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Hi. My name's Mark Burkes. I'm a professional sailor & have sailed more than 250,000 nautical miles over 35 years. I work as an RYA Yachtmaster™ Instructor & Yachtmaster™ Ocean. I've been privileged to skipper race boats in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race twice, on Team Garmin & WTC Logistics, having first circumnavigated in the race as a First Mate in 2011/12.
I've also skippered the Rolex Sydney Hobart & Fastnet races several times and raced in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties 9 times. I've crossed all oceans at least twice and the Atlantic at least half a dozen times. As well as working as a sailing instructor, I've also worked as crew and first mate, or delivery skipper, on private yachts throughout the World.
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What a wonderful video! I a beginner from California, USA and find this informtion presented in a logical, informative straightforward manner. Thank you!
Lovely clear explanation. In fact excellent. I have 3 notes. 1. You said you would, but didn't cover what happens when you get it wrong. It was like the last page of a whodunnit ripped out of the library book! The anticlimax was palpable. 2. I've been learning for so long, I can remember that airdraught used to be related to MHWS, at least that was what I was taught at the turn of the century. I have a handwritten scrawl of the imminent change, in my 5th edition reeds skippers's handbook (2007) ex Malcolm Pearson. 3. You say on a rising or falling tide... between these two depths. You then agreeably suggest that in reality you should go through nice and slowly. To join those dots, I would submit that ergo you don't really have the options of rising/falling, but just whichever of those equates to going against the stream. Particularly if said stream is springs and you're nearer the mid twelfths. This strategy has the biproduct of reducing the odds of meeting someone coming the other way at the bridge apex....just when you're uncontrollably rocketing through with no water over your rudder. 4. OK I said 3 notes but...in addition to the real life meteorological points you helpfully added... In my brain a bridge (generally) suggests a river. Rivers have a source of water volume and movement, related to rainfall on land, that's in addition to those of tide. It's worth noting these fluval factors exist and can considerably add to strength of stream firstly and secondly volume (height). So even the "stand" will be subject to this....turning it into an ebb of indeterminate strength and depth. In fact moving the expected stand to a different position up or down river. My brain is bleeding. Moral of the story. Don't do these calculations in the week after a storm or period of incessant rain. As in just don't trust air draught calcs in Britain.
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Hey Mark, I´m a quite newbie-sailer from Germany and I really appreciate learing from your professional sailing tutorials. Just a quick question from my side on this one. At about 2:55min you are plotting the GPS-position. My question is: Is latitude 001*13.3W correcty set to the right side of 001* on your chart, as you did. I guess 13.3W it should be left side from 001*? Thank you for your feedback. Cheers mate!
Hi - thanks for the question. The latitude is 001 deg 01.13 W. So you find 001 degree, then 13 minutes then the decimal, all going West. That is what is shown. I don't understand your query?
@@FreeSailingTutorials Hi Mark, I´ve checked the video again in detail today and noticed that I´ve made a mistake.... All good. Thank you and always fair winds!
Very nicely explained, thank you kindly for helping me brush up on that knowledge from distant past. The interpolation is quite simple, and a mariner should be able to do that mentally.
Amazingly I watched this last Saturday. Even though you put a video up of the exact passage in the exact conditions.... Next day at 1500, we (a company of 3), against my recommendations, attempted to head from Lymington to Weymouth with Poole as our fallback, in a WSW F6... on mostly an ebb tide. Exactly the conditions you said not to do it in. Next day was forecast to be worse and we had hoped to eventually get as far as the Dart. Nobody wanted to go east (where we should have made for). We headed for the needles on the end of the flood planning to get through Hurst on near slack and use the tide to get west (even fully expecting the wind over tide). However, the hype word became "fetch" when our latitude got south of Hurst lighthouse and it hit us. Truly big waves and lots of slamming of our flat footed Hanse 418. A modicum of sense prevailed and we returned to base and ate the BBC recipe chilli con carne I'd made at home. That bit was a success. Next day we sat out the gale. Tuesday we set off for Poole with the chance of passing it for Weymouth or heading there on Wednesday. An aside bonus here on Tuesday was at Warden, Needles Channel. No other sail was in sight except one, when MAIDEN! all alone, majestically bedraggled, rounded the needles, back from it's winning circumnavigation. Unable to get our new compressed air horn functioning from it's blasted packaging, the three of us waved, shouted, cheered and clapped the girls as much of a welcome as we could muster, as they headed thru Hurst toward the sails gathering at Cowes on the horizon. The Tuesday Poole passage in the WNW F5/6 was hard and slammy but we got there at the cost of our lady member becoming over attached to the boat bucket for most of it. Next morning (Wed), lots of discussion about the bucket, onward travel westward (but the tides are only 40 minutes different daily and the NE wind strength persistent) or avoiding another extortionate £74 Poole berth cost by exploring brownsea anchorage and heading back next day (Thurs). I proposed going east NOW instead of a day later... The end of the ebb was due at our berth checkout time of noon. We could get south of the island passage all the way to Bembridge and just about squeak over the bar at dusk. Wonderful difference. Nobody sick and an ultra fast comfortable, swept along ride to the white knuckle 0.1m Bembridge bar clearance and our home made curry. Thursday. We scraped over the 0800 top of bembidge tide bar, again by 0.1m, then eased back to Lymington on the ebb tide where our lady partner disembarked a day early. But not before yet again being the only boat to witness Outlaw pass Yarmouth; home from the same race. Thursday evening we untwisted the self tacking jib sheet and decided we'd need to sail next day to test the new knot 😉. Friday we had a rock-fouled anchor, again sheltering from the lunchtime NW wind off Hengistbury Head. Probably we hugged it too much. Our last hurrah was getting it up after an hour of trying different angles and overrunning etc. Next time our passage will be more head over heart. I mean, what's the point of watching sailing tips vids if we then completely ignore them?
