In this course you can learn about the mechanics of global weather, the foundations of ocean meteorology, predictive modeling and how sailors receive data via satellite and use high-performance navigation software. This course looks at oceanic meteorology and climatology through the lens of the sport of sailing. You will gain a basic knowledge of meteorology needed by sailors to take part in a regatta such as the Barcelona World Race, the only double-handed, round the world regatta with no stops. You will learn about the strategies employed during a round the world regatta and how these are put to use on board the latest ocean racing yachts.
Video 1.1.3. The evolution of meteorological information in ocean regattas
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From the course by Universitat de Barcelona
Strategies for winning. Meteorology in a round the world regatta
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From the lesson
Understanding maritime meteorology
In this module you will learn the foundations for an understanding of general and in particular maritime meteorology. What are the factors and engines powering the weather? What do we need to know to understand the weather phenomena we experience every day? What do ocean sailors need to know to predict the weather? Instructors: Tomàs Molina, Santi Serrat
Meet the Instructors
Tomàs Molina
[MUSIC]
Let's now see a brief history of meteorology in the oceanic regatta.
We have titled it "From the BLU to Internet", from the radio to the Internet.
Because it all started with radio, the first oceanic networks were made
with single sideband, high frequency radio.
And today the races use the Internet
for all weather information.
The barometer, this was the first and let's say, the
most important meteorological instrument that has existed on ships since
the first navigators such as Slocum and Vito Dumas started sailing the oceans.
The barometer, this is a barometer from the 19th century, they carried
the clippers, which we have seen earlier in the previous lesson.
The barometer that marked the differences of pressure, the evolution of the pressure,
was the basic instrument for the navigator,
was the instrument king of all instruments.
Actually because there was only practically one, which was at first,
before the Second World War sailing was done only with barometers.
The log lines and the anemometers were very rudimentary,
they were hand anemometers and not very precise.
The barometer was what ruled life on board of the navigator.
Two emblematic sailors and the pioneers of the sport sail,
especially of the oceanic sailing and single-handed sailing, in particular.
the Canadian Joshua Slocum,
the first man to travel around the world on his own.
It took almost three years to circumnavigate the globe solo.
Slocum sailed with this
small yawl with virtually no instrument, using only the barometer.
At that time there was no way to communicate with land.
There was no way to get the weather information,
although weather forecasts existed, they were totally out of reach
of the navigators were, so no possibility of having that information.
Since there was no radio yet, there was no radio,
they navigated purely with intuition, their experience, their knowledge of the skies,
of the clouds, and of the indications given them by the barometer.
When the barometer went down - bad weather was approaching,
or when the barometer rose - the wind was going to go down.
That is, that previous knowledge they had about the weather,
was combined with,
the indications given by the barometer.
Vito Dumas had on board an early hand-held anemometer,
but he barely used it.
That is, even a half century later,
the navigation of Vito Dumas was not very different from that of Slocum,
It was practically the same, my knowledge and the barometer.
Everything changed in the decade of the '60 with the arrival of single side-band radio,
the SSB radio, of the BLU.
The first oceanic sailor to take one
on board to obtain meteorological information was Sir Francis Chichester.
The Englishman who on the Gipsy Moth,
this ketch you see here, sailed around the world in two stages.
Chichester sailed alone, with, look here...,
with this gigantic SSB radio through which it communicated with land, and in addition
he got meteorological information that was totally analogical.
It was information that was transmitted,
and what the navigator did with that information was to register what
the radio announcer said and then transfer to the letter the indications.
As there is a low pressure centered on the east coast of Florida,
there is a high centered in the Azores, at this latitude and longitude.
The navigator drawn or calculated within his sailing chart that
information received by radio.
The first regatta, considered oceanic,
around the world, was the Golden Globe Trophy.
It was the solo race won by Robin Knox Johnston, the only one who finished it.
The BLU (SSB) radio,
single sideband radio was the first system
optimized and formatted for communication with land.
And it should be noted that many
signed up to the race without having a radio.
Then the organization, considering that it was a necessary security measure,
gave the participants a radio to communicate with land
and also so that they could receive meteorological information.
Even though at that time to receive radio weather information
was not really needed by these navigators
who sailed with a very solid climate knowledge, and a great
intuition and a great perception.
With a great confidence in their manner of interpreting the clouds,
the weather, to interpret the state of the sea.
A very important, basic change, the arrival of the microchip,
electronics began to revolutionize everything
and electronics began to revolutionize all the meteorology on board.
The first record of the oceanic race in which that happened was the Whitbread
of 1981, the regatta that has now become the Volvo Ocean Race.
In this boat called the Flyer, the Flyer that was the boat that won,
incorporated the first integrated system.
Electronics, precisely thanks to the technology of microchips.
Inside Flyer there was a small micro computer that organized all the
information received from the anemometer, weather vane, wind, and so on.
