly J shaped so that the loop of shock cord could not be released unintentionally. Toggles on the end of shock cords always make me a little bit nervous!
When I was young, we seldom strayed far from our regular cruising grounds in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. My father had glued a chart to a piece of 1/4” ply, and coated over it with matte varnish. We could write directly on the chart with a pencil, and erase our marks after we were done. That chart board lasted for many years, although it did yellow with time.
can you flip the board over and include a pic? I don’t fully understand how the end under the board is secured.