The Ocean Cruising Club’s recently formed Environmental Team, in a proactive move to assist cruisers, has prepared a review of climate changes that are affecting 
long-distance sailors.

Published 12 months ago

Source:  Daria Blackwell – Ocean Cruising Club

For some time, OCC members – among the most experienced and adventurous sailors in the world – have been observing and commenting on social media about the climate changes that are affecting decisions about passage making, storm avoidance and seasonal boat storage.

Such changes are now accepted as being exacerbated by humanity’s effects on earth’s ecosystems and may be accelerating.

Proactive Move for Cruisers

The members of OCC’s recently formed Environmental Team, in a proactive move to assist cruisers, contacted prominent meteorologists and weather routers and asked for their input on what they are seeing as they track traditional cruising routes.

What ensued was a review of Climate Change and Ocean Cruising (the impact on Passage Planning, Weather Forecasting and Weather Routing, etc) – with contributions from:

• Jimmy Cornell
• Frank Singleton
• Fred Pickhardt, Ocean Weather Services
• Sebastian Wache, WetterWelt GmbH
• Jeremy Davis, Weather Routing Inc
• Bob McDavitt.

Not surprisingly, the views differ in some respects. OCC’s aim was to present the differing points of view while informing distance sailors of the changing patterns that may affect safety at sea and on land.

Included are considerations for shortened passage-making seasons, tolerable temperature ranges, expected changes in atmospheric and ocean currents, storm-free zones, weather extremes and much more.

The collective knowledge and experience of OCC members in ocean cruising constitutes a powerful source of advice and information for OCC members and other ocean cruisers.

Leading practices in seamanship and cruising

Over the past few years, members have posted topics of interest to distance sailors on the OCC Forum and then collected and collated the input of their fellow members. The result is a series of white papers and guides to leading practices in seamanship and cruising.

They provide practical steps, tried and tested techniques, and practices that have been developed and refined over time with input from subject matter experts and experienced cruisers.

The practices now have been incorporated into guides published on the OCC website.

Vice Commodore Phil Heaton, OCC lead on this project, said, “The aim is to make the guides readily accessible to OCC Members and other cruisers and more will follow. Climate Change and Ocean Cruising is the latest of these guides and we envision that it will be periodically updated.”

These guides are available as downloadable pdfs for sailors from the Ocean Cruising Club website.

Daria Blackwell
Ocean Cruising Club Press Officer

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About the Ocean Cruising Club

The OCC is the “home port” for those who have sailed long distances across big oceans. It exists to encourage long-distance sailing in small boats. A Full Member of the OCC must have completed a qualifying voyage of a non-stop port-to-port ocean passage, where the distance between the two ports is not less than 1,000 nautical miles, in a vessel of not more than 70ft (21.36m) LOA; associate members are committed to achieving that goal.

The OCC has 59 nationalities represented among more than 3400 members and Port Officers around the world.

OCC Web and Social Media Links

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The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of Noonsite.com or World Cruising Club.

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