Local wind Speeds, Weather & Water links and lots more...
Skippers note:
Wind speeds are taken from a few different points around the harbour, there is also a wave height boy just off the Peninsula. Below are some links we encourage our students to study on regular occasions to get used to the weather forecasts & trends
LPC Weatherstation - Located on the Eastern Mole on the approach to Port Lyttelton. This is an excellent resource especially the tide indicator which shows predicted vs actual. The Easterly winds tend to show about 5 knots less then actual readings from the middle of the harbour, Southerly (SW) winds also tend to be 5-10 knots more at the Magazine Bay marina because of its alignment with Gebbies pass. Check out the weather history link too.
Windnet wind speed indicators - There are a few of these, not always online though, however the one in Lyttelton Harbour is particularly useful. It is located in the lighthouse on the reef (not eastern light), the information is relayed by radio to a station that converts the data to a digital format for the website. This gives you a realistic figure of wind speed, especially if you're leaving Naval Point Yacht Club on a strong Easterly wind
Canterbury Wave Bouy - The Canterbury wave buoy is moored in about 76 meters of water, 17 kilometers east of Le Bons Bay, Banks Peninsula at Latitude 43° 45’ South, Longitude 173° 20’ East. It sends information about the waves off the coast every half hour. Just take a look it after a strong southerly flow!
New Zealand Metservice (local forcast for the Lyttelton Harbour to the Waimakariri River Mouth, Quite a useful guide, I have found that the southerly predictions are either late or early, and this can swing quite a bit, check the site regularly, it is updated at set times through the day.
Metvuw I like this site because I can see the wind speed in the isobars, gives me a clearer impression on whats going to happen
Buoy Weather More of a surfers site, very detailed with wave and weather conditions, well worth checking out
Wind Predict - A professional yacht racing site, uses two major computer models to compare data to, it is a pay per view site but has some free emelents. The local clubs have found this very accurate.
Marina Links
Lyttelton Marina concepts:
Scale model for the orginal marina
Press release for new inner harbour marina
Wireless at the marina run from the Dampier bay club, inner harbour
Assessment of environmental effects for the upgrade of Magazine Bay Marina - These two book hold excellent information about the Marina, they are in the referance section at the central library
Simply cool
Look at the position of any large yacht in the world AIS systems real time on google maps
Download free charts, tidal info & more
Coastguard & Boating Education
Coastguard Boating Education Services
Class associations
More trailer yacht associations
Maritime NZ links
The Safe Ship Management system
Recreational boating publications and forms
Distress Beacon info - will yours still work?
beacons.org.nz web site
Yachting New Zealand links
Search for your yacht by sail No.
Local Yacht clubs
Canterbury Yachting Association
Books & Publications
Easterly - Naval Point Yacht Club
Canterbury Sailing Handbook
Banks Peninsula Cruising Guide - out of print, but I have a copy you can borrow! (due to be re-released late 2010)
www.transpacific.co.nz - marine publications
Yacht Chandlers
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