Weather Archives

Tag Archive for: Weather

Sea Monster Story: Katabatic Winds

September 26, 2022/by Grant Headifen

Well actually not so terrifying and not REALLY a sea monster BUT … We spent about 20 minutes starring at the effect of katabatic winds blasting down the valleys and exploding into the water.

Sailing in High Winds

April 18, 2014/by Grant Headifen

High Wind Sailing If you like this post – please “LIKE” it and g+1 it – it really helps us grow. Animations embedded below – for best experience use Google Chrome Browser. This week I did a practical Skipper Verification check out on one of our students. His initial comments to me were that he […]

How to Handle Wind Gusts and Rounding Up

February 17, 2014/by Grant Headifen

Rounding up is so – so – so dangerous. Last weekend we were out sailing and a speed boat came ripping by at about 20 knots to the windward of us and only about 60 ft away. Yes they are stupid – yes they should know better and yes they should be shot – but […]

How to sail in light winds

June 25, 2013/by Grant Headifen

Sailing in Light winds Sailing in light air is certainly a skill that needs to be taught by sailing schools when learning to sail. But, here are some very key points you can learn that will get you moving through the water on light wind days. Light air sailing is very much a learned skill. […]

Handling a wind gust in a dinghy

September 5, 2012/by Grant Headifen

Below, we have included a brand new animation that will help you better understand how exactly to handle a wind gust when you are sailing a dinghy. This specific animation, along with many more, will be going into our new Dinghy Sailing iBook “Your First Weekend in Dinghy Sailing.” The iBook will be available for […]

Mooring Accident

April 23, 2009/by Grant Headifen

While it is generally accepted that mooring is safer than anchoring, there are still some considerations. The following photo from Waiake beach in Auckland, New Zealand is proof of this. Whilst visiting New Zealand for the purpose of spreading the NauticEd word, we came across this early in the morning after an overnight mild storm. […]

Learning to sail in gusty conditions

March 10, 2009/by Grant Headifen

Yesterday I was out teaching on our new Beneteau 373. The conditions were extremely gusty. Lake Travis in Austin Texas is a great lake for sailing all year round and in the summer the water is so incredibly warm that you can swim while anchored in a cove still at 2am. There are lots of […]

Where is the storm center?

January 16, 2009/by Grant Headifen

We’ve received a few questions on clarification of the mechanics of determining the direction of the center of a weather system either a high or a low. So we added it to Module 4 of the weather clinic and we’re also describing it here. The graphic below shows a weather map in the northern pacific […]

Cirrus clouds

January 11, 2009/by Grant Headifen

Perfect example of cirrus clouds this morning in Austin Texas. Cirrus clouds typically mean that weather is changing in about 2 – 3 days. Many times it can mean the approach of a warm front – but not necessarily.

Happy New Year – learn to sail in light winds

January 1, 2009/by Grant Headifen

What better way for NauticEd online sailing classes to start off the year by going sailing. The NauticEd crew will be racing their Beneteau 373 on lake Travis in the Red eye regatta today. Winds are predicted to be light at 6-10mph. So it’s going to be a light wind sailing day. Light wind sailing […]