Wind Strength Questionnaire

[stephenh]

Agree with the others - I first thought you meant lbs / sq. in. ( to be old fashioned) when you used the word 'force' - confusing.

I might leave harbour on a falling 8 but not on a rising 7 so I am not after the 'instant snap' - more of a broader picture and a longer term view.

Surely Beaufort's idea was to get away from the specific speed and give us an easier tool by numbering the forces, initially it was derived from wave height / type and wind speed was ignored as a simple by-product.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Itza wind up.

 

[holly1]

Yeah he is just trying to wind up those of us who have no formal sailing qualifications /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Marsupial]

As others have eluded, question 10 in particular is flawed.

On my boat its sea state that dictates most of those actions and sea state and wind speed or beaufort force do not correlate in the short term..

 

[ShipsWoofy]

Yes, I couldn't fill it out either as it didn't ask specifically about my bronze swimming certificate, nor 2nd place pedantic bore cup I won last year.

 

[pappaecho]

The Art of Course Boating produced a much better measure of wind speed, based largely I think, on the reaction of the froth on a pint of beer

 

[nimbusgb]

One doesn't reef, enter harbour or do much else based on any instrument on the boat, after all the instrument may well be broken. In fact I'd say that to anyone with more than a modicum of experience a wind speed instrument on a sailing vessel is almost completely superfluous.

An experienced sailor will feel the weather or lee helm developing, see the rail dipping under, hear the wind in the rigging and generally feel how the boat is doing. In wind against tide a reef might take place at a completely different windspeed/force to the same piece of water with wind over tide, purely because the motion , pounding, performance or a hundred different factors, might be improved.

Seamanship is what is really used to judge and respond to 'wind force'. Windspeed is just a number.

 

[oldharry]

Like Willson, I was unable to answer question 10. I would use none of those criteria for any of those scenarios. Response in any case would depend on the type of vessel I was in, availability and ability of crew, sea state, tide state, crew stamina, personal knowledge of local conditions etc etc. Actual wind speeds/ forces or whatever would play very little part in such decisions.

 

[Krusty]

[ QUOTE ]
Itza wind up.

[/ QUOTE ]
Twister Ken has it Almost right; but I reckon it really is a serious piece of research;


... by a psychologist investigating the irrational behaviour of pastime-addicts on a forum!

 

[James_Calvert]

Whilst I can find fault with the survey (it's all already been said above), I thought the underlying question was quite interesting.

I was brought up to think in terms of Beaufort forces - based on the effects of wind on the sea - and wind speeds in knots.

However my young son, who is currently getting some RYA dinghy race training, is being taught to think about wind speeds in mph.

Does this represent a schism between yotties and dinghy sailers - and if so, why have the RYA allowed their training schemes diverge in this way?

 

[ShipsWoofy]

... by a psychologist investigating the irrational behaviour of pastime-addicts on a forum!

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[ShipsWoofy]

I have always used the two, beaufort as a general all over picture and wind speed as a direct influence on the way we sail.

I will set the first reef when the gusts reach 17kts, yet this can happen when the overall situation is F3

Please don't pick that sentence to pieces in here the PedanticBoreOpportunity forum, it is an example..

 

[Twister_Ken]

Beaufort is Beaufort, irrespective of boat speed/direction. An F5 upwind can be challenging, whereas an F5 downwind is very pleasant. Small boat sailors are more concerned about apparent wind speed than about true wind speed

 

[reeac]

[ QUOTE ]
I got half way through your survey before I realised that when you said force, you meant Beaufort force (which is just a measurement of speed). The force is the effect on the sails, hull etc, in terms of a, er, force (measured in newtons)!
You reef the sails when the wind speed (measured in m/s, mph, knots or Beaufort scale etc) increases to reduce the force on the sail.

So, I judge whether to go out/reef/heave to etc etc by considering both the speed of the wind and its effect on the boat (its force on the sails and the water, too, of course).

I think your survey is a bit confused - well it confused me!

[/ QUOTE ]

I had the same problem - didn't realise that you probably meant Beaufort scale number when you said wind force.

 

[jim1]

Thank you all who took time to fill out the questionnaire. I have now closed the questionnaire for answers and have begun analysing data.

I have found the discussions put forward from you all very interesting and will be commenting on them in the results of the project.

Once my analysis is done I will provide some information on what conclusions I have drawn form the survey

Thank you again for you assistance in this survey.

Rgds

jim.