About Aqua3

Specialist all-weather mapping since 1989

Aqua3's experience with laminated mapping goes back to 1989, when Chartech began laminating standard Ordnance Survey paper maps for the outdoor market.

The business grew to supply more than 400 retail outlets throughout the UK, including many well-known high-street chains.

From Chartech to Hope Digital

As digital mapping developed, Hope Digital became the digital arm of the business. This allowed us to move beyond standard map-sheet boundaries and start producing mapping centred on the area the customer actually needed.

Appropriately, Hope Digital's first customised Aqua3 product was called Evolution. The idea was simple: instead of asking the customer to fit their journey to a conventional map sheet, we could produce a map around the area they wanted to explore.

That principle remains at the heart of Aqua3 today.

Developing flexible all-weather mapping

During the early years we worked with lamination-film manufacturers and film-extrusion companies, testing and developing flexible films suitable for outdoor mapping. As the films improved, so did the machinery used to apply them.

The specialist process developed during this period was protected by GB Patent No. 2312869. The materials, machinery and production methods have continued to evolve ever since, with Aqua3's present equipment developed and configured specifically around the production of flexible, all-weather mapping products.

Developed with people who use maps in demanding conditions

Our products were not developed solely in the workshop. Hope Digital worked with mountain rescue teams, park rangers and public-sector services including police and fire services, helping us refine mapping for practical field use.

Mapping has also been supplied, often free of charge, to support work including:

• flood response;
• missing-person searches;
• contingency planning; and
• evacuation planning.

Those experiences helped shape products intended to remain practical and usable when conditions are difficult.

A changing map market

The traditional retail map market changed dramatically with the decline of many high-street outlets and the rapid growth of online services and digital mapping. The national distribution model that had supported Chartech became increasingly difficult to sustain and Chartech eventually closed down.

Hope Digital continued, concentrating increasingly on specialist digital and custom mapping. That work developed into the Aqua3 range produced today.

Aqua3 at the top of the world

Our laminated maps have been on some remarkable adventures, including expeditions to both the North and South Magnetic Poles with David Hempleman-Adams MBE, OBE.

Before embarking on these journeys David requested specially produced maps coated with Aqua3 laminate. We were pleased to help and remain proud that Aqua3 mapping formed part of those expeditions.

David kindly found the time to thank us by sending the following post cards:

Our maps have also been to the top of Everest with climber Ian Smith. Ian wrote to us to say:

You laminated a map for me a few months back and it was brilliant. The map survived 5 weeks trekking and climbing with quite a lot of the time in snow, ice and rain and generally below zero. After wiping the mud and Yak dirt off it looks like new.

Aqua3 today

Today we produce bespoke Ordnance Survey mapping for walkers, schools, DofE expeditions, outdoor organisations, rescue services and many other users who need mapping centred on their own area rather than a predetermined sheet boundary.

Our Ordnance Survey mapping data is updated every six months. Where magnetic information is supplied, it is taken from the current British Geological Survey dataset.

Each custom map is individually produced and finished. Printing, calibration, trimming, lamination and folding all form part of the production process rather than the map simply being taken from a shelf.

Looking to the future - a personal note

After more than 35 years providing Aqua3 mapping, I am approaching the point where I will need to retire. I expect that to be within the next two years.

Aqua3 continues to trade and supply maps as normal, but I do not want retirement simply to mean closing the doors and losing the knowledge, equipment and service that have been built up over those years.

My hope is that Aqua3 can continue in a charitable form, using that experience to help schools, young people, community organisations and rescue services gain access to practical all-weather mapping.

I have a limited window in which to find out whether that dream can become a workable future. I would therefore very much like to hear from people and organisations who use our maps, value what Aqua3 provides, or might be interested in helping to shape what comes next.

Help us shape what comes next

One project now being developed is Aqua3 Route-Map. The aim is not simply to tell people where to go, but to help walkers, DofE participants and expedition leaders understand the available paths and plan their own journeys.

We want to test Route-Map with people who already know the ground. If a suggested route uses an unnecessary road, misses a suitable path, or simply does not reflect the route you would choose, that is exactly the feedback we need.

Try the Aqua3 Route-Map and help us develop it

More than three decades after we began laminating maps, the aim remains remarkably similar: to provide reliable mapping that gives people the tools and confidence to explore for themselves.

We make the map. You make the memories.

Please explore our website to find out more about our products, or get in touch if you would like to discuss Aqua3, Route-Map or the future of the service.

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