Hobart- Breakthrough ocean current information

by In Front Communications on 18 Dec 2008
Revolutionary new ocean current charts will give participants in the 64th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race a competitive edge of between five and 20 hours.

With Tidetech’s ocean current charts, sailors will race the event with the advantage of considering current information as well as wind speed on their charts using grib files.

Tidetech director Penny Haire said last week her company had a major breakthrough when they converted CSIRO Australian ocean current data into a grib file.

'In the past, navigators have found it very difficult to get hold of accurate ocean current and tidal information in grib format and seeing exactly what the current is doing for a race like the Sydney Hobart is vital,' said Ms Haire.

'When loading Tidetech’s current grib with a wind grib, the Tidetech simulations demonstrated a performance gain of around five hours for 52ft yacht and 20 hours for a 35ft yacht, compared to running simulations with just wind alone.'

TP52 Quest Navigator Bruce Baker is currently testing this data and said that knowing what the Eastern Australian current is doing is a big part of their Hobart race preparation and planning.

'We want to find and take advantage of any free rides that can be found out there and using the Tidetech model which uses data from CSIRO takes a lot of the guesswork out of the process for us,' said Baker.

Another yacht using the technology is TP52 Wot Yot. Navigator Daryll Smith is impressed by the competitive edge offered by this technology.

'We have been wanting grib files measuring current since navigation became computerised,' said Smith.

'Boats can be a couple of miles apart and the one in current may have a knot better speed over ground if both in same wind conditions. Most don't utilise the current data available from CSIRO but using the current gives boat speed that the sail trimmers haven't had to work for.'

Tidetech specialises in accessing high quality oceanographic data produced by scientific and government institutions worldwide.

Participants can now access the ocean current files as well as very high resolution accurate tidal stream data for Sydney harbour that was produced for the UK Olympic sailing team for 2000 by contacting Penny Haire.

All ocean current and tidal information will be available at www.tidetech.org from next week. (the site is not yet live
Right now contact penny.haire(at)tidetech.org

Tidetech is a new company, but the people behind it come with experience.

Director Penny Haire is a former RYA Chief Instructor for the Yachtmaster training scheme with 20 years professional sailing experience and is now Chief Examiner for the RYA/Yachting Australia National Yacht Training programme.

Dr Roger Proctor is an internationally recognised coastal oceanographer and currently responsible for the integration and coordination of the Australian marine observing system, based at the University of Tasmania.

He has also been a tidal consultant to the UK Olympic Sailing Team since 1988.

www.tidetech.org