That information also contained the angle of the rudder, the direction that
heading of the ship, the speed of the ship, and gave useful data for the navigator.
Very useful data that began to revolutionize the way of helming,
and regulating the sails.
Sails were not adjusted, they were not trimmed by sailor's instinct anymore,
but according on what the electronic displays indicated,
keeping in mind whether you made a good speed or not.
There is a very important part in these
integrated systems and is the weather fax.
That is to say, the meteorological fax that allowed, from 1982,
the reception of synoptic meteorological charts
which were weather forecasts, received by fax.
Notice that all this was very analog still because the sailors received
as a chart, read the isobars, read the fronts and were tracing their routes.
The weatherfax was considered a great revolution,
because it meant sailors were able to stop drawing things out.
Sailors on regattas like the Whitebread,
ocean races, such as the Transat in which sailors drew
charts with what they heard on the radio, as we have explained before.
They drew the anticyclones and the storms and the fronts and
from there they deduced the wind.
With the arrival of the weather fax this was over, they did not have to draw anything.
So this began to revolutionize enormously everything that is the
knowledge of meteorology aboard an oceanic sailboat.
At the end of this Whitbread that same year, there was a very important event,
the first racing yacht that incorporated the personal computer on board.
It was John Kilroy's Kialoa,
and the first computer that embarked on a regatta
to interpret data and receive weather information for
the regattas
was the Apple II, one of the legendary computers of the time,
which began the Macintosh revolution.
In 1990 there were time of big changes,
the computer entered fully into the reception of the weather.
Informatics came on board mainly thanks to the development of computers.
Laptops that all started with the MacSea program,
that was the first program that began to integrate the cartography,
electronics, the position of the ship that arrived by GPS or satellite,
and began to integrate, also, the possibility
that the meteorological files were integrated in the software.
These programs also, on the other hand,
began to develop the possibility of getting what the ship's polars
digitize them and enter them into the system.
Why? To start joining polars with meteorology.
A very important fact was also
the development of Inmarsat C Satellite transmission.
Satellite transmission enabled those
boats that already had that software to receive those digitized weather data.
That possibility began to develop very quickly
and the digital data was entered into the computer,
combined with the ship polars, and then it began what was called
the meteorological routing.
The year 2000, in the Vandée Globe of the year 2000,
can be considered that informatics
on board the ships reached its maximum expansion.
Look at this picture of Ellen MacArthur's ship, that is here over here,
she arrived second in the Vandée Globe.
Look at that navigation booth, three computer screens.
There were backup computers, then there were plotter browsers,
the lead, the radar...
The setup of electronic devices was incredible,
everything was presided by keyboard and computers.
The computer was fundamental, also because there was
an advance in transmissions because of the arrival of Inmarsat B
which allowed the boats to communicate through this antenna,
now they are smaller as you will see later in the next modules of this course.
But note that the satellite dish in that dome
allowed the navigator not only to receive meteorological information but also to
broadcast all kinds of information and surf the Internet.
Thus, not only did the navigator depend
on the information that came to him provided by the regatta,
but that he could access other sources of information within the Internet.
With that the navigator began to spend more time here than outside on deck.
Seven years later, in 2007,
this is a photograph of Jean-Pierre Dick and Damian Foxall, the winners
of the first edition of the Barcelona World Race of 2007.
Look at the chart table, how simple it is compared to the previous one.
A single computer screen,
a single computer, designed for use at sea, yes, but still a single computer.
And then the smaller instruments, less space, a precarious chair.
If the previous chart table weighed 80 kilos,
this one weighed about 40 kilos.
By chart table we understand
the whole set of instruments and their support.
Apart from the lightness,
computers had increasing computing potential, greater capacity.
Programs evolved and there was growing capacity to integrate
the polar information of the ship with the meteorological information.
Routing was becoming more precise and there was more possibility of knowledge of
the forecasts, the routes, the possibility of going in one direction or another.
And the navigator had much more information to consider
when deciding where to go.
Look here, in 2014, seven years later,
this is a picture of the GAES chart table,
used in the Barcelona World Race.
Notice that the number of instruments is more or less the same as before.
However, note that the support is still lighter.
That is, there isn't even a chair in front of the chart table,
sailors sit on a cushion on the floor, the computer is much more powerful.
In seven years, you all know that information technology is evolving
in steps that are gigantic.
There is much more information available to sailors, much more and more and more
plus this command post becomes the nerve center of the ship.
Finally you see this comparison of the three chart tables in the year 2000,
2007 and 2014, see the difference in volume?
More reduced and cables in front.
This is the current situation,
this is the way in which navigators now navigate based on a
great potential for calculation and a great potential to obtain information,
that arrives every day with a greater precision,
the meteorological information, as we will see in this course.
Predictions and meteorological files received on board
of these boats are giving greater reliability to the navigator.
And the navigator is increasingly able to calculate
and be able to know what the alternatives are.
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