[AugustH]

I'm sure there were people who warned about the removal of the crank used to start early automobiles. I'll bet people argued about how much would be lost as the telegraph with Morse code replaced the Pony Express. But my professional world is in these next-technology products and I'll promote it as vigorously as the guy who came up with the first self-tailing winch pushed his.

Perhaps electronic guides won't replace paper ones but if I had to choose my customer base right now, I'd choose the one's using GPS, MacBooks, and iPhones and leave the sextant-carrying group to the paper guidebook publishers.

I think you're missing the point by comparing having paper charts on board to a hand crank on a car, or to having a sextant when GPS is available. Anything that needs power will fail eventually. That's physics, and can't be denied. The marine environment is especially nasty to all things electronic. So if you're out at night, approaching the coast, do you want to have only electronic charts? Do you want only electric or hydraulic autopilots, or a windvane steering the boat? If you're looking up an anchorage on the ActiveCaptain web site (assuming you have Wi-Fi or 3G, not always the case around Vancouver Island) and the computer dies or can't connect, then you pull out Wagonner's and read about the unmarked rock in the middle of the channel, because he's been there, seen the rock, wrote about the rock, and kept updating the guide every year. Then you pull out the paper chart and put a dot on it for the rock, while you're there you see the marks you made ten years before on a trip around the island, and you remember getting out the dividers and the rulers and marking off the routes and figuring out lats and longs and looking for hazards and all the stuff that goes with having a full chart laid out on the table in front of you, and you remember all the fun you had. Tough to do when the computer's lying dead on the settee.

So go ahead and push whatever technology you want, but only fools go cruising without backups.

I like this book, http://www.amazon.com/Self-Sufficient-Sa...0964603675, especially chapter 4: if you can't repair it, maybe it shouldn't be on board.