"Super Tides" is there anything in this?

[caiman]

We have a HAT predicted for September 2015 at 5.65m.I believe they go in an 18 and a bit year cycle so nothing 'unusual' about them.The graph shows the meterogical effect on tidal predictions in Feb last year.Red line is the prediction,blue line is the actual water level measured on a tide gauge mounted on the bridge across the local harbour.
Cheers

 

[Sybarite]

The tidal coefficient on 21 March is 119. So, yes, very big.

Mean springs is 95, whereas 120 is a "very big spring tide". Not sure, though, whether 120 is exactly equal to HAT or whether (astronomically speaking) you can get a coefficient greater than 120.

Big spring tides again at the end of August/beginning of September and again at the end of September.

Edit: The tidal range at St Malo on 21 March is 13.25m. You're gonna need a longer anchor warp.

2nd edit: No mention of tidal coefficients in the English version of the Wikipedia entry on tides, but no surprise since it is more commonly used by the French. The French version of Wikipedia does, however, describe a 120 coefficient as:


This year :
Feb 20 : 118
Mar 21 : 119
Apr 19 : 113
Aug 31 : 114
Sep 1 : 114
Sep 29 : 117
Oct 28 : 113,

i.e. the biggest (tidal range) possible.

25/03/2073 : 120

,

 

[marklucas]

When I was instructing in The Solent canny instructors used to compete to get slots during equinoctial tides. This meant we could go to more interesting places faster and really get home to students the power of the tide.

This of course relies on getting your planning and timing absolutely correct but can be great fun. Once we had to bail out as a student was suffering from sea sickness. I still remember motoring into Hamble just after HW with only 1ft of the lateral piles left showing against a 4 knot ebb - slow going. And then being asked for a tow by a dinghy that was quickly heading towards Cowes rather than the nearest pub.

 

[KellysEye]

>I saw somewhere that this year is the peak of an eighteen year cycle of the moons orbit coming closest to earth thereby giving us three 'super tides' this year. I believe we have just had one of them.
Read more at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...is-there-anything-in-this#PYY0zM830O7VR8v5.99

Correct.

 

[prv]

Pah! Call that a high tide? We regularly get 10m plus tides at Liverpool.

It did amuse me on the Flyin' Hawaiian thread over on Sailing Anarchy, that they're talking about massive "king tides" of 6 or even 7 feet

(That's in San Francisco Bay.)

Pete