BOATING TIPS -- JULY 1996
Fighting a Fire; Changes in Charts

Last month I talked a little about fires, and I'll start this month with the "Seven Steps" in fighting a fire, with a nod toward Boating World magazine.

1. Act quickly. At the first hint of fire, shut down engines, blowers, get extinguishers.
2. Get help. Send a MAYDAY call with your position and status. It's easier to cancel a Mayday than have help arrive too late!
3. Assume the worst. Life jackets on, ready to abandon ship, dinghy ready if available.
4. Be careful! DON'T open hatches or doors unless sure there is no fire within: you don't want to give a smothered fire a new oxygen supply, or burn yourself.
5. Eliminate the source. Through loose burning stuff overboard. Turn off fuel valves if accessible. Shut off electrical source. Don't use water except on class A fires.
6. Be efficient. Use extinguishers properly, sweeping the base of the fire to smother the source. Use short bursts: your extinguishers will only work for a few seconds!
7. Don't be a hero. Abandon ship if the fire is gaining on you, especially on vessels with gasoline or propane aboards. A real hero isn't heroic!

I was fortunate to recently hear Commander Kathy Timmons of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She is responsible for managing the team that gathers much of our northwest charting information.

Although a complete recap is impossible in this space, there are a few matters that will be of interest to you: (1) A full sixty percent of the bottom data used in charts comes from surveys made before World War II, and there are a lot of uncharted obstructions because of the limitations of lead line depth sounding used at that time, compared to the advanced scanners in use today; (2) Although NOAA publishes 1000 charts of U.S. waters, only 200 will be published in 1996, most having the same old bottom information.

It is clear that NOAA is falling behind due to budget constraints, coming at the time of a charting revolution, for at present all U.S. charts are maintained by hand!

The present electronic charting systems are based upon these paper charts which are scanned, or hand entered using a mouse onto a chip (C-Map) or CD disc. This old "ECS/Electronic Charting System" thus perpetuates all the weaknesses of old charts, including limited data, scale of the source data, and the clutter caused when all features are shown in a limited space.

The new system, called ECDIS, for "Electronic Chart Display and Information System" will incorporate all the present known data about the area in electronic form, including the chart itself, light lists, Coastal Pilot, etc. Boaters will be able to select/screen the data displayed, and, of course, print it as needed, too. This means that, for instance, you may elect to show only soundings (as well as contours) within your own criteria, leaving all the rest blank, unless you choose to see it! Imagine asking your system to "show me everything you know about Dodd Narrows right now" and see the current now, the depths including the tide right now, etc. It will be amazing! And updates, of course, will simply be a diskette or Internet connection to get an update of changed data, not the whole chart.

Until this "Brave New World" of charting appears, paper charts are still required to be aboard by most insurance companies, even though the data on them is old, and the chart itself is hard to keep up-to-date with the Coast Guard's notices.

We boaters are right in the limbo period of this revolution! So for now, please keep those charts, and have a safe summer's boating!

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