Making your own weather forecast

by Chris Snow, The Favored End
Being on the water means being exposed to the weather, that’s one of the beautiful things about being on boats, you are out in nature. Naturally we are going to be more interested in what the weather is going to be than if we were holed up inside all day (writing blog posts?).

For me personally being on the water means racing sailboats or being out cruising New England in my 35-foot Downeast powerboat. Whatever the activity, I take the time to research what the conditions are going to be. Depending on the activity and how long I am going to be at it I will look at different things from which to draw my conclusions.

For example, if I am racing a one design regatta I want to know hour by hour what the wind is going to be doing both in terms of strength and direction. I want a good sense of how accurate the forecast I am looking at so I can factor that into my tactics for the day. If I am sailing a longer event, I want a good idea of what the wind will be from day to day so I can pick what sails to have declared to the organizer. – Full report