Welcome to L-36.com

Install Weather and Tide page as an APP!

The Weather page can now be installed as a progressive web application (PWA). Just click on the Add to Home button next to Change Location near the top of the Weather & Tide page. Then click on Install on the popup. An app button will appear on your home screen which will take you to an app like interface of the web page. The Add to Home button will then go away.

I hope you like this new feature.

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Switch to Hourly Forecast Without Page Refresh

To be honest, I got sick of the full page ads when I wanted to see the hourly icons on the 7-day forecast images on the weather and tide page . With the help of ChatGPT I have installed a Java Script that changes the images without requiring a new page load. It is super fast and you can switch back and forth as many times as you want. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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Who is this?

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Winter is Sailing Season

Well, not everywhere and not for most people. But winter is my favorite sailing season. The winds are light and the sailing is peaceful. Going 2 to 3 knots in 5 knots of wind is heaven. Enjoying a craft beer and food without getting wet just makes the week worthwhile. I sail on Tuesday almost every week year around. I picked Tuesday because that was race day back when I used to race. That caused my crew's and my calendar to be clear of any events on Tuesday. "What day would you like your appointment?" "Any day except Tuesday".

My favorite light wind sail is a free flying ripstop polyester 155 jib. The luff rope is Dyneema. The rig is set up so that I can get 1000 pounds on the luff. That doesn't go to the sail as the sail luff is adjusted independently. The sail is stuffed into a spinnaker bag so it goes up easy and coming down is just restuffed. Around here the wind will be 5 knots then 15 knots a few seconds later so it is important to be able to douse it quickly. We take it down like I was taught to take down a spinnaker. When the 155 goes down, the 90 goes up.

New Airport Weather Page

I am excited to share a new page dedicated to presenting official forecasts for any major airport. This page decodes and presents the official METAR and TAF data that shows actual and firecast weather data published by the FAA. This data is used by pilots and is important enough that it can be more accurate than the general forecasts. I decode it so it is more meangiful to you. I use local time insteat of UTC and I decode the sky observations to just show what you would see. I don't really care that there are light clouds above the totally overcast sky I see on the ground. I present the appropriate coverage description for the sky you would see from the ground. This is the same decoding I do in the Airport table on the weather and tide page but the presentation is different. I hope you like it. You can enter any airport and a cookie will remember what you are interested in. Please leave a comment if you have suggestions. Airport Weather Page

About L-36.com

I started L-36.com over 20 years ago as a service to the 71 boats in my class. Papoose is L-36 #5 and was my dad's boat until his death in 1989. I have been sailing longer than I can remember and decided to bring the boat up to San Francisco Bay. Initially I sailed with my young family but as they moved on I did day sailing with friends and ultimately racing. I raced for about 15 years. Initially as a classic wood boat in the Master Mariners Regatta. One of the joys of my life was the first time I won the L-36 class. After my famous dismasting, I soured on the MM and focused on club racing where I dominated for a decade winning most races, sometimes sweeping the series. I would occasionally even finish first uncorrected even though I had the highest handicap. With Covid I retired from racing. I tell people I was tired of winning and afraid of losing which is both a joke and the truth.

L-36.com has grown over the years. It now gets between 100,000 and 200,000 visits a month. The turning point was when the USCG asked me to create the Weather page. It turns out they had been using some "Google Gadgets" I had created. I had some for marine weather and some for tides. When Google stopped supporting the Gadgets, the Coast Guard wanted a replacement. It was an honor to create the page for them and they credited me with "helping to save lives". The page became very popular and is by far the most visited page on this site. The goal was to put the plethora of weather and tide information all on a single page.

My name is Allen Edwards, not to be confused with my late father Allen Edwards or my son Allen Edwards. I grew up in Los Angeles and came to the San Francisco Bay Area to attend Stanford University where I got a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Electrical Engineering. After graduation I worked for Hewlett Packard where I designed electronic test equipment. I was there for 21 years. The most widely known thing I helped invent was at Stanford Telecom where I worked for about ten years. We invented the Cable Modem and I hold one of the early patents. Eventually Intel bought the group I was running as a way to enter the Cable Modem supplier world. By that time I was the Vice President and General Manager of the group and being responsible for a group of people who just got bought by another company is a story itself that will not be told here. I retired from Intel in 2001. Actually, I didn't retire, I quit -- I was too young to retire. From there I did some stock trading, became a bird photographer, started this website, and of course worked on and sailed Papoose.

Now I am old enough to retire. I spend my time working on this site, doing things around the house, and sailing. My crew, a friend from HP days, and I sail every Tuesday most every week. We picked Tuesday because that was race day and we made a point to keep our calendars clear on Tuesdays. I didn't count, but I would say we sailed 40 days last year. We sail unless there is rain, lightning, gale, the forecast says 30 knots, or the boat is broken or in the yard. I love sharing what I have learned over the years. My YouTube channel is @L-36. I have over 100 articles here on L-36.com plus almost 20 on Soft Shackles alone, most of which I invented. If there is something you would like me to write about, please leave a comment HERE.

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Weather and Tide

L-36.com's popular Weather & Tide tool compiles all the information you need to prepare for your next (or current) marine adventure. Check it out if you have not already or enjoy the overviews below.