That's how experience is built, of course! Years ago, I got stuck trying to beat around St Albans Ledge, with two mates, for about 5 hrs in the rain and fog. Eventually gave up and screamed into Weymouth in an hour! Lesson learned. Sounds like you had a blast though! Coincidentally, about twenty years ago now (maybe more) I floated in circles around Christchurch Bay, all night, right next door to Maiden. We were on a Fastnet Qualifier Race.
@@FreeSailingTutorials I'm reading Tom Cunliffe on an off. He talks about "tiding" the coast as being vastly preferential to demoralising the crew with watches that contain 5 hour stints of heavy duty sailing to largely stay on the spot. I like the romantic idea of long passages and watches but when you can just drop the hook followed by sails and cover almost the same distance,.... the romance pales. Forgotten action. We spronged off and 180° around in the tight Bembridge alongside fairway. It worked perfectly and smoothly and I had great pride and huge superiority until I cleared the over fendered up transom to find the completely unneeded one I'd put to be ultra sure, stuck squarely over the dry air heating exhaust. Defeat from the Jaws of victory.
@@lubberwalker We've all done it. I once sailed up the Western Solent with a training crew and every cable there was a brand new fender bobbing up and down in the water, on our track. They'd obviously fallen off the transom where they had been poorly tied on by crew. 4 new fenders made me very popular with the sailing school principal.
Clumsy language, perhaps. I mean that we will probably be navigating largely by estimating our position by way of visual reference to fixed landmarks, bouyage, depths, etc. In the Solent (used for this example) you can usually see channel markers, prominent landmarks and depths where shallows are present, at all times, making the need to plot an EP from this method less necessary in practice. It is used more on coastal or ocean passages when using paper charts.
Pilotage is navigating using visual signposts, such as buoys. Where there are visual signposts calculating a Course to Steer, or Estimating a Position, is a waste of time. Plan the pilotage. When you are clear of the channel (and of signposts) use the planned Course to Steer. If you can’t sail the planned CtS ask your helmsman for his/her best heading and speed to windward and immediately Estimate a Position for 1 hour; inspect the ground track for hazards
Error East Compass Least Error West Compass Best (Biggest, Most) I only commit the first of these to memory and reverse it if need be and I just remember the order of variation/deviation without the need for the help of virgins or cadets.
Hi. You would have the boat speed because an estimated position is an historic calculation based on the boat speed over the last hour or part thereof. If you are working on say 30 minutes, you just use a half hour of the tidal vector too. As long as the tidal vector and boat speed vector are over the same time period, the EP will be just as accurate. In this video, I assume a boat speed - see 0:18
I’m not sure why you don’t have a boat speed; if the built-in log isn’t working get a towed log. You should Estimate your Position for 1 hour as soon as your helmsman reports heading and speed. Inspect the ground track for hazards. An EP is predictive, not historic. It predicts your ground track for the next hour; this tells you whether you will meet hazards on that heading
@@johnstarkie9948 Hi John. Thanks for your comment. Just to clarify the point you make, for others. An Estimated Position is historic when you are plotting from the log, but you can calculate an estimated EP if you so wish. A Course to Steer is, as you know, is effectively predictive.
HI. We assumed our passage was in the period between the low water and the second high water. You want to choose the tides relevant to when you are on passage. Hope that helps. : ) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1x8UzIIZQEs.html
Normally We use 4 on 4 off with two dog watches First watch 8 to 12, Middle Watch 12 till 4, Morning Watch 4 till 8, Forenoon 8 till 12 Afternoon12 till 4, First Dog 4 to 6, second Dog 6 to 8. Back to First Watch. Main=meal during the Dogs.
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Watching this in early 2024, its hard to believe what we went through during the pandemic. I was fortunate to avoid getting ill, but as a member of staff in one of the emergency services, I couldn't stay at home. I have taken early retirement due to ill health and thus have time to do Day Skipper Theory. I am doing it over three weekends with a week or two in between each Sat/Sun full days. Watching RU-vid is helping me learn some of the details which I struggled with on homework exercises. You explain things very well.
Thank you this is really useful breaking everything down into smaller sections for learning. I have tried to find a blank tidal curve online any suggestions on where to find one so that I can laminate it?
Hi Ian. Thanks. I'm not sure that will help you much as each port's tidal curve is different. If the curve of the port is relatively symmetrical and the tidal highs and lows are every 6 hrs, you can roughly 'guesstimate' using the Rule of 12ths? See video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yxRPD_BhVag.html The best way by far is to buy an Almanac for the area you are sailing, each year.
It's been a while since I recorded this video, so I can't tie your comment to the video. The values of Lowest Astronomical Tide (LAT) and Highest Astronomical Tide (HAT) are usually determined by inspection over a span of years. Springs and neaps vary and are, of course, detailed in the annual almanac.
