Transpac
Weather Analysis: No Easy Choices
By: Bill Biewenga
Storms
seem to appear and fade from sight to the south.
Further to the north, the question becomes: will
the breeze fall through the floor in the face
of the advancing sleds? And once again are some
forms of conventional wisdom being called into
question?
The
tropical depression of a few days ago quickly
developed into tropical storm status, and just
as quickly seemed to be downgraded back to depression
status. Yesterday, I called the met center at
Commanders' Weather to get the more complete story
from George Caras. "What's going to happen
with all of these tropical waves lined up off
the Central American coast?" At that time,
George felt that development into storm status
and beyond was not really favorable. Apparently,
the water isn't quite warm enough to get these
developing on steroids - good news for the Transpac
fleeet, to be sure.
But
the systems may well still have some impact out
there. Dolores' remnants can still cause wind
shifts and the higher clouds can still pack a
localized punch. We can see from today's surface
analysis that the center pressure of 1007 mb and
cloud formations available separately on satellite
imagery don't make the system a gut-wrenching
threat. But, having said that, if I was out there,
rather than sitting behind a computer, I'd maintain
a watch on its movements, just to remain aware
of the situation. ... For full story CLICK
HERE
About
Bill Biewenga:
Bill
Biewenga is one of America's most accomplished
offshore sailors. He has accumulated approximately
290,000 sea miles including 21 transatlantic crossings,
several TransPacs, numerous record attempts, deliveries
and races, as well as participation in four round
the world races. He has worked as skipper, navigator,
weather analyst/router, watch captain, helmsman,
deck hand, and project manager collecting a vast
amount of knowledge and experience. He now uses
his extensive background in his work as a photojournalist
and weather routing consultant while continuing
his participation aboard a variety of vessels
in the world's major offshore events.
In
his work as a photojournalist, Bill has published
over 210 magazine articles and numerous photographs
in more than 20 magazines worldwide since September
1989. Also ashore, he works as a routing consultant
for boats in the Atlantic as well as the Pacific.
Vessels include both multi-hulls and monohulls
doing speed record attempts, races, deliveries
and cruises. Currently he's the Marine Consultant
for Commander's Weather, Inc., a weather consulting
business for a variety of sports, events, and
record attempts where he works in conjunction
with Ken Campbell and George Caras, two of the
country's most highly regarded meteorologists
in marine forecasting.
Bill's
sailing career began relatively late in life and
far from the ocean. Born September 11, 1947 in
Berwyn, Illinois, he later attended Lyons Township
High School and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps
upon completion of Junior College in June, 1967.
He was trained as a Morse Code intercept operator,
duty that was under the direction of the Office
of Naval Intelligence. He volunteered for and
was sent to duty in Vietnam in the fall of 1968.
Upon returning he received an Honorable Discharge
with the rank of Corporal. Bill attended and graduated
from North Central College in Naperville, Illinois
with a Bachelor's Degree in History in 1971. He
also earned a Black Belt in "American Self-Protection",
a hybrid offshoot of Aikido and Judo, in which
he was an instructor and undefeated in competition.
Working as a laborer, form-carpenter and finally
as a foundation crew foreman in a concrete company
Bill gained the experience to start his own general
contracting company in 1972. He continued his
education by entering first Northwestern's Graduate
School of Business in their night school division,
and later the University of Chicago's Graduate
School of Business while teaching Construction
Planning and Scheduling for one semester at the
DuPage County Junior College.
Bill
discovered sailing as a means of relaxation and
respite from Biewenga Brothers Concrete, Inc.,
a company he started with his brother, David.
In three years they built the company into a $2
million per year grossing venture with 25 employees.
Beginning in 1974, Bill raced several summers
in Chicago, racing in Chicago-Mackinaw and Port
Huron-Mackinaw Races as well as the regular series
of weekend races in Chicago. He eventually extended
his sailing season to include East Coast and Caribbean
racing and deliveries on such yachts as Sleuth,
Running Tide, Tenacious, Nirvana and Matador.
In 1981, Bill did two pre-Whitbread trans-Atlantics
with Flyer and the first two legs of the 1981-82
Whitbread. He then returned to Chicago from New
Zealand to help rebuild Biewenga Brothers Concrete,
Inc. during the recession, eventually leaving
the company to pursue a career in sailing in the
spring of 1985.
In August, 1985 Bill's offshore sailing career
began in earnest as he sailed Thursday's Child
single-handed from Plymouth, England to Newport,
RI to qualify as alternate skipper for the 1986-'87
BOC Challenge. He raced on Drum in the 1985-'86
Whitbread Round the World Race and returned to
act as project manager, alternate skipper, and
router for Thursday's Child's BOC Challenge Single-handed
Round the World Race campaign. Working with Phil
Steggall on Sebago, an Adrian Thompson ultralight
60' trimaran-foiler, as assistant and tactical
advisor provided Bill with cutting edge multi-hull
experience.
Bill's
photojournalism work began during the 1988-'89
Whitbread Round The World Race where he sailed
as co-navigator/weather analyst/watch captain/helmsman
for Legs 1, 2, and 3 on The Card and aboard Charles
Jourdan as weather analyst and crew for the final
leg of the race. During his round the world races
and subsequently he has contributed feature articles
to yachting magazines in England, U.S., Australia,
South Africa, Germany, Japan, Spain, Argentina,
Israel, and elsewhere.
In addition to involvement with two more Whitbread
campaigns and two more BOC Challenges, Bill has
taken part in diverse record setting voyages.
As co-skippers of Great American II in 1993, Bill
and Rich Wilson set the record from San Francisco
to Boston, for which they were listed in the "Guinness
Book of Records". In the 1999 TransPac Race
Bill was the navigator on Magnitude, finishing
second and successfully breaking the old elapsed
time course speed record while setting a new daily
speed record of 353 NM during the race. In 2000
Bill has taken part as co-navigator and weather
router on board Zephyrus IV which took 2 days
off the previous 14 day record in the Cape Town
to Rio Race and beat the 72 hour record in the
Middle Sea Race (Malta-around Sicily-Malta) by
8 hours. Additionally, during the Spring of 2000,
Bill was alternately navigator or watch captain
aboard the new Swan 56, Lolita II. As a brand
new boat, Lolita II was First in Class or First
in Fleet in each of her first six races. Recently,Bill
returned from French Polynesia where he met with
members of a team preparing for the 2001 TransPac.
In October 1993, Bill's experience in weather
routing led him to co-found Bob Rice's Weather
Window, Inc., a sports and special events weather
consulting firm. The company achieved profitability
the first full calendar year it was in business
and he sold his interest in the company in June
of 1996. Continuing in this field he has presented
numerous weather routing seminars including events
held at the New York Yacht Club, San Francisco
Yacht Club, U.S. Naval Academy and elsewhere.
He has also co-hosted several in-depth weather
routing seminars with Ken Campbell of Commander's
Weather Corporation. In March 1998, Bill assumed
the role of North American Distributor for KiwiTech
Software, a sailing and performance analysis software
that provides charting, weather display and route
optimization capabilities to the advanced navigator.
Currently Bill is actively engaged in racing and
delivering a variety of vessels, routing for some
of the world's top offshore campaigns and writing
articles on navigation, marine weather and how
to efficiently use weather information, as well
as other marine topics. In order to more effectively
disperse that information, Bill, with the help
of several friends, is now launching and continuing
to improve his linked websites, WxAdvantage.com
and NavSolutions.net.
