SF Nood Regatta

If you will be competing in the 2001 NOOD Regatta in San Francisco, you will need a good knowledge of local currents to be competitive. During the period 8/31 - 9/2 the flood in the central Bay will exceed 3.5 knots, and the ebb will top 2.7 knots. This will dramatically affect the position of laylines, course selection and overall strategy. The graphic below shows currents in the central Bay at 1100 hours on the morning of 9/1, at max flood. The solid blue lines are the laylines in the absence of current at Mark "16" (Blackaller Buoy), assuming a typical wind of 15 knots at 250 deg T and J105 polars. Due to the strong and variable current, the actual laylines are shown by the magenta dots (if you sail at the optimal tacking angle and make the target speed, you will sail this corrected, curved, course to the mark). The "best tack" tactical solution shows that, even for the relatively short portion remaining on this leg (less than 20 minutes to the mark) a starboard tack to the lower layline, followed by an approach along it, is almost 9 MINUTES faster than an approach via the port tack to the upper layline.

This graphic and tactical results are based on the PC program we have developed for San Francisco Bay over the five years, which has been improved each year and has become a standard tool for most of the top Bay racers. This computes current at any day and time, and at every point on the Bay (the current points shown in yellow are added to the chart at the user's option; you can add as many as you like, anywhere you like, to provide more detail in the racing venue). This is the only program which can do this, and the only one which can be calibrated to actual sensor data from the real-time NOAA sensors. Our standard "Force Two" program is just $175.00 and the advanced tactical "Force Three" program is $1,500. With Force Two you get all the current prediction and display features, boat simulation functions, layline calculations and our utility to quickly build and solve courses for current-corrected headings, times, etc.; plus you can hook live to a GPS. Force Three adds a long list of tactical computations, such as the "best tack" feature shown in the graphic and a complete "best course" routing function, plus it reads and interprets all boat instrument data and boat polars.

MAKE PRINTOUTS !! If you don't use a PC on the boat, use Force 2 to make screen printouts to take along in the race. Zoom in on the area of choice, add as many currentpoints as you like, and print out the result every hour or half-hour (anytime you like).

THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS !! If you use a third-party tactical program such as Deckman for Windows, or Kiwitech/Raytheon, OS3 or MaxSea, we have software that can input our currents into your program.

For details on our programs, check the information on this website; to order, go to ORDER FORM. Or call us at 415-332-8507.

AND, if you are sailing elsewhere, check out our editions for Long Island Sound, Block Island Sound, Narragansett Bay, the Chesapeake, Puget Sound, Tampa Bay, Sydney, Auckland, the San Juan's, English Channel, etc. We are rapidly expanding our inventory of current models, and now produce custom ocean current models for long- distance races around the world. See our tactical analysis of the 2001 Transpac and the EDS Atlantic Challenge, and the article on routing methods and programs by founder David Brayshaw in the latest (August) edition of Seahorse Magazine.