Another rough weather video

[Dyflin]

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Beaufort defines Hurricane as F12 and doesn't contemplate any bigger numbers, which is odd as at least one ship I was on had F13 on the anemometer. I remember staring in fascination as the needle spent longer and longer on the end stop

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I think it relates back to the sail plan for the old square riggers and in a force 12 she would just lie under bare poles, so they didn't need a higher scale. But I believe the Icelanders have a scale that goes up to a 13 or even 14? (Tough cookies them lads!)

 

[tome]

Aha, that makes a lot of sense. Once you get to bare poles there's nothing further to reduce

Icelanders tough, very true - though was an NIS ship

 

[Dyflin]

The only reference I can find to wind speeds in excess of force 12 are on this swedish page:
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufortskalan

 

[PilotWolf]

OK so a couple of hours maybe a bit exagerated - a few would have been better choice of words - it was one of those long 'couples' - 4 or 5 hours! And the one that sticks in the mind was also the B of B - early 90's I think - recall thinking that there were lots of places I d rather have been and that it was going to be the last time I left dry land - it wasn't thou!

Dyflin - I thought the Americans added to the scale - up to F15...

W.

 

[rickp]

All hail Wikipedia.

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The Beaufort scale was extended in 1946, when Forces 13 to 17 were added. However, Forces 13 to 17 were intended to apply only to special cases, such as tropical cyclones. Nowadays, the extended scale is only used in Taiwan and mainland China, which are often affected by typhoons.

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Today, hurricanes are sometimes described as Beaufort scale 12 through 16, very roughly related to the standard Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale where Category 1 is equivalent to Beaufort 12. However, the Saffir-Simpson Scale does not match the extended Beaufort numbers above 13. Category 1 tornadoes on the Fujita and TORRO scales also begin roughly at the end of level 12 of the Beaufort scale but are indeed independent scales.

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Rick

 

[Gludy]

OK so what is the highest force wind everyone has ever been out in as skipper or crew on a boat?

 

[PilotWolf]

Bit of a difference if F12 off the land close in and an F6 offshore thou...

W.

 

[Gludy]

Yep - a great big difference but its hard to allow for that except by doing a survey on wave height maybe?

 

[tome]

Boat or ship? F9 or F12+ makes a big difference!

 

[Gludy]

Ok - well maybe a wave height divided by boat length index then.
So a wave height of 18 feet in a 60 foot boat would give an index of 0.3 whilst a wave height of 40 foot in a 200 foot boat would give an index of 0.2.

How about that then?

 

[tome]

Sorry, didn't mean to muddy the waters Paul. It's just that the most I've experienced in a (sailing) boat was a vicious NE'ly 9 cross channel which put 2 crew in hospital and damaged the rig so wasn't sure whether to vote for that or my rather more laid back F12+ on a ship

I've gone for the latter to skew your poll!

Cheers
Tom

 

[Gludy]

Well here is a new poll.

Take the maximum wave height you have ever been in and divide it by the length of the boat and multiply the answer by ten to give what we will call the max conditions factor or MCF.
Example 20 foot waves in a 60 foot boat = 33.
Example 10 foot waves in a 30 foot boat = 33
Example 20 foot wave in a 40 foot boat = 50

 

[whisper]

I'm one of the F10 group. It was blowing from the W. but this was on a yacht in the sheltered waters heading SW. from Kyle Rhea coming down the Snd. of Sleat. In fact we had regular gusts of F11.
This was nowhere near as nasty as sailing along the N.coast of Majorca in a F8 from the NNE.

Oh bu**er, the rules have changed and now you're expecting me to do mathematics - lousy trick /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[BrendanS]

(20 / 60) * 10 = 3.33333333
(10 / 30) * 10 = 3.33333333
(20 / 40) * 10 = 5

Your calcs are off.

 

[tome]

Ok, but it's getting very subjective. It's been demonstrated by Adlard Coles and others that most reputable sailors will over-estimate wave heights. It's because the human gyro gets confused by the motion and tells us we are upright when in fact we're facing downwards, making the waves appear to tower above us...

You should read Heavy Weather Sailing

 

[whisper]

I've now done the maths and your instructions/results do not work out as you declare. You need to multiply by 100, not 10, to get your figures.

So, in our 26fter in 12ft waves our result is 4.6 or 46 depending how you correct your poll /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

OH GOD !!! Now I'm too slow!!! Think I'll go to bed early.

 

[Gludy]

Yes - by a factor of 10 as well!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Gludy]

I think it must be subjective - agreed. I measured my biggest waves by how much i had to look up at them from the flybridge of Drumbeat.