A key component of boating, whether day sailing, coastal cruising or offshore passagemaking, is understanding the current and forecast weather and its implications. While each many have differing priorities for weather related information and its reliability, each type of sailing requires us to have an understanding of why things are happening now and what can or is likely to happen in the near and longer term. That understanding, those insights and their implications impact us in our decisions on:

“GO-NO-GO” decisions

Sail combinations

Courses to be sailed

Shelters to be sought

Weather forecasts, experience and deck level observations are all key elements of gaining that understanding.  Each provides important input during our planning and once we are underway.

This is not a weather class or a presentation on how to analyze weather information but an overview of what weather related information is important and available to us as recreational boaters.  It addresses the weather information needed, no matter the type of sailing we do, for our sailing, weather resources available to us and many of the communications systems and software/apps available to access that information before leaving the dock and once we drop our dock lines.

While addressing some specific hardware, capacities and techniques, this overview makes no attempt to identify all the systems and software on the market today.  It does provide an extensive list of resources; weather related references, communication systems, software/apps for computer and mobile devices and weather models available to today’s recreational boater.