Reply to Tidal opportunity on Tue, 13 Mar 2018 08:22:23 GMT

idefix37 — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 08:22:23 GMT

@mlbussard
@richardHC
Hey Guys, to leave you dreaming look at these videos
https://www.tidetech.org/sailing/
Unfortunately it’s not free numerical tidal currents...

Reply to Tidal opportunity on Mon, 12 Mar 2018 20:41:32 GMT

mlbussard — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 20:41:32 GMT

There used to be an app that showed currents in the New England area and was using the arrow methods like those found in the tide books from Eldridge. As examples they were like this.
https://goo.gl/images/UsY6qu
That was a sailors dream!
It was one of the single most valuable pieces of data you could ever want as a racer. Wind is forecastable but never a sure thing as local variations are always present. But the current is very predictable and repeatable. Knowing where the back eddies were at what time in the tide cycle could give you a massive advantage if you played the right in combination with observed and forecasted winds conditions together with the best favorable current.
The day that app ended we all felt sick to our stomachs. Today we get a stupid arrow on Navionics showing current direction and velocity at a few (very few) stations. It’s almost useless accept in the big picture scheme. Instead we have to get out the Eldridge book and look through the pages, try to remember like uhmmm two hrs. after max ebb the current is still going in on the shore and turned already on the other shore....right? I can’t recall, go get the book out again!
It sucks!
If you guys were able to get that level of current information into your app it would be the holy grail!