Weather routing - Sailing ship Helena around the world via the three Capes
Leivonen, Juuso (2024)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024082624383
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024082624383
Tiivistelmä
This thesis discusses the issues that should be considered when planning a trip starting and finishing in Europe and taking a sailing vessel around the world via the three capes of Good Hope, Leeuwin, and Horn. The thesis focuses especially on weather and weather routing, dividing the trip to four legs and separately discussing the weather in different oceans. The vessel in question for this thesis is training ship Helena, owned, and operated by the Sail Training Association Finland.
The question this thesis is tackling with is what is the weather and wind conditions that Helena would be facing, when going around the world via the so-called Clipper route, around the three Capes. And a secondary question is how a route plan in general, and weather routing in particular in ocean passages differs for a sailing vessel, compared with the more straight forward great circle navigation of the engine powered ships.
First theory of weather and prevailing winds and weather systems are discussed and then how climate change might be affecting these. There is a short section on how a sailing vessel works and what are the main things influencing their route plans. The routes are then analysed by using the actual routes taken by sailing vessels in some of the recent round the world sailing races.
This thesis concludes with a rough sketch of the route, considering the prevailing weather patterns. Also a schedule of the trip is outlined. The trip would start from France around beginning of September and finishing around mid-April.
The question this thesis is tackling with is what is the weather and wind conditions that Helena would be facing, when going around the world via the so-called Clipper route, around the three Capes. And a secondary question is how a route plan in general, and weather routing in particular in ocean passages differs for a sailing vessel, compared with the more straight forward great circle navigation of the engine powered ships.
First theory of weather and prevailing winds and weather systems are discussed and then how climate change might be affecting these. There is a short section on how a sailing vessel works and what are the main things influencing their route plans. The routes are then analysed by using the actual routes taken by sailing vessels in some of the recent round the world sailing races.
This thesis concludes with a rough sketch of the route, considering the prevailing weather patterns. Also a schedule of the trip is outlined. The trip would start from France around beginning of September and finishing around mid-April.