Admiralty Tidal Stream Atlas(es)

beancounter

beancounter

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I've not seen one in the flesh - are they worth having on board? Do they have more info than the small tidal stream chartlets on e.g. the back of Imray charts?
 
I like using the tidal atlases. Handy to have them marked up with the actual times on the relevent page. Often I find it useful to plot ones position on them rather than the chart. The Reeve-Foulkes ones are excellent in the channel, much better than the Admiralty ones.
 
I bought one when I first kept the boat on the East coast, as the tides there are complicated and quite important for a a deep long-keeler. Now I sail on the South coast and find that the PBO almanac and Shell pilot provide all the required information.
 
John,
I have the Southern North Sea and the Thames Estuary atlases. I like them for the detail picking over the estuary banks.
Not saying anymore in case I get smoked or summat.
 
Dont forget Radar Afloat by Tim Bartlett. All these can be had on Amazon cheaper post in bulk. Got 5011 Admiralty Abbreviations?
 
Do they have more info than the small tidal stream chartlets - No
Are they worth having on board - Yes in one form or another.
I scan the chartlet pages from Reeds then print them out (6 per side) enlarged to A4, then laminate them for use on the boat. Tide times can be written on them with a chinagraph.
 
Yes definitely worth having and, as Michael_W says, it is worth marking them in advance with times. You can also personalise it to show critical and non obvious races and rips, eg mine shows streams though Bardsey and Jack sounds, and when the nasty bits appear around Anglesey. It is my primary passage planning resource.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Got 5011 Admiralty Abbreviations?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup.

Radar book was already on the shopping list (after our entertaining discussion on Scuttlebutt /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif)
 
With ours - I use them for all passages that aren't just local - I take the stream angle off the page with a Breton Plotter. Saves me loads of time and the data can be transferred straight to a blank sheet, to give you a tidal offset for the hundred mile passage to France or Channel Islands from Falmouth in a few minutes. And accurately too. It updates really fast too, as the landfall nears

I couldn't do this from the charts or even the Admiralty Tidal Diamonds so quickly.
 
The PBO Alamanac and other publications are fine and handy size. But I have Solent / English Channel Admiralty Stream Atlas and I have scanned the pages into chartlets for use in Seaclear GPS Plotting. So all I do is check which page is relevant for the time and load that chart ... gives me direct GPS position plot with all stream detail available. Change to next hours chart when necessary. The nav data is sufficient really once in deeper water ... especially if the waters are known to you. Most GPS plotting programs can have more than one window open - so you can have proper chart as well as Tidal stream at same time.

As another says - laminate and use chinagraph.

I also have an A4 sheet in pdf form that has a plan view of Solent. Under it is a table of Time / Date / HW / LW and expected times enter / leave harbour .......... gives a simple and ready planner.
 
We use the Admiralty TSA's on board and slice them into individual pages, which are then inserted into A4 clear envelope folders. It's then easy to annotate each page with actual times relative to the days HW times (say 0530 - 0630, 1750 - 1850) in advance of a passage, using chinagraph

When you are knackered, it's slightly less easy to make a mistake
 
Hi John
well worth it + they dont "Go out of Date" /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
mark-up the pages as previously stated with the hours, then its all very simple to guestimate offset on x channel trips. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
the Scheldte ( Dutch atlas) would be well worth getting as the tides there are very local & not shown in enough detail in the Admiralty Southern North Sea
 
I've got the Admiralty ones for the Solent and the Channel. If I were buying now I'd go for the Reeve's Fowkes versions as it's easier to transfer the data to your chart with the Breton Plotter. Actually I use the short version developed by John Goode....I don't have a full or even half size chart table.
 
The Admiralty series of tidal atlases are produced with the needs of shipping in mind. Far better for 'yotties' is the series written by Michael Reeves-Fowkes, due to the chosen scale permitting much more detail. Besides, the smaller chartlets of interesting areas such as The Scilly Isles/Lands End, The CIs, The Chenal du Four are invaluable if cruising therabouts. There are included hourly pages of 'tidal heights at a glance', which should be most helpful to those who don't enjoy wrestling with the byzantine Admiralty Pattern 'Secondary Ports' calculus.

The one small difficulty is that the pages are referenced to tidal predictions at Cherbourg, and an appropriate annual data card needs to be carried ( this can easily be downloaded free from Reed's website ) - therefore the small matter of fluency in manipulating Time Standards is called for.

The full series of area tide stream atlases is also available in one combined book, which has the best exposition of tide theory I've read anywhere. It's an excellent 'stocking filler'.....

Recommended.

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
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