An article by Jürgen Albers
Nowadays, many pleasure craft have a GPS chart plotter with a digital nautical chart as their main means of navigation, which is unfortunately only considered an additional aid under the current legal situation. This form of electronic navigation has a considerable advantage over working with paper charts: Because the device automatically records the track on the electronic chart in the background, the skipper has more time to look out and guide the boat safely.
In the event that the chart plotter fails, paper charts must be kept on board as a back-up according to the current legal situation. The legislator and the German Sailing Association (DSV) are of the opinion that these - in addition to the official nautical charts, so-called non-official recreational craft charts are also permitted - must be updated to the latest version with the Notices to Mariners (NfS).
The view of shipping lawyers
However, shipping lawyers take a different view of the regulations. I will try to explain this and why the NfS are not suitable for updating non-official nautical charts below.
I have been on the water on my own keel for over 60 years. Starting with the optimist dinghy, followed by the OK dinghy and dinghy cruiser, right up to the listed 25-metre giek-ewer "Frieda". I financed my studies by sailing with young people with behavioural problems in youth sailing boats on the Elbe and Baltic Sea.
At that time we only had a compass on board and old nautical charts on which the starboard buoys were still labelled black, although the buoyage system A already existed - with green to starboard.
Later, the trips with plastic-wrapped aeronautical charts were legendary, with which you could make beautiful trips with the radio direction finder to Bornholm - we always arrived.
Paper nautical charts vs. electronic nautical charts
As I now mainly sail on the Baltic Sea, my nautical charts, like those of many other experienced leisure sailors, are not updated regularly but are replaced after around five years because they are worn out through use. Nowadays, commercial shipping mainly uses electronic nautical charts on ECDIS systems (Electronic Chart Display and Information System) with approved hardware, software and the latest digital nautical chart data and other information. If official paper nautical charts are still on board, then for cost reasons they are the British Admiralty Charts and not the nautical charts from the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH).
Following the discontinuation of the small-format nautical charts produced by the BSH specifically for recreational craft, several private nautical chart manufacturers have positioned themselves on the market and naturally want to sell new products every year.
When do fines have to be paid?
The Maritime Safety Days organised by the water police on the German coasts in 2024 must be seen against this backdrop. Recreational boaters were fined for administrative offences (OWi) if they only had a chart plotter with digital nautical charts or if they had outdated, non-updated paper nautical charts on board. Unfortunately, it is true that it is an offence if only chart plotters are operated on board. However, the current legal situation in Germany does not allow a fine to be imposed for a paper chart that is not updated weekly.
I have informed the waterway police, the DSV and the responsible ministry in Bonn of this situation, giving detailed reasons. The waterway police have not yet replied and the ministry, department WS 23 (safety in recreational boating), has written that it is permissible to use non-official nautical charts, but that these must be updated on an ongoing basis using the weekly NfS.
What you should look out for in nautical charts
However, the Ministry fails to recognise that the BSH's correction system can only be used to a limited extent for non-official nautical charts. The NfS are issued specifically for the BSH nautical charts produced in accordance with the INT standard of the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO), as can be read in NfS No. 1, which is published annually in January.
These official nautical charts are numbered and labelled differently to the non-official ones. An update based on the NfS may not be able to be entered in a non-official recreational craft chart because the symbol to be changed is shown differently or is missing.
The non-official nautical charts produced in Germany are different and, as their name suggests, do not necessarily correspond to the IHO specifications with regard to a uniform chart image with identical symbols, colours, map characters and lettering.
The NfS are therefore not suitable for updating nautical charts not issued by the BSH. Some manufacturers therefore have their own correction service, but this is only issued a few times per season.
In its letter, the WS 23 department refers to Section 13 (1) No. 2 of the German Ship Safety Ordinance (SchSV). This regulation establishes duties of behaviour. It begins with "on the bridge", followed by an alphabetical list of necessary documents. However, there are usually no command bridges on pleasure craft, and not even a navigation table on small boats. The official manuals and documents required by the regulation are also not found on recreational craft, as there is usually no space for them, nor for the official nautical charts in DIN A0 format, nor for storing the NfS for the current year and the previous two years.
For this understandable reason, the SchSV also contains the exception that the listed official documents and in particular official editions of nautical charts do not have to be carried on board privately used recreational craft. The reference in § 13 SchSV to section C.1.4 of Annex 1 is also clearly not intended for recreational boaters. In No. 3 - Official nautical publications - explicit reference is made to the exception to SOLAS Chapter V Regulation 2 Para. 2, Regulation 19 Para. 2.1.4 and in particular also to Regulation 27.
SOLAS, Safety of Life at Sea, is an international convention for the protection of human life at sea and lays down minimum standards for the safety of ships. The regulations were created in 1913 in response to the sinking of the "Titanic".
Although SOLAS Chapter V also applies to recreational craft, the Administration (the Ministry) may, in accordance with Regulation 1(1.4), determine the extent to which certain rules do not apply to ships of less than 150 tonnes gross tonnage. Regulation 27 SOLAS states that the nautical charts for the intended voyage must be appropriate and up to date. However, the standard setter (the Ministry) has expressly and unequivocally stated in Annex C.1.4 No. 3 that this provision does not apply to privately used pleasure craft, and has therefore determined that Regulation 27 SOLAS does not apply there. In this respect, there is no legal basis for the Ministry's and the DSV's technically understandable considerations to construct an obligation to carry updated nautical charts on privately used recreational craft. Apart from legal categories, however, it is urgently advisable, not only in terms of the "nautical duty of care", but also in one's own safety interests, that recreational boaters who, for example, sail on the mudflats, sail at night or sail in a new, unknown sea area, use the latest and, if possible, updated nautical charts for voyage planning on board.
What this means for the use of nautical charts
However, an OWi-proven obligation to continuously correct the nautical charts on board privately used recreational craft cannot be recognised under the current legal situation. Unfortunately, the legislator has so far seen no reason to formulate the text of the SchSV in a more comprehensible way for the benefit of water sports enthusiasts. And the umbrella organisation for sailors, the DSV, is more likely to represent the interests of chart manufacturers.
To avoid unauthorised penalties, it is recommended that the paper charts are always kept up to date. This also applies to the NfS correction system, which is not intended for this purpose. There is no alternative to this.
