Do I really need a barometer? Which one?

[mikecambrai]

You really must carry a recording barometer. You can get cheap ones from camping shops or the weather stations for the home. You need to know the trend of the pressure just by glancing at the graph every hour. The weather forecast is not always correct and you cannot rely on any local anomalies which might occur due to mountains or land masses.
With a good weather forecast upon sailing, I have returned a Naval vessel to sheltered waters when the log showed that the barometer was falling at a greater rate than forecast. Good job I did or we would have had a very uncomfortable passage in Estaural waters. In these conditions, you can easily get crew injuries which then compounds an already difficult situation.
Get a cheap recording barometer and it will pay you back its small cost one day with interest!

[bcboomer]

Snowpetrel

What is the app. I don't see it in the android store.

[reed1v]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

A recording barometer is not at all a "marginally useful device" -- it's fundamental data for any kind of offshore sailing.

But you don't need to spend $250 on the MeteoMan. A $50 weather station will do the job.

Agree totally. Weather forecasts are regional; not your exact spot. A barometric pressure device will tell you what is happening around your boat. We were down below when the barometer started a noticeable nosedive. Looked outside and guess what, a big, black tornado was bulldozing across the river we were anchored in. Nothing on the weather charts, no broadcasted notices. Just sudden death moving our way. For the serious cruiser, its an essential device. For the weekend sailor or those who just look at boats, no its not essential.

[MarkJ]

Seems I always say you don't need the ancient crap cluttering up your boat: no paper, no sextants... no old fashioned barometers.

I note the OP is in Vancouver heading to Mexico. The Tropics are different in that the daily range is just a few MB, unless there's a hurricane, of course. But nowadays we are tracking weather changes faaaarrrrrrr from the boat, 1,000s nmss in many cases. By the time the barometer goes down its too bloody late!
For those people who are competent to predict the weather themselves then its probably a device they want. But I am clearly incompetent compared to the meteorologists at NOAA, BOM AU, Metro France etc. I RELY on them. If they are wrong I could not have done better tapping the glass.

As a couple of people have said there's some very affordable digital home weather stations at the hardware store that have a 24 he graph plus temp, humidity etc. And its the temp & humidity I use most

Sent from a stupid phone that replaces words with weird stuff.

[RedHerring]

@Snowpetrel:

Well, duh! Turns out, my phone has a pressure sensor, too. Thanks for the heads up

@bcboomer:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...barometr&hl=en

[Manos1955]

Yes you do need one. Any simple mechanical will do the job

[Calif.Ted]

The inexpensive weather stations have the benefit of multiple small remote temperature sensors also, I keep one in the refrigerator to insure that essential beverages are kept properly chilled.

[RedHerring]

Originally Posted by Calif.Ted

to insure that essential beverages are kept properly chilled.

Now THAT's more than marginally useful! And have an alert for when the temperature goes too high?

[Cadence]

It is nice to see some posts about sailing without all of the interactive electronics. Yep! It is nice but what happens with a system failure. Many sound like they are so rapped up into electrics that they would be lost and that would be sad.

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by RedHerring

Planning to sail down the West Coast from Vancouver to Cabo this fall.

The barometer I have is dead. Resuscitating it is theoretically possible, but I have enough problems to deal with between now and castoff day. For getting weather forecasts, there is VHF, two SSB receivers and a satellite messenger (Delorme InReach). Is there a scenario where I'd really want to know the local pressure trend?

If so, what should I replace my dead aneroid piece with?

I believe sensing and tracking/trending local calibrated barometer readings is critical to wx analysis, and for comparing/adjusting 3rd wx products. [e.g., forecasts, WeFax, etc.] A bit less so in lower latitudes, except during storm seasons.

As others have already mentioned, recent smart phone and tablet models have pressure sensors, and apps for reading/tracking/calibrating that output.

We use Apple products, and pressure sensors were included beginning with iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2. I know other manufacturers include pressure sensors as well, but don't have those details since we don't use them...

The iOS apps we like the best for live and recorded barometer readings so far include:
Barograph
Bar-o-meter

The above is an excerpt from our Computers, Devices and Applications page if more detail is of interest to anyone.

Safe travels.

Cheers!

Bill

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Calif.Ted

The inexpensive weather stations have the benefit of multiple small remote temperature sensors also, I keep one in the refrigerator to insure that essential beverages are kept properly chilled.

What a great idea!


Sent from a stupid phone that replaces words with weird stuff.

[reed1v]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

What a great idea!


Sent from a stupid phone that replaces words with weird stuff.

Better yet, keep any white distilled stuff in the freezer. Tastes better.

[maxingout]

I keep a watch with barometer function in the nav station, and when I am underway, I log the barometric pressure every hour around the clock.

[Paul54]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

My phone has a barometer sensor. I run a free barograph app. This plus writing the barometer value down in the log at the end of each watch works well


Sent from my SM-G930F using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

Works well enough and records trends.

[Paul L]

The OP stated clearly his passage goal. Vancouver to Cabo. 75% of the passage is within VHF weather reception. The run without VHF weather is San Diego to Cabo where they will have other weather available. Can't say that the barometer did much of anything for my passages along the same route. If the OP wants to cut back, then this cut back isn't likely to make much difference. As Mark stated the meteorologists usually interpret the weather better than I do. We have a recording digital barometer onboard and record readings in the log on passages that are not just in the tropics. It is useful in those cases to judge where fronts and systems are located.