- a windy miscellany

Beaufort Wind Scale for Small Boats

Wind force Mean speed knots Description 0 <1 No wind, splendid for powerboats. 1 1-3 Light airs, drifting match for dinghies.

Powerboat owners still very happy. 2 4-6 Light Breeze. Dinghies now hopeful.

Powerboat operators happy. 3 7-10 Gentle breeze. Dinghies come to life.

Powerboats operators don oilskins. 4 11-16 Moderate breeze. Dinghy sailing exciting.

Powerboat operators begin to seek a lee. 5 17-21 Fresh breeze. Inexperienced dinghy sailors

wisely discover defects in their boats.

Experienced dinghy sailors become enthusiastic

and cause defects in their boats.

Powerboat operators reduce speed. 6 22-27 A strong breeze. All dinghy sailors but the mad

heads go home. Powerboat operators at reduced

speed start eyeing the size of the waves. 7 28-33 Near gale. All but fools stay ashore 8 34-40 Gale. Those with sense take their boats out of the

water and tie securely down. 9 41-47 Strong gale. Scrutinise insurance policies. 10 48-55 Storm. We read about it in the papers for days

afterwards. Better get the boat off the beach or

hard.

Re-produced from: “Seamanship in Small Open Boats” by Ken Duxbury