Yachting Monthly — November 2017

november 2017 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 37

SAILING SKILLS

Have you ever made a difficult decision to stay or go based on the weather situation?

How did it work out for you? Let us know at [email protected] in less than 200 words,

specifying boat, skipper, crew, passage, forecast, your reasoning, and what actually happened

Tell

us abouT

your

weaTher

calls

James stevens weighs up the options:

The weather
The analysis chart shows a front has gone
over, and it is a bright and increasingly
sunny day. The current conditions at
Arklow are SW F4, with good visibility.
The shipping forecast for Irish Sea has:
n Wind: SW 4/5, increasing W 5/6 later
n Sea state: moderate becoming rough
later
n Weather: fair, rain later
n Visibility: good, occasionally moderate
later
n The forecast chart for 1800 on Friday
shows the isobars closing as the low to the
N rolls over the North Atlantic High, with a
front half way across the Irish Sea. Hettie
checks a weather app on her smartphone
and its forecast agrees with the Met Office.

That’s the situation. Knowing what she
knows, should she stay, or should she go?

PHOTO ABOVE: grAHAm snOOk/ym

Widely acknowledged

as an iconic British

design, the Contessa 32

gained her rock solid

reputation for

seaworthiness in the

1979 Fastnet

It’s a day for champagne sailing and the

Contessa will fly on a broad reach.

However, Aberdovey has a harbour

bar and even with an immediate

departure and a six-knot average speed,

the arrival time is likely to be after HW.

Harbour bars are at their most

dangerous in an onshore wind during

the ebb. Also, once in the bay there are

few alternatives and it would be a

difficult beat out in a freshening wind if

Aberdovey or Aberystwyth are untenable.

Leaving later to take the flood into

Aberdovey means a night time start

and apart from the difficulties of a night

passage the freshening wind might

make the bar dangerous even with a

favourable tide.

Best therefore to wait until weather

improves. Behind this period of

strengthening breeze there is a ridge

on the synoptic chart, and this may well

bring a wide enough weather window in

which to cross. It’s a difficult decision to

stay on an apparently perfect day with

the incentive of the regatta on Saturday,

but harbour bars need to be treated

with respect in onshore winds.

James Stevens, author of The Yachtmaster Handbook, spent 10 of his 23 years at

the RYA as Training Manager and Yachtmaster Chief Examiner W