The YRA Presents: A San Francisco Bay Weather Seminar
Join us for an fascinating look at San Francisco Bay weather and its impact on Bay Area sailing, This full day seminar, hosted by the YRA at the Encinal Yacht Club, is being lead by two experts on our unique weather- Mike Dvorak of sailtactics.com and Lee Chesneau of marineweatherbylee.com.
Take a look at what's on the schedule for this fascinating seminar...
The Big Weather Picture - 8:00am - 12:00pm, lead by Lee Chesneau
- Larger weather patterns (synoptic scale) and how they affect the San Francisco Bay
- Reading weather charts (basic terms and symbols used in weather charts)
- Surface pressure maps• Reading wind & wave charts
- Unlocking the mystery of the 500 mb chart
- Long range planning using Pilot Charts for long range passage planning
- Evaluate and analyze weather charts
- Assessing your marine weather skills (learn to be self-reliant)
- Evaluate weather charts for initial route determination & underway diversions
Lunch - 12:pm – 1:00pm, Box lunches will be available for purchase at the Encinal YC. Seminar attendees can also purchase food from the Encinal bar menu.
Impacts to Local Weather - 1:00pm - 5:00pm, lead by Mike Dvorak
- The marine boundary layer – where we sail
- Monthly climatology of San Francisco sailing weather
- Sea breezes and the effects of topography on the San Francisco Bay
- Anatomy of a weather model• High-resolution weather models and accuracy
- Limits of forecasting• Future of forecasting – observations and data assimilation
- Weather routing – applications and examples
Our Instructors
Lee Chesneau is a senior marine meteorologist and lecturer. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin(Madison), a university renowned for its meteorology program. Lee’s had a distinguished & extensive career with NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS), NOAA Satellite Service(NESDIS), U.S. Navy Ship Routing Officer (SRO), a Route Analyst for a commercial weather & shiprouting company (Ocean Routes, Inc.). Lee started his career as a naval officer, serving on twoaircraft carriers, USS Saratoga CV-60, and the USS Guam LPH-9. He later served as the USS Guam’s meteorological and oceanographic officer. Lee is a U.S. Coast Guard certified instructor for basic and advanced meteorology. He teaches at six continuing training institutions for professional mariners. He offers the same curriculum to recreational boaters through classes that train boaters to becoming self-reliant in their own marine weather knowledge, weatherforecasting, strategic vessel routing, and prudent decision making. Lee is also a speaker at numerous boat shows and Safety at Sea Symposiums. He has his own company: Lee Chesneau’s Marine Weather www.marineweatherbylee.com.
Mike Dvorak is the founder of SailTactics.com, in addition to being a wind energy consultant at WeatherTactics and Chinook Wind. Sail Tactics began as a curious research project to see if Mike could forecast the complex winds of the San Francisco Bay during the 2013 America’s Cup. Mike got into high-resolution wind forecasting while researching turbulence in wind farms at the Universityof California, Berkeley. He is an avid renewable energy researcher who analyzes the temporal and climatological characteristics of wind energy resources, primarily using weather models. During his PhD studies in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, he found that it was feasible to design and interconnect the replacement of all US East Coast and California electricity generation with clean, renewable offshore wind energy. Mike specializes in geographic information systems, high-performance computing, atmospheric science, and publicspeaking/teaching about meteorology, climate change, and renewable energy.
We hope you'll join is for this fascinating seminar! Tickets are only $70 and includes coffee and snacks. Lunch is not included but box lunches can be purchased at the Encinal Yacht Club on the day of the seminar. Box lunches will be $7 and will include a sandwich, bag of chips, fruit and a soft drink. Attendance is limited to the first 100 registrants.