Wind speed

norcalsail

Well-Known Member
I have a question about wind speed. Though I learned to sail as a kid, I really don't have a lot of experience except for that nice familiar lake in Wisconsin. After sailing Lake Sonoma last Sunday, I looked on "Willy Weather" to check out wind speeds for the day. As I expected, they increased as the afternoon progressed and were between (roughly) 6-13 mph. and pretty variable there (whereas here at home they are very reliably from the west). Klemsaba, I believe, posted that he had been sailing in 25 mph. winds. Generally, what is too much and what is too little for a Sunfish?
 
Too little is no wind at all. It is fun to sail in very light winds (Unless the tide is against you) I was drifting about in less than 5mph last night and it was very pleasant. Too much depends on how you like to sail. I would say that anything over a force 5 (about 20mph) requires a bit of confidence, athleticism and a willingness to get wet. Force four is ideal for safe, entertaining sailing. 6-13 is on the low end of that but still great.
 
L&VW posted a shot in the past of his Fish throwing out a wake in light airs... sailing in light airs is a valuable skill which every small craft sailor should cultivate, as the time will surely come when you will have to sail back to your launch site after the wind dies. A fairly common occurrence off San Diego, which meant a long tedious haul back up the channel in light airs for those caught under or off Point Loma. Good news is that your Fish is light in terms of displacement, so she'll sail better than most craft in light airs. :rolleyes:

On the flip side, an adult skipper who weighs up to 180 or 190 lbs. should have no problem sailing a Fish in up to 20 knots of breeze, though there will be hard hiking involved while thrashing to windward, and fast planing off the wind... makes it more fun, I reckon. A heavier guy can sail in 25+ knots of breeze, but it will be hard on the skipper and the boat... sail gear & marine hardware will be more likely to fail. I had my Minifish on Show Low Lake in breeze gusting up to 30 knots, and the boat was a handful with wind shifts and heller chop, not as much fun to sail in challenging conditions. :eek:

OP, your prevailing winds aren't much different than those in Dago, and the usual pattern called for breeze to build by mid-morning, peak in the afternoon, and die off toward dusk. My favorite days of sailing in Dago involved riding the ebb of spring tides, the high around 0800... by the time the breeze picked up at 1000 or so, the current was moving well and a hand could make heller time to the Point. Tide would turn while I was offshore, (around 1400 in this example), then I would ride the flood back up the channel to Glorietta Bay (my usual launch site)... a good program for experienced sailors. :cool:

Ideally, for recreational purposes including drinking heaps o' beer while under way, a steady breeze of 15 knots or so is perfect. I always keep a soft cooler in the cockpit, doesn't knock around as much... ice-cold tinnies are better than bottles, broken glass can become a safety hazard in such a small space. Thrash to windward for awhile, hiking hard as ya do, then fall off a bit and pound a beer, resume thrashing to windward and repeat the sequence for half the voyage... drinking beer while reaching or running doesn't pose any great difficulty, LOL. CHEERS!!! ;)

P.S. If I wanted to spend more time patrolling the beach in Coronado or sailing out to the islands, I would launch from the small beach next to the boat ramp on Shelter Island, thereby saving myself the hassle of beating to windward down the channel. From Shelter Island, one could usually sail directly down the channel, crossing Zuniga Jetty if the tide was right, thus saving heller time in transit en route to the beach in Coronado. Same for the islands, though there was no need to cross the jetty, which can be spooky with all those submerged rocks under your boat. I always lifted the boards a bit prior to crossing, but the rocks below were still spooky, LOL. If you plan on sailing in Bodega or Tomales Bay, I would recommend that you obtain a nautical chart of the area, so you can study it and see where the hazards & obstructions lie... good knowledge to have even with a shallow-draft boat, nothing worse than ripping your hull open on rocks just when ya need it most, LOL. :D
 
