The captains of incoming ships won't be the only ones who benefit from a new weather monitoring system at Squamish Terminals - local wind surfers and boaters will be able to access up to date information on wind speed, humidity, air temperature and pressure with just a few clicks of a computer mouse.
Located on a piece of land near the port's warehouse one, the AXYS Port Sentinel will collect weather information every 10-minutes and relay the data to ships via an Automatic Identification System (AIS).
Starting in early March the information will be up on the Squamish Terminals website for local boaters and winder surfers to check out before they embark on the water, according to vice president Doug Hackett.
In December, Squamish Terminals and the Pacific Pilots Association spent a total of $35,000 on a metal tripod structure outfitted with four weather-detecting sensors and an aluminium shelled computer system. Over the last two months, technicians have fine-tuned the instrument and it's now running as it should, collecting accurate data 24-hours a day.
AXYS marine systems manager Don Bryan explained the information could be used to help plan voyages better and reduce wasting valuable resources.
"Rather than arriving near the sea and being told the weather is too extreme here to berth and now you've got to go back. Now they can start to make these decisions much earlier, which hopefully saves everyone time and money."
Hackett agreed vessels using the deep-water port should be able to save money with the new Port Sentinel in place because captains will be able to better estimate how many tug boats they may need to berth safely at the Terminals.
"So what this does is this gives them the information they need to accurately order tugs for the vessel," Hackett said. "So there's a definite savings for the vessels coming up here."
Before obtaining the tripod sensor, vessels would have to rely on information provided to them by personnel, which isn't as precise as pure data, according to Bryan.
"So you were kind of reliant on subjective data versus this which actually gives you some real numbers that people can make decisions off of, so more objective data."
Bryan said he's excited to have the Port Sentinel running at a second location in British Columbia - the ferry port in Tsawwassen being the other - because most AXYS technologies currently operate overseas.
"We were really excited when we had a chance to work with Squamish because it was like now we get to apply some of the made in B.C. technology to a local application which is great."
Since sensors can be added on to the existing Port Sentinel system at a relatively low cost, Hackett said Squamish Terminals is already looking into adding underwater current monitors in the near future.
