Sailing InTuition teams up with TIMEZERO

Daniel Smith grew up on Scotland’s West Coast and spent time racing and cruising in that area as a child. He is an experienced sea racer and teacher that notably completed the 15/16 Clipper Round the World Race as a skipper and finished in 2nd place.

Eager to share his passion and knowledge with others and bring it back to his home of Scotland, Daniel started Sailing InTuition. The goal being to provide the best quality of training to sailors whether they want to learn about racing or simply explore Scotland’s coastline.

The training boat is a Salona 40 that was designed as a cruiser/racer and therefore provides the perfect mix between comfort and performance.

We were able to ask Daniel a few questions about his experience with TIMEZERO.

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Can you tell us about your project/activity?

My new exciting project is Sailing InTuition (www.sailingintuition.com). Our plan is to deliver first class training, exciting expeditions and some offshore yacht racing on Scotland’s beautiful West coast. We have become RYA (Royal Yachting Association) recognized so we will be running Competent Crew, Day Skipper, Coastal and YachtMaster alongside our own program.

Why did you choose TIMEZERO?

I have used many different electronic navigation systems onboard yachts and powerboats. I’ve hated some and got on OK with others. During the 15/16 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race when I skippered Derry~LondonDerry~Doire to 2nd place, I spent loads of time using TIMEZERO. It was the most intuitive that I had used before. The more I got into it the more I discovered how powerful it was when routing and planning for racing. Since then I have used it when cruising and again find it second to none.

TIMEZERO is the official technical partner of the Clipper Round The World Race. We provide TZ Professional and the adequate training to all the skippers and crew members. In this race, ordinary people with no or very little sailing experience engage in a round-the-world trip as crew members. Each boat is captained by an experienced skipper and the circuit is divided into 8 legs and between 13 and 16 individual races.

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What are your first impressions of our marine navigation software in comparison to the other programs that are available?

When starting out with TIMEZERO its ease of use is the first thing that you notice. It is easy for someone who has not been trained in using it to pick up the mouse, browse around charts and see where the boat is and what is to come. They very quickly become expert users just through exploration.

Why is TIMEZERO software so important for you?

TIMEZERO will be important for many reasons. The plan will be to use it during training and show students how to plan and execute passages safely and successfully. We will make use of the weather forecasting and routing during this. We will also be doing a bit of offshore racing this year so we will get some polar diagrams made up for the boat and make use of the routing function.

TIMEZERO Software were designed to be as intuitive as possible without compromising in terms of performance. This means that it is a perfect learning tool, students at Daniel’s school will be able to learn using a leading marine navigation software without struggling to understand the interface!

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Can you tell us about your most recent navigation with TIMEZERO or any anecdote you would like to share?

I remember using TIMEZERO once on a trip to Iceland from the Clyde in Scotland. Weather forecasts were poor. We used TIMEZERO during the planning stage when we were trying to find the best weather window to depart in. It was a reasonably complicated plan making sure that we left in time to avoid the worst of the weather and didn’t experience any that we couldn’t manage on route. TIMEZERO came up with a solution, which we checked on paper and went with. The plan was sound, the trip was comfortable, and we made it to Iceland.

Trying to do the planning purely on paper would have taken ages and I doubt we would have come up with such a good solution. TIMEZERO saved the trip.

TIMEZERO’s Routing Module is very effective when it comes to finding the safest and most efficient way of getting you to your final destination. In fact, it uses weather forecasts as well as the boat’s polars to define the best route. The latest addition to the module brings automatic coastal avoidance for increased safety. Depending on your navigation style and the type of boat you are using, Weather Routing allows you to define a set of parameters. For example, you can cap the maximum wind speed or thanks to mixed routing, have the software tell you when to turn on your engine.