Traditionally, there has been little tidal information available to the public other than height predictions for major (standard) and minor (secondary) ports; even fewer tidal current predictions are available to Mariners other than a limited number of tidal diamonds and tidal stream atlases. These data have traditionally been published by official sources, such as Hydrographic Offices.  

Although useful for indicating conditions at the start and end of a journey, this data on its own doesn't provide the level of detail that mariners need for their chosen waterborne activity. In this article, we cover the traditional methods for tidal measurement and their shortcomings and modern technological advancements that can revolutionise the maritime industry in terms of tidal information.

Due to high demand we have released a limited edition high resolution tidal model for Narragansett bay and Rhode island Sound in time for the Rolex New York Yacht Club Race Week.  The region covered includes all racing areas in the Bay and to the South at 110 m resolution at 60 minute intervals.

Data is available as GRIBs or PDF images like the ones below, for the North and South race areas.

How tricky currents play a part in the closing stages of the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Race

The last few miles of a Sydney to Hobart race has often determined the ultimate winner. Capricious, shifty wind and 'bullets' - gusts that come screaming down the steep hillsides lining the course are often to blame. Not to mention the notorious night time 'shut-down' - where the wind disappears entirely.

The role of currents here has been overlooked - most likely because little information has been publicly available. This is set to change thanks to a new hydrodynamic model produced by the Coastal Environmental Modelling Team at CSIRO which Tidetech will be making available for the Sydney, Melbourne and Launceston to Hobart races this year as part of a package of Grib files and analyses.

Tidetech Commercial Marine is extending free access to ‘Tidemap’, its new browser-based metocean data viewer, for the duration of the Rio Olympics. Tidetech has provided the high resolution tidal model to a number of the Olympic sailing teams for their training programs and for tactical planning.

It’s been three years since we released the Singapore and Malacca Straits 800m high resolution tidal model. This model benefits vessels using route and speed optimisation systems in this busy stretch of water by taking advantage of accurate tidal speed, direction and height data to create bunkerage savings..

We’ve recently developed a new tidal model for the Straits of Gibraltar. This model will benefit all sorts of users but primarily commercial vessels heading into and out of the Mediterranean.

Tidetech has made a high resolution tidal model of the Gibraltar Strait available, with data provided by the University of Cadiz.