Windfinder was right!

[RogerFoxTerrier]

Went sailing yesterday. Most forecasts were for moderate winds (Solent) but strong gusts into the 20s. What stood out was Windfiinder.com stating 37 knots at 4pm. I just assumed this was perhaps an error, as other forecasts didn't concur.

But, bang on 4pm, just as we came back to our mooring in Chichester Harbour, biblical wind shot out of nowhere, right up to 40 knots. So, well done windfinder!

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Went sailing yesterday. Most forecasts were for moderate winds (Solent) but strong gusts into the 20s. What stood out was Windfiinder.com stating 37 knots at 4pm. I just assumed this was perhaps an error, as other forecasts didn't concur.

But, bang on 4pm, just as we came back to our mooring in Chichester Harbour, biblical wind shot out of nowhere, right up to 40 knots. So, well done windfinder!
View attachment 199754

We saw the forecast and stayed at home. We’d have been finishing a race, packing up, motoring through the marina and bridge, and mooring up. I didn’t fancy that at 40kn. And as you say, the forecast turned out to be right. It was 20 mins earlier at the western end of the Solent.

 

[ProDave]

I do find the Windfinder superforecast more accurate than most, and often quite different.

 

[toothless]

I was out on the solent on my contessa 26 with my 4 year old when the winds went from a fun F5-6 to gusting well into F9. The highest I saw was 44 apparent. Spicy is an understatement! Still, the boat took it ok, tough old girl. My daughter less so, but a ginger biscuit and an apple and she was back to her usual self.

 

[wombat88]

WE live close to Chichester Harbour, ten minutes or so before it arrived a flight of four Tiger Moths went over, I fear they may have had a rough time of it.

 

[Caladh]

We saw the forecast and stayed at home. We’d have been finishing a race, packing up, motoring through the marina and bridge, and mooring up. I didn’t fancy that at 40kn. And as you say, the forecast turned out to be right. It was 20 mins earlier at the western end of the Solent.

Saw 43 knots here in Portland marina at around 1545hrs. It’d been consistently 35k+ for about 30 mins before.

 

[RogerFoxTerrier]

I was out on the solent on my contessa 26 with my 4 year old when the winds went from a fun F5-6 to gusting well into F9. The highest I saw was 44 apparent. Spicy is an understatement! Still, the boat took it ok, tough old girl. My daughter less so, but a ginger biscuit and an apple and she was back to her usual self.

I hope it's not put your daughter off. My wife doesn't like sailing and it all goes back to a single incident when she was very young.

I guess the key is just to keep smiling!!

 

[toothless]

I hope it's not put your daughter off. My wife doesn't like sailing and it all goes back to a single incident when she was very young.

I guess the key is just to keep smiling!!

Yes that was my worry too. Still, she looks like she's having fun here...

 

[thinwater]

The sailor that flouts the weather forecast ....

 

[RunAgroundHard]

The sailor that flouts the weather forecast ....

... has more fun.

 

[RogerFoxTerrier]

The sailor that flouts the weather forecast ....

But they're usually wrong!

 

[Lucky Duck]

Not shown on that wind graph but there some fruity squalls in the Central Solent around 11, it then dropped to practically nothing for a while afterwards

 

[franksingleton]

Windfinder uses the GFS for its global forecasts and ICON-EU for Europe. To comment sensibly, I would need to know what other forecast models were saying and what the GMDSS text was saying. ICON-EU is, probably, the most useful detailed forecast available for Europe. Unfortunately, the Met Office does not make its UKV wind forecast freely .
Effective resolution of the GFS is about 60 km, for IVON-EU it is about 35 km, got UKV, about 10 km.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

UKV2 on Windy gave 36-42 knot gusts for the Solent off Yarmouth from 3pm onwards. It started at 3.30, ramping up very quickly.

 

[franksingleton]

UKV2 on Windy gave 36-42 knot gusts for the Solent off Yarmouth from 3pm onwards. It started at 3.30, ramping up very quickly.

I cannot understand why the Met Office app does not give access to this wind information. The forecast, UKV, is one of few that is updated hourly. For rain it is excellent. It must also be so for wind. I assume the UKV2 is the name given by Windy to UKV output that is charged for by the Met Office. There does not seem to be a UKV2 model.