Harbour guides
In parallel with our production of detailed small craft charts and overview charts, we have, since 2000, developed new harbour charts for popular natural and guest harbours along our coasts and in our large inland lakes. Pioneers like Åke Janhem and Åke Améen have helped archipelago sailors discover new routes and safe overnight harbours, and with our hydrographic surveying technology, we have been able to upgrade the harbour charts to meet today’s standards for electronic navigation.
Together with various publishers, we have produced several harbour guidebooks. In collaboration with Nautiska Förlaget, we produced Arholma – Landsort, Landsort – Skanör, and Skanör – Strömstad. When Norstedts acquired Nautiska Förlaget, we continued with Vänern – Vättern and Mälaren.
We now collaborate with Skagerrak forlag to produce new harbour charts for their Hamnguiden series in Swedish waters. We do not sell the harbour guidebooks ourselves, but you can read more about them and order them at lmf.no.
The layout of the harbour guides
Each harbour guide begins with a valuable introduction to the area concerned and waterways, offering suggestions for different routes and points of interest, as well as information on local weather and water conditions. The index maps provide an overview of all harbours, and the numbering makes it easy to locate the correct harbour description.
Each harbour is described on its own page, featuring a recent aerial photograph taken from a helicopter, a detailed harbour chart, and a descriptive text. All harbours have been hydrographically surveyed and checked on site before publication to ensure the information is as up-to-date as possible. The books cover both natural and guest harbours, and even club harbours are included. Hydrographica’s detailed harbour guide charts provide a wealth of useful information about harbour conditions, both underwater and on land, including tips for activities in the surrounding area. In guest harbours, the available services are listed.
If you would like to learn more about the harbour guidebooks, you can take a closer look at them and browse a few sample pages here.
Hydrographica’s harbour charts
Our harbour charts are at an even larger scale than our specialized nautical charts and contain even more information. Most harbour charts are at a scale of 1:5,000, but scales of 1:3,000, 1:7,500, and 1:10,000 are also used. In addition to the standard information, the harbour charts include details on suitable mooring spots, mooring eyes or bouys, as well as possibility to swing at anchor. The guest harbour charts provide information on which piers are designated for guests and the type of mooring to use. On land, the topography has been enhanced with terrain shading as a supplement to the contour lines.
| Mooring spots for sailboats or other deep-draught vessels are marked with a red line. | |
| Mooring spots available for shallow-draught boats are marked with a blue line. | |
| Mooring spots with the possibility of alongside mooring are marked with a black arrow. |
A ledgend for symbols specific for harbour charts, you can find here .
All harbour guide charts, both natural and guest harbours, are available in electronic format and are integrated into the data of major distributors. You can find more about the electronic nautical charts here.