Gusts.

Hunson

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And how much do they affect if you sail or not.

With our planned journey down to Bradwell and then up to Shotley looking decidedly off because of the wind, do you judge wether to sail by the constant expected wind speed or by the expected gusting speed.

Thanks

Gary.
 
I usually plan for the constant expected wind speed, tho' with the weather & forecasts frequently out of sync, I regularly go and have a look, and if I reckon it's ok, I go. Lots of 'plan Bs' need sorting out though, for the weather enforced diversion /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
I agree with Jomo.

Get down to Bradwell - a bit of windy weather on the Blackwater will be good practice without it getting rough.

Looking at the forecast I would wait until Wednesday before leaving the river. After that the rest of the week looks reasonable wind-wise. According to http://www.windguru.cz/int/index.php?sc=47925 you will have the wind behind you which always knocks 4 or 5 knots off the apparent wind. Go out to the Colne and if you don't like it then go into Brightlingsea for Wed night and have another look on Thursday, even if that means plugging the tide a bit. Your crew will respect your judgment not to go more than going and them not enjoying it.
 
We were contemplating wether it was a matter of just going and seeing whats going to happen.

We went from Jaywick up to the Naze today to get an idea of what lay of the land we can expect to see to get good bearings when we were out there.

Helped as there are now only two Martello towers between Jaywick and Clacton and not the three that are on my chart. Which is one of my land mark bearing points for one of my waypoints.

We were interested to see that the quiet a few boats were running on just the jib or main. Then a little later a good bunch more came up, but only two flew kites, rest were on main and jib.

Saw a poor fellow beating his way back down towards the colne/blackwater when we were at Naze Tower. Had main and jib, and was rolling around and kept rounding up into the wind. After about 10 minutes and about 150yrds he gave up and took then down and motored.
 
Set the sails by the combo of expected and observed weather.

Lash the cornflakes AND the teapot if the gusts look interesting.

If the crew likes regular sailing rather than the view through the leeward safeties / scuppers awash with N Sea.....buy a nice cake and make a superior pot of tea. in port. I would.

PWG
 
Just back from the Baltic; the German forecasts give both the expected mean speed AND gusts, which makes life much easier.
 

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