Tide Tables

[TRevor Lawson]

Just discovered (prob every one else already knew) that visit my harbour now has yearly tide tables for a lot of places to view , you have to sign up but not pay a membership to use for free.

[whisper]

I just bought a app for my phone

[IndyR1]

I use Tides Planner, can see many locations in the UK and for very little money get the full year ahead

[telcowilliam]

UK tides app on iPhone is spot on for me

[jambo]

The tide tables on Boatie app is good for me along with my tide

Sent from my iPhone using Rib.net

[tony t]

Originally Posted by jambo

The tide tables on Boatie app is good for me along with my tide

Sent from my iPhone using Rib.net

I pay 2.50 for our local tide table book it all helps fill the council's pockets

[jambo]

Originally Posted by tony t

I pay 2.50 for our local tide table book it all helps fill the council's pockets

See I always knew you were community spirited kind of guy!!
Ps. Got my hospitality tickets for me and my son for the League Cup Final, sorry have to wear my Jambos scarf!

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[tony t]

Originally Posted by jambo

See I always knew you were community spirited kind of guy!!
Ps. Got my hospitality tickets for me and my son for the League Cup Final, sorry have to wear my Jambos scarf!

Sent from my iPhone using Rib.net

Have a great day hope you win

[Gerry]

Trying to avoid a "commercial" type post, but since this is taxpayer funded and I don't get anything out of it...

I work at the National Oceanography Centre and we've been working on our first iOS app for tide prediction. It's called anyTide and it should be released in the next couple of weeks.

Like other tide apps, you can get predictions from 44 known ports around the British Isles. However, anyTide also lets you zoom in on the map to any coastal point and get a tidal prediction for that point (actually to the nearest 1.8km grid). It does this by using some very clever tidal models developed over many, many years at NOC Liverpool (and its predecessor the Proudman Oceanographic Lab). So, if you want the tide at St. Catherine's point (or Portree or Kilkeel...), it's possible.

You can't get tide tables out of it (but you can use a cursor to see the tide height at any time on the curve.

All tide data will be free up to the end of June 2013. After that, only 1 or 2 days will be free (can't remember which). An in-app purchase gives you a calendar year of tide data anywhere for £1.49. You can bookmark locations and you don't need to be online to get tide predictions for previously bookmarked points.

It's our first app, so if anyone does use it, I'd be really interested in feedback.

Gerry

[the_fifer]

tide prediction app on android is free and great to use

[IanH]

I get harbour book but often its easier to plan using Show Prediction (free) - Littlehampton 20/02/2013 for 7 days - EasyTide and bookmarking the link.

[jambo]

Yes gerry i would be interested as my home port is never listed on all these so called helpful sites. i have to use another port so its not to accurate. can you advise when we can get it or will you make an announcement on here?

[Gerry]

Sure - if you're interested, I'll post when it's released.

Just been playing with the pre-release version and notice it says it produces tides around the "NW European Shelf with particular focus on the British Isles", so when I put pins down on the map, I can actually get tide predictions along the French/Belgian/Dutch coast and right round Brittany. So better than I first said!

Gerry

[Gerry]

Our anyTide app is now available in the app store. Search for "anytide" or go directly to:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/anyt...ign-mpt=uo%3D2

There's a page on our website that describes how to use it in reasonable detail. Worth looking at, since there are some useful, subtle features like the use of bookmarks to allow offline predictions :

AnyTide App - Products | National Oceanography Centre | from coast to deep ocean

Unfortunately, Apple didn't like us giving time-limited free data (i.e. up to the end of June), so we've had to take that out. The free version gives free predictions for the current day anywhere in the "NW European shelf" plus a preloaded bookmark near Liverpool, which is unlimited and allows you to see how it works over longer periods of time. A calendar year's worth of predictions in all included locations costs £1.49 via in-ap purchase.

I'd welcome any feedback, either via PM or contact me via the mail link on the NOC webpage shown above.

Thanks,

Gerry

[Crusher]

One bit of customer feed back...... There are so many different ways I can get tide data for free (luckily I am based in the Solent) so I don't need to pay for the info.
Nevertheless hope it works out for you.

[IanH]

Gerry

Could you please advise on the discrepancy found between your app and easy tides? L/W 1 hour difference and 1m out? I can see that different height datum, but 1 hr difference?

Easy tide, low water 18:11 at 0.2m

As I cannot attach two images direct from iPad, I split across two posts

[IanH]

Your app, approx 19:09 / 1m.

Unfortunately I don't have harbour masters tables infront of me to check but I'm pretty sure that in the past they have matched easy tide.

[Gerry]

Hi Ian,

Thanks - interesting! I'll have a look...

Gerry

P.S. in the meantime, should have said it's worth looking at :
http://easytide.ukho.gov.uk/EASYTIDE...pport/faq.aspx

for some background on chart datum and possible differences in predictions (and some background on variability...)

NOC is responsible for the UK network of tide gauges, which provides the raw data for any tide predictors ( http://www.ntslf.org/networks/uk-national-network ), but that's not to say there isn't a possible issue with our model in easytide!

[Gerry]

Ian,

Appreciate your feedback. Here's a detailed reply from one of our tidal scientists who worked on anyTide:

"The timing issue you point out is interesting and is only spotted by the keenest of observers! If you zoom in on the curve in anyTide you see that the minimum is actually quite flat in time. On Wed 13th evening the tide does not vary by more than 10cm for about an hour around the low tide. But since Easytide is only given accurate to the nearest 10cm, the discrepancy of about 1 hour is accounted for by their rounding off of the height prediction.

The difference in heights between the two predictions is a thorny problem. It corresponds to a difference in reference heights. The mean sea level for the easytide product is a historical chart datum. This is generally the most useful thing for sailors who know the area and know what a particular depth prediction means for them at that site. However in practise the mean sea level drifts in time such that an unfamiliar water user to an area could get a grounding surprise if the mean sea level had significantly changed since chart datum was set! Furthermore for the modelling part of this product chart datum values do not exist for all coastal locations. Therefore, for anyTide, we chose to use a datum that was, as close as possible, an accurate representation of the contemporary mean water depth for all prediction locations (which includes the observation sites like Littlehampton.)

This decision may well be confusing to many users. We will consider using chart datum (or at least having the option of it) in future updates."

We'll add an FAQ section to our web page and include explanations like this in it.

Any other comments or feedback are welcome. As before, post, PM or email me from the link on the NOC page.

Gerry

[harryesd]

I purchased anytide and a years tides. first thing i found is the tide times on the graph are so small, i need glasses to read anything. A larger H or L with time would make it 100% easier than cramming all that data on one screen