Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1
The Wind-Wise Sailor
It has long been assumed that a helmsman competing on home waters has an advantage over a visitor because years of practice have imparted a ‘seat of the pants’ appreciation of the behaviour of the local wind. The confidence of the ‘seat of the pants’ sailor rests in the past. Every decision about a windshift is based on the argument ‘it happened last time’, or ‘in the same month X years ago’.
The confidence of the wind-wise sailor, on the other hand, rests in an appreciation of the causes of bends and bands in the wind whereby accumulated experience at a variety of venues increases racing skill. Because the weather demonstrates an almost infinite number of variations, there will inevitably be occasions when the ‘seat of the pants’ sailor is caught out, having never seen anything like it before. The wind-wise sailor, however, will identify a reason for the unusual event and is likely to sail better through making well-founded decisions. To be right every time is hardly possible, but knowledge increases with every new observation as new pieces are added to the total picture of weather wisdom.
Although every sailing venue is different, the forces which create and control the wind are in principle the same everywhere. There is a scientific reason for every windshift and bend, and virtually all those which are important to the racing sailor can be understood by the application of basic and straightforward principles of meteorology. Taking a laptop in a racing dinghy is not an option, and numerical modelling of mesoscale wind systems in support of dinghy racing is little short of taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
The best and only realistic solution is the development of simple conceptual models of wind behaviour such that every reasonably intelligent sailor can recognise what is happening while racing, identify the causes of the wind patterns experienced and make informed on-the-water decisions.
Similarly with clouds: there are very many variations on the theme of lines and bands of cloud, and indeed great artists have for centuries found them a never-ending source of inspiration. For the sailor every cloud and every cloud pattern conveys a message of some sort concerning the origin, movement, and stability of the air it represents. Chapter 14 looks at the messages which are capable of translation into tactical advice.
When David Houghton first wrote this book, National Meteorological Services did not make many detailed wind observations in coastal waters. By and large the only observers were sailors. Their observations reported following a day’s racing, in their log book or by word of mouth, originally formed the mainstay of this study. Increasing numbers of weather stations and availability of data on the internet has helped to repeatedly prove the basic principles David developed and which are detailed in this book.
The following chapters are a result of some 50 years of study of sailing venues all over the world, working closely with sailors involved in world-class racing from round-the-buoys to round-the-world events. Most of the basic principles are presented in terms of simple conceptual models of wind behaviour. The principles are the same in both hemispheres but the rules of thumb and the geometry of the models differ from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere. So the main arguments are developed for the Northern Hemisphere, followed by a couple of chapters summarising the differences which apply for the Southern Hemisphere.
Large scale weather systems are explained in David Houghton&Libby Greenhalgh’s Weather at Sea, also published by Fernhurst Books, which includes guidance to the understanding, interpretation and construction of weather maps.
You need a weather map, not just a spot forecast from the latest app, to give an overall picture of what the gradient wind is doing and what changes are expected; a first and essential stage in deducing the finer details of what to expect during a race.
