Omar Reis
Brazil
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all messages by user
11/11/2013 20:17:57
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Weather routing with VRTool
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Hi. My name is Omar Reis.
I'm developer of Navigator (www.tecepe.com.br/nav) and VRTool (www.tecepe.com.br/nav/vrtool) softwares.
Navigator software includes celestial navigation, chart navigation and star finder. VRTool is a subset of Navigator and was developed to be used in virtual sailing games. It became popular among virtual sailors as a tool for track planing and weather routing.
VRTool can download GFS wind forecasts directly from NOAA servers, up to 384 hours. This is a free service from NOAA. NOAA gribs are very compact files, suitable for satellite internet limitations.
I'm also working on an iPhone app to work as a companion software for VRTool desktop, called VRTool Sidekick (VSK) It uses the phone GPS for real time sailing monitoring.
I will be participating in the ARC 13
Links: * Forum * VSK User Manual * VRTool config for real world regattas .. . edited by Omar Reis Brazil on 11/11/2013
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24/08/2014 15:05:35
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Weather routing with VRTool
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I used the GSHHS chart. It cover the whole world, with reasonable detail ( but is not a navigation chart ). I like this resolution, from VRToutouz website: http://www.vrtoutoulz.fr/maps/downloads/c_gshhs_i.zip
As for the wind forecasts, we experienced the same problem when downloading gribs directly from NOAA GFS site. Because the boat internet was slow, most downloads timed out.
Instead I used the grib files downloaded by ZyGrib. The .grb.bz2 files were imported to Navigator for weather routing and track design.
This and other aspects of my experience in the ARC 13 are discussed in the page:
http://www.tecepe.com.br/nav/arc/
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24/08/2014 15:09:37
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Weather routing and celnav in the ARC13
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I documented my experience in the ARC 13 on the page below.
http://www.tecepe.com.br/nav/arc/
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20/08/2015 20:51:42
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Weather routing with VRTool
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For those interested in celestial navigation, I posted sample calculations using data from the ARC 13. The post includes notes and Navigator for iPad screenshots. 5 fix samples.
http://www.tecepe.com.br/nav/arc/NaviPadSamples.htm
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