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Sailing a Sunfish in very light air (say under 5 mph) is not great fun but, as mentioned above, a valuable and a downright necessary skill if you want to be a successful racer. I have found that as I get older, my light air skill has improved. Maybe I am more patient and can focus more on where the wind is coming from and how to orient the sail and hull to make the most of it. That said, several times a season I LOVE to sail in very high wind, say 25 mph or more. You have to make sure the boat and rig is strong and secure, and to keep the boat moving fast to prevent the rig from getting overloaded. A good romp in high wind keeps my 74 year old brain happy and my 74 year old body happy (but humble.) About two weeks ago, our local sailing club tried to start races in a 28 mph wind and finally abandoned racing when 3 Lightning class boats capsized and had difficulty self-rescuing. A number of Sunfish, Lasers and Finns stayed out and had great fun reaching at insane speed. It was the nautical equivalent of downhill skiing a triple diamond trail in fresh powder. Can I get an "amen" for the occasional heavy air outing?

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
 
Yes, Lightnings are bad news after capsizing!
I will add that many sailors, including me, tend to exaggerate with respect to the winds they sailed in.
I may think it was 15-20 mph (nice planing conditions for a Sunfish), but then the wind report tells me it was (only) 10-15!
 
Sailing a Sunfish in very light air (say under 5 mph) is not great fun but, as mentioned above, a valuable and a downright necessary skill if you want to be a successful racer. I have found that as I get older, my light air skill has improved. Maybe I am more patient and can focus more on where the wind is coming from and how to orient the sail and hull to make the most of it. That said, several times a season I LOVE to sail in very high wind, say 25 mph or more. You have to make sure the boat and rig is strong and secure, and to keep the boat moving fast to prevent the rig from getting overloaded. A good romp in high wind keeps my 74 year old brain happy and my 74 year old body happy (but humble.) About two weeks ago, our local sailing club tried to start races in a 28 mph wind and finally abandoned racing when 3 Lightning class boats capsized and had difficulty self-rescuing. A number of Sunfish, Lasers and Finns stayed out and had great fun reaching at insane speed. It was the nautical equivalent of downhill skiing a triple diamond trail in fresh powder. Can I get an "amen" for the occasional heavy air outing?

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
amen
 
Klemsaba, I believe, posted that he had been sailing in 25 mph. winds. Generally, what is too much and what is too little for a Sunfish?

Yes, last week I was in 25mph sustained. Sailing along the waves was nice. Sailing back against the waves was a beat down! I don't usually go out in the open lake in winds that high. I'll stay in our large cove that at least offers protection from wave action.

Breaking stuff is always a concern the higher the wind speed. My main fear is snapping the tiller. Weather helm is a pain on my boat and/or my sailing technique.
 
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Amen.

Back in July when I was in Wisconsin, my first priority was getting the old Sunfish out on the lake. For a couple of days, my meager skills improved in light wind. After a week, a big wind day came up and I was ready to sail. I asked my more experienced older sister if she had ever dumped the thing and she had, purposely, to know she could right the boat. She told me about pushing the dagger board and I went sailing! Within 20 minutes, I capsized, swam around to the dagger, righted and got the boat going again. Due to inexperience, I dumped it twice more that day. The wind usually came out of the south but had shifted to the west and I close hauled in a reach and got slapped down. Lots of fun as I got thrown over the boom and into the lake! I righted it quickly but I didn't realize it was due to my inexperience until I got back home and did some research.

I may have told this story before in an earlier post so hope it's not redundant but really appreciate all the answers and stories.
 
I have a question about wind speed. Though I learned to sail as a kid, I really don't have a lot of experience except for that nice familiar lake in Wisconsin. After sailing Lake Sonoma last Sunday, I looked on "Willy Weather" to check out wind speeds for the day. As I expected, they increased as the afternoon progressed and were between (roughly) 6-13 mph. and pretty variable there (whereas here at home they are very reliably from the west). Klemsaba, I believe, posted that he had been sailing in 25 mph. winds. Generally, what is too much and what is too little for a Sunfish?
I took my original name as "Light and Variable Winds", as that's what I like to start my day sailing in.

