One for the armchair sailor?

Is it a Gale or a Gale?

sailorman said:
THAT was not a gale in the North Sea, believe me
Click to expand...

Could be a moderate gale? It's interesting to note that there are conflicting definitions as to just what constitutes a gale of wind.
On the Beaufort Wind Scale, a Gale is classified as: Moderate Gale(32–38 miles per hour), Fresh Gale(39-46 mph), Strong Gale(47-54 mph) and Whole Gale(55-63 mph).
 
Gale 8, none of yer poncey colonial stuff
laughing-smiley-018.gif




Yantlet said:
Could be a moderate gale? It's interesting to note that there are conflicting definitions as to just what constitutes a gale of wind.
On the Beaufort Wind Scale, a Gale is classified as: Moderate Gale(32–38 miles per hour), Fresh Gale(39-46 mph), Strong Gale(47-54 mph) and Whole Gale(55-63 mph).
Click to expand...
 
sailorman said:
THAT was not a gale in the North Sea, believe me
Click to expand...

I would think it would depend a lot in the wind direction and the proximity of the shoreline.

Plymouth Sound in a northerly gale would not be a lot different, and at the speed the boat was travelling I would have thought there would have been a lot more than a strong breeze blowing at the time.

But, I'm not an expert on these matters so could be very wrong.
 
sailorman said:
Gale 8, none of yer poncey colonial stuff
laughing-smiley-018.gif
Click to expand...

I can assure you we get wind, sitting as we do straddling the "Roaring Forties"
They don't call it "Windy Wellington" lightly!

• Wellington is the windiest main centre in New Zealand with a mean annual wind speed of 22 km/h.
• Wellington also has an average of 22 days per year with mean wind speeds over 63 km/h (40 knots).
• Wellington averages 173 days a year with wind gusts greater than about 60 km/h or 32 knots.
• October is generally the windiest month of the year with a mean of 27 days with wind speeds over 15 knots, 19 of those days are over 20 knots.
 
The Southern North Sea is shallow, with a S/W Gale 8 blowing through the Dover straights it gets rough


Seadog17 said:
I would think it would depend a lot in the wind direction and the proximity of the shoreline.

Plymouth Sound in a northerly gale would not be a lot different, and at the speed the boat was travelling I would have thought there would have been a lot more than a strong breeze blowing at the time.

But, I'm not an expert on these matters so could be very wrong.
Click to expand...
 
When a Colin Archer gets reefed - it's gale all right. :p
She is 30 tons; would go in F8 on first reef. SE wind may not necessarily form big waves there.
 
Achillesheel said:
Gale or not, I liked the shots from the bowsprit.
Click to expand...

+1

And having struggled to secure a wayward flying jib on the bowsprit of the STS Sir Winston Churchill in a SW "Proper Gale" off Penzance Bay heading for Land's End, IMHO I would say that their nomclature is a little OTT. But let's not nit-pick; nice action shots, of a nice old boat with happy sailors aboard.
Stirs the spirits on a gloomy February day. Thanks for the post
 
sailorman said:
THAT was not a gale in the North Sea, believe me
Click to expand...

South easterly off the Dutch coast which explains the lack of sea. The fact they had a reef in an no mizzen set is indicative that it was a reasonable blow even if not a force 8. As mentioned those rescue boats don't worry about reefing early and with a tradtional small rig can carry topsails in a gale. However I'm pretty sure Christiania there has a larger rig now than when she was working.

Nice video though. Sailing in the North Sea in December must have been pretty nippy but I can think of few better boats to do it on.
 
It's the infrequent white horses and lack of spray that suggest it isn't a a genuine British Standard gale. I wonder if 'gale' is a mistranslation (possibly some land-based robotic auto-translate eg Google Translate) of 'cold and breezy'. You know, like UK landsmen (even without robotic mistranslation) talk about 'stormy weather' and mean its raining and windy. When they do that they aren't suggesting it's windier than it is, just that it's not the weather for sitting in the sun lounger listening to the cricket on the radio.
 
jbweston said:
It's the infrequent white horses and lack of spray that suggest it isn't a a genuine British Standard gale. I wonder if 'gale' is a mistranslation (possibly some land-based robotic auto-translate eg Google Translate) of 'cold and breezy'. You know, like UK landsmen (even without robotic mistranslation) talk about 'stormy weather' and mean its raining and windy. When they do that they aren't suggesting it's windier than it is, just that it's not the weather for sitting in the sun lounger listening to the cricket on the radio.
Click to expand...
Thinking back on my time in Norway I think I might be right in saying that they use the term gale to discribe a 6 to 7. Having met the skipper in the original video I can say he's not the sort to exaggerate the weather. He was the skipper of RS14 before she went into the museum.
 
Woodlouse said:
Thinking back on my time in Norway I think I might be right in saying that they use the term gale to discribe a 6 to 7. Having met the skipper in the original video I can say he's not the sort to exaggerate the weather. He was the skipper of RS14 before she went into the museum.
Click to expand...

From Middle English gale ("a wind, breeze"), probably of North Germanic origin, related to Icelandic gola ("a breeze"), Danish gal, furious, mad[1], from Old Norse gala ("to sing").
[edit]Noun
gale (plural gales)
(meteorology) A very strong wind, more than a breeze, less than a storm; number 7 through 9 winds on the 12-step Beaufort scale.
An outburst, especially of laughter.
a gale of laughter
(archaic) A light breeze.

gale=pretty much any wind.

i guess thats why they always clarify on the shipping forecast, gale: force 8

well, i never knew for one.

anyways, can someone please explain what is going on with that lovely solid fuel stove? it looks like its gimbaled but it seems to be venting internally. i must be wrong. i have seen them on boats before but not usually boats which heel, unless only used when moored.
 
viago said:
anyways, can someone please explain what is going on with that lovely solid fuel stove? it looks like its gimbaled but it seems to be venting internally. i must be wrong. i have seen them on boats before but not usually boats which heel, unless only used when moored.
Click to expand...
Wood stove is allways bolted down and with flue.
Well, heard a story from some boat - they knew how far they heeled: coals from stove left scorched marks on headlining ;)
 
Yantlet said:
I can assure you we get wind, sitting as we do straddling the "Roaring Forties"
They don't call it "Windy Wellington" lightly!
Click to expand...

I travelled on the Wahine from Wellington to Littleton the night before she was wrecked (9 April 1968). the weather conditions on the night she was wrecked were described as:

"In the early morning of 10 April, two violent storms merged over Wellington, creating a single extratropical cyclone storm that was the worst recorded in New Zealand's history. Cyclone Giselle was heading south after causing much damage in the north of the North Island. It hit Wellington at the same time as another storm which had driven up the West Coast of the South Island from Antarctica.[4] The winds in Wellington were the strongest ever recorded. At one point they reached a speed of 275 km/h and in one Wellington suburb alone ripped off the roofs of 98 houses. Three ambulances and a truck were blown onto their sides when they tried to go into the area to bring out injured people."

275 km/h is over 130 knots of wind.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top