As the hurricane season slowly winds down, Captains of super yachts are being invited to sign up for next years hurricane watch reports.
Extreme meteorological conditions in the Atlantic basin are the subject of daily reports issued during the hurricane season by Watkins Superyachts Ltd.
The company has now ceased monitoring and daily reporting for the 2012 season, their fourth year of reporting, and registration for inclusion for the 2103 season has opened.
Watkins’ daily report began in 2009, the circulation list of just seven persons soon widened and over the four years of reporting and has become an widely respected annual resource for the marine-insurance industry.
This now annual Atlantic basin/Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean storm season monitoring project produces a daily monitoring bulletin to several hundred underwriters, insurance brokers, yacht Captains, fleet management and offshore energy interests
This year, for the first time, a flotilla of large yachts travelling in convoy across the Atlantic in the closing weeks of the season were including the Watkins reports in their daily passage reviews and allowed for early evasive action to be taken to avoid the effects of tropical storm RAFAEL.
Regular readers take comfort from knowing that these reports are compiled by ex-seafarers who avoid long range forecasts as far as possible. The compliers have a healthy mistrust of armchair meteorologists who they describe from personal experience as being “never around when the end users are up their knees in green water” and take a personal interest in how the seafarer wants to receive information.
At some time during the winter months, the Watkins team makes a very reluctant long range forecast based on expected sea temperatures and the trend of El Nino/La Nina, and daily forecasts are expected to resume in May depending on the arrival of the first viable tropical disturbance. The first report was issued on May 15th this year.
New addresses are always welcome. There is neither catch nor fee, and addresses are not used for selling or passed on to third parties
To register for this, interested parties are invited to leave contact details using this form on the company website or any other enquiry contact Vicki Le’fleur Vicki.lefleur@watkinssuperyachts.com +44 20 7469 4136