Winds usually increase starting about 10-AM, and drop to a disappointing near-nothing at Noon. Even when I tried a smoke signal from an incense stick, the smoke just dissipated straight up! :( (But the boat smelled nice). ;) On several occasions, the wind direction will change and became overpowering. :eek: One day, a "cell" tore my mainsail, and broke my mast; fortunately, I was standing in knee-deep water. Given the opportunity to buy a new mast, I bought four! (And have them stored for sale/local pick-up in NH...)

When I was able to anticipate such overpowering winds from a protected shoreline, I was able to get home by dropping the main and sailing a broad reach by "bare pole". :) (Easier than it sounds). Just a few days ago, caught near shore, I learned could sail backwards to safety. :cool:

One of my best sails was a loss to an experienced sailor racing my above Sunfish. (I was sailing my Porpoise 2). Winds of probably 25-MPH kept things interesting for an hour, and nothing broke. :cool:


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Yes, Lightnings are bad news after capsizing!
Tell me about it!

Three weeks ago we effectively lost a podium finish in the Lightning Nationals when our spinnaker sheet cover snapped in a 22-knot gust (12 metres/second - that was the reading from the weather station). The spinnaker first swung to leeward almost-capsizing us, then the other way, dumping us to windward. The whole thing took maybe three seconds. After a lot of swimming, we got the centreboard only partially out, so we had to resort to a jury boat to right the thing. Thinking of an easily reachable centreboard cleat releasing system again...

But to answer the original question,1) too little is when gravity is a stronger force on the sail(s) than the wind, and 2) too much is when the masthead spends more time under the water than above, or reasonably strong equipment starts breaking. Applies to all boats.

_
 
This is a good thread! Light air question: who uses a wind indicator / windex on their Sunfish, and what kind. I use one mounted on top of my mast on our C-22 and it’s really helpful, especially in light air. Useful for a Sunny too?
 
When lake sailing, we don't call it 20 knots until the waves have fully formed white caps on them. Somewhere between 23~25 the top will blow off the top of the white caps. The first sign of white caps we call 18 knots. This usually mirrors what the weather stations say in our area.
 
Hey, Serpant, you ever catch this video?


That shot of Wingnut flying over the dam is actually MOI on a fast plane aboard the Laser, LOL... :eek:

"WIND MUST HAVE BEEN 100 KNOTS, BOYZ!!!" :rolleyes:

With luck, some nautical armchair experts here at this site will claim some of the other footage in this video, particularly in the second half with the "BULLET TRAIN" soundtrack, LOL. ;)

Example: "THERE I WAS, THE WIND GUSTING TO 200 KNOTS, AND I ROLLED MY SUNFISH INTO INVERTED FLIGHT AS I JUMPED THE WHOLE FREAKIN' SET AT WAIMEA BAY!!! HAPPENED SO FAST, I CAN'T GIVE YA ALL THE DETAILS..." :confused:

Don't forget to wait through the halftime darkness of a few seconds to catch the footage of those Krazy Flyboys skimming the crags in their F-18s, that's some good aerial footage. I'm not big on phony modern wars fought for profit & greed as opposed to principle, I just like the aerial sequences and footage in this bad@$$ video. I say that as a hand who hails from a nautical military family (CDRs, USN Submarine Service, I chose the USA INF, go figure, and we have other military personnel in the family, a century or more of combined service). MEH, ENJOY THE VIDEO, THE FLIGHT FOOTAGE DOESN'T SUCK. :D

CHEERS!!! :)

P.S. Wingnut gets my vote in the next U.S. presidential election... :cool:
 
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Once ya have that dolly, things will go much more smoothly at launch time, and you'll be more motivated to sail, LOL. Watch that PVC glue when ya build the dolly, that cr@p will get ya high and then give ya a gnarly headache, 10-4? :confused:
 

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