How we control the weather ;-))
What are the options for tactics ? What are tools that can be used?Of course all start at the same time and place and have to reach the same place. So you can only vary the course, equipment and crew. Crew is fixed on most boats since the owners and some other people are sailing on them. This is different in the racing division. Equipment starts of course with the boat choice and since we all are in the cruising division we do not want to race in the first place but things like a spinnaker, a folding prop, new antifouling paint will influence your speed and so does the load of the boat. But often this is also already given. A folding or feathering prop will give you maybe 0,5 knots. But that is 12 miles per day which is 120 miles in 10 days. That means over almost 3 weeks arriving 1 or 2 days earlier!
Routing and weather is one of the biggest things to consider. Some people directly target for St. Lucia while we for example went pretty much in direction of Cape Verde islands. But where does one get the weather information from? There is the Weather Email from the ARC office which we get every morning. There are weather networks on SSB HF radio like Seelotse or Intermar or Herb in the US. Or you request weather data via Pactor Modem and get so called "GRIB" files which are based on a computer model and show you windspeed and direction over a certain period. You will receive this information for an area and time period which you requested.It then looks like the sample picture here. The arrows with only one feather at the end is a max windspeed of 10 knots, half a feather is 5 knots . 2 are 20 and so on. Now you can ask the software how it looks in 3 days and modify your route to sail in areas with more wind or better direction as others. Of course all have this information and it is useful together with other weather tools.
So there is still room for tactics! And that is fun.....
Routing and weather is one of the biggest things to consider. Some people directly target for St. Lucia while we for example went pretty much in direction of Cape Verde islands. But where does one get the weather information from? There is the Weather Email from the ARC office which we get every morning. There are weather networks on SSB HF radio like Seelotse or Intermar or Herb in the US. Or you request weather data via Pactor Modem and get so called "GRIB" files which are based on a computer model and show you windspeed and direction over a certain period. You will receive this information for an area and time period which you requested.It then looks like the sample picture here. The arrows with only one feather at the end is a max windspeed of 10 knots, half a feather is 5 knots . 2 are 20 and so on. Now you can ask the software how it looks in 3 days and modify your route to sail in areas with more wind or better direction as others. Of course all have this information and it is useful together with other weather tools.
So there is still room for tactics! And that is fun.....
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