Beaufort scale

[oldharry]

Small boat scale:

Force 1. Not enought wind
Force 2 Might be enough to make it worth going out
Force 3 Winds getting up a bit - might be risky
Force 4 Too much - getting wet
Force 5 Definitely too much - getting very wet
Force 6 Mow the lawn
Force 7 Weed the garden
Force 8 and above - Wheres the TV Times?
Force 8

 

[jonathankent]

That about sums it up for my little 'un /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Lakesailor]

I take the point about the Scale being more than pure wind speed. But it's a useful assesment using the wind speed even so.
On the lake my last boat at 18ft was game for a bit more than OldHarry's scale as we didn't have currents and swell to contend with, so a F3 was perfect, a F4 was really flying and by F5 it was getting a bit much single-handed (you can tell by the volume of the crashes of things falling over in the cabin). F6 really was time to head back to the mooring.

Course it's so gusty on the lake that most times a cold blast may only last a couple of minutes and then you can carry on.
Never been one for setting off in 25 mph winds in February though. Frostbite racers can keep that.