Its official: Maptech is the “Official” raster chart of the U.S. Coast Guard. The contract calls for Maptech to supply Digital ChartKit Professional to the Coast Guard on a fleetwide basis. Along with the official digital NOAA charts, the Coast Guard utilizes Maptechs exclusive Notice to Mariners weekly Internet e-mail automatic-update service with optional monthly CD-ROM chart corrections. The digital charts cover all U.S. waters (coastlines and the Great Lakes), Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
Digital ChartKit Professional is available by region using the official and exclusive Maptech/BSB format for $499.9S per region, which includes the weekly update service. In addition to the weekly Internet updates, a fully updated monthly replacement CD is available.
The U.S. Coast Guard will use Digital ChartKit Pro on over 200 vessels on all medium- and high-endurance cutters plus buoy tenders. With this decision, the Coast Guard takes another step in bringing the paperless-bridge concept closer to digital technology, satisfying the carriage requirements on commercial vessels and replacing paper charts in the near future.
For the U.S. Coast Guard to take this step all the digital charts had to meet two strict requirements.
1. The digital charts must be produced under the authority of the official U.S. Government hydrographic office; and
2. an update system has to be in place to keep the charts updated with Notice to Mariner corrections on a regular basis.
Only Maptech charts and Digital ChartKit Pro update service meet both these criteria.
For more information on Digital ChartKit Professional call Maptech at 888-839-5551 or visit www.maptech.com
