Pete Widders Tidal Wheel

At first glance you may think that the Pete Widders Tidal Wheel might be complicated to use. It's actually very simple once you understand it!

What you have is a main laminated circle with various ports identified for a given area with two smaller circles on each side. One side carries the high and low water information, with the reverse side of the circle giving you the tidal times.

To calculate the height of a 6.0 metre tide say at Barmouth in Mid Wales, you turn the disc to the height calculation side, locate Milford Haven, which is the quoted main area port, turn the middle disc round until Barmouth aligns with Milford Haven, then adjust the outer disc to align with Barmouth and read off the height adjustment from the graph below. The difference is minus 1.8, so subtract 1.8 from 6.0 and the answer is a 4.2 metre tide at Barmouth.

To calculate the tide time at Barmouth, you use the Pete Widders Tide Table chart for Milford Haven to get the high tide time. Then if the predicted time at Milford Haven is 22.30 and you want the tide time at Barmouth, adjust the middle circle on the tide time side to align Milford Haven with Barmouth, move the outer circle in line with Barmouth and read off the times from the graph for 22.30. It gives a plus factor of 3 hours 14 minutes. So adding 3 hours 14 minutes to the 22.30 time at Milford Haven gives a high water time at Barmouth of 01.44am.

There is also a Tidal Slate available that has the wheel attached to a laminated chart which can be used to calculate the intermediate times and heights.

The wheel is fully laminated and waterproof and will take the rigours of outdoor life in its stride. It measures a circular 7 inches and can be tucked away inside a tackle box easily if you're shore fishing. The directions on the wheel are simple to understand and the graphics easy to read.

There has been a lot of thought and effort put in to this product and it will mainly appeal to boat anglers and yachters, but still find a steady market for shore fisherman too.