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  2. [Amel Yacht Owners] Re: PredictWind

Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Re: PredictWind

Colin - ex SV Island Pearl
 

We use the PW professional package with ocean currents included, and have found this excellent in crossing the North Indian Ocean from Thailand to Maldives. In particular it was spot on for ocean currents and pretty good on winds, and we run an update every day via the IridiumGo to ensure that we are always in the best possible currents and wind.

Agree with the 80% ratio of the Amel 54 Polars. That has been what we ended up dialing it down to as well. At first I was annoyed that the Amel 54 appeared so much faster!!! ......but then realised this is based on best speed and sail plan always ...... and of course we are mere cruisers, sailing cautiously always to ensure our aging sails get us all the way around the world!.

We are not sure we can afford the PW professional package cost all the way around the world, (and certainly turned it off in Asia for 6 months when not doing ocean crossings) but this software has been a game changer for us and particularly worthwhile the cost for the Indian Ocean crossing so far. From Maldives we sail this month for Chagos, then on to Rodriguez, Mauritius, Madagascar and down to Cape Town etc.., so are very please to have the full PW package working on board.

Cheers
Colin - Island Pearl II - SM#332 - Maldives

On Wed, Apr 4, 2018 at 2:35 AM, 'S/V Garulfo' svgarulfo@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:
 

Hi Pat,

We used PW for routing with 54 polars and found them very optimistic. Maybe we are conservative sailors but we had to set the polar ratio to 80% to get realistic times. 

As far as the weather forecast is concerned, it's very similar to other software, we found. It mostly uses the same grib sources, so not too surprising, I guess. Windy shows better accuracy in the Caribbean, especially to understand the wind shifts in the channels and in the leeway of the islands. 

Thomas
Garulfo
A54 #122
Cruising Saint Martin, FWI



On Tue, 3 Apr 2018 at 11:07, Kent Robertson karkauai@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
 

Hi Pat,

I agree that PW isn't always spot on.  I look at Passageweather.com and windyty.com as well as PW before a passage.  There is often at least one outlier but a pretty good sense of what is going to happen can be gleaned from all that info.  The timing of wind shifts can be 12+hrs off, and wind speeds can be 10kts off (either way), but so far I haven't wished I'd waited for another window.  If even one model was predicting 30+kts, I'd either wait or call Chris Parker.

Hi to Diane!

Kent
S/V Kristy
SM 243




--
Colin Streeter
0411 016 445
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