Category Archives: General

Wind-Focussed Weather Apps….!!

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We will all have our favourite weather app, won’t we?

Do you find that you look at more than one weather app to judge what the wind is going to be at your sailing venue? What rig shall we go out on?? Well, this article is aimed at you !!

I recall a few weeks ago at Datchet, Rob V telling me he had abandoned the BBC App as it was simply never right!! I have huge sympathy for that … but some days it does seem to be correct 🙂

Many years ago, we used to have an anemometer at the top of the slipway which told us exactly what was happening there at the moment, but there again it gave you a reading – not a forecast. Chipstead SC have a smashing online weather station at the side of the lake… but there again it’s not in the middle of the lake!! So what to do??

During lockdown, the main Datchet Club ran a Members’ Zoom tutorial on this subject. It turns out we have a meteorologist member in the main Club who hosted the session. Extremely interesting, it was.

Did you know that the world of weather forecasting is basically a wholesale-retail model? At the wholesale level, which is where all the data comes from, there are really only half a dozen suppliers of weather data worldwide. I think we were told that for using truly global data there are only two suppliers. These suppliers are currently at the level predicting wind in a 1km grid section… and trying get even finer resolution. Huge compute power is the limiting factor.

The other suppliers are basically the lower cost alternatives. As I recall, UK Met Office is one of the big players. You may recall a kerfuffle a few years ago when the BBC decided to stop using the Met Office data and signed with someone cheaper.

A friend has recently completed an RYA Advanced Race Officer course. The chatter there was an about a weather app called “Predict Wind”. Have you seen it? I’m using the free version, but the key thing is that you get to see all the wholesale layer of information on one screen – and you can make up your own mind what the breeze will be.

(this morning’s data above…)

I like to view average speed, direction and the expected gust speed. The photo above shows you the screen I use for this. Average speed at the top, then direction and gust predictions below that. You can just see the top three rows of the gust forecast and have to scroll down to see the rest.

Each row you can see is labelled P, G, U, A, S etc. I think this indicates the wholesale source of the wind data. Someone like the BBC or Apple will use just one of those rows that you can see. In fact if you look at the BBC app and Predict Wind simultaneously, you can work out which one it is.

Even on the morning of the forecast (the screenshot above is for this morning…), you can see how much forecaster opinion varies, but at least when you see them all together you can make a few decisions of your own. Some days, they all agree, then you really know what’s coming !!

Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Radio Sailing – a Sport with Pretty High Barriers to Entry…. !! A Surprising Role for “Match Racing”??

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A rambling sort of idea coming….

Like many clubs, the main sailing club at Datchet has seen its dinghy and keelboat fleets in strategic decline. However they have done a simply brilliant job of growing their K1 keelboat fleet and now have 22 boats, all pretty new. Suddenly it’s the largest K1 Club in the country. Now the two biggest social groups in the Clubhouse over coffee are Radio sailors and K1 sailors!!

I was browsing through my shore-side photos of last week’s Marblehead rankings. You only have to look at our crowd to realise that encouraging new blood into radio sailing is a major strategic challenge for the Sport in general. In ten years time, frankly we shall all be mostly laid-up or gone. Game over. Ten years isn’t long. We need to at least focus on replacing radio sailors who have to retire, then move on to attracting a new generation.

It often seems to me that some UK radio sailing clubs have this topic cracked. Datchet is blessed with the most friendly and supportive fellow members that you could find anywhere. At least half of why I sail there is the warmth of the people. But is there more to do, somehow?

In my dark moments it always seems to me that whenever we get visitors for a championship the average age of attendance goes down!! So in some UK regions, radio sailing members have been working on this…. In Australia, I follow the Youtube channel for the Wynnum Manly Club. Have you seen that ?? – they put a huge amount of effort into making entering the sport more easy, less fearsome, deal with beginner issues and so on. Super!

https://www.youtube.com/@wynnummanlyradiomodelyachtclub/videos

With my Flying Fifteen partner Howard, we have both been trying to make the transition to radio sailing. We find there’s quite a lot of new things to learn (!!). Plenty of fear of embarrassment getting in the way!! The barriers to entry are pretty high.

Aside from the terrific DF95/65 product getting hold of a boat is pretty challenging in itself. Then there is the issue of finding more ways to simply get started – learn to sail a course without hitting marks… or other boats.., get boat handling basics right etc. The standard way is “come and join in”, but lets face it, this can be daunting…even off-putting for some. I notice that SailboatRC has a one week kind of course in Croatia, which starts with a navigation race – just sailing around the buoys.

At Datchet there is so much support, and especially knowledge. available to help. Even the supply of new boats is being tackled. Gradually we are moving towards a picture, of “if you want a new boat to sail here, we can get you one”. Amazing.

It reminds me that last Saturday, a great keelboat racing friend called for a long chat. Despite his big boat collection, he also has two IOMs, plus is building a woody. He tells me that he likes taking the two IOMs out for friends and family social match racing… mainly I think to get his young kids into radio sailing. (Good!) In parallel, I’ve decided to get a second Marblehead so that when friends sounds like they would like to try radio sailing, I have a simple way to have a two boat day with them and have some fun.

I’ve been wondering about race formats for two or three learner competitors to have fun and embarrassment-free fun, safely on their own. Two boat racing and simple knock-out type racing springs to mind.

My keelboat buddy says that when he takes family and friends out for 2 boat IOM fun, there is always one big challenge. One of the two boats on the water is always dominant. It just makes it boring for the other skipper. Sometimes it is that one boat is naturally faster, but more likely one skipper is notably more experienced than the other. Quite often they simply race to a windward mark and back, or a simple windward leeward one lap race. The big innovation that they fell into was that at every turning mark, whoever is the lead has to do a 360 turn. He said that simple idea has just been magic to keep the second (and first) sailor motivated.

I have two or three friends who I can tell would like to “have a go”. When we add the N+1’th boat to the family fleet, I shall give this idea a determined try. Perhaps the friends can then also give me a feel for what a Club Course titled “Learn to Radio Sail” might actually look like. The Club has a big “Learn to Dinghy Sail” program each year and loads of kids (and some adults) have a try. Maybe the parents might like to try radio sailing when the kids are “out there”.

One step at a time though….