Wind-meter????

[MacGyver]

What do you use to accurately tell what the wind speed is?

We use an app, but for our lake it is very accurate most of the time and have thought about maybe a handheld to tell in real time or something of the sort.  What do you all think?

Any ideas of what a good unit would be?

Mac

[peterg]

I recently installed a Nexus wireless system on my 23- apparent wind speed and direction on an easy to read instrument make for really optimized sailing. The price was also within reason, though we also carry a hand-held low-tech pito type device that is pretty accurate- have had that onboard since the mid-nineties and it works just dandy for wind speed.

[kahpho]

I guess I haven't really cared enough to buy something. My scale goes something like ....

slow..
better..
fun!
uh-oh!
oh wow!!
oh sh*t!!!!!!

[Lafayette Bruce]

Mac - I have a little Kestrel handheld and have had it for close to 15 years.  Works great and for no more often than I use it, it is perfect for my needs.  An advantage of handheld devices is if I ever upgrade boats, the wind meter goes with me and not the boat so I don't have to buy it again.  You are welcome to try it out at CRL, if you wish.
Lafayette Bruce

[kickingbug1]

    we measure wind with the "woa------factor"

[NateD]

I've got two handheld anemometers. One that requires no batteries and is very cool to play with made by Dwyer (http://www.dwyer-inst.com/Product/AirVelocity/Windmeters/PortableHandheldMeter/Ordering?gclid=CjgKEAjwwuqcBRCSuoivmIPnkwQSJACpqj3kAuv_IgdP0xloEjGtRgW5ASfoWbgnB8poAdvDV3u4XfD_BwE). The second is a digital one sold by Radio Shack, but they have discontinued it.

Handhelds are much much cheaper than the masthead units, and can move with you from boat to boat, but they're much less convenient. Also, be ready to be shocked by how weak the wind actually is. There are days when I figured it must be blowing 20 with gusts to 30, and it's actually blowing 15 with gusts to 20.

[crazycarl]

some time ago i read of a 99 cent app for smart phones that uses the microphone to determine wind speed.

i don't know how accurate it is, but for 99 cents...


cc

[cdflan]

Have used a Weather Hawk hand held unit and find it is easy to use and accurate.  Second Nate's comment on difference between "stickng your finger in the air" and actual data.  Amazon has a wide selection under hand held anemometers.

[atrometer]

Based on the comment about a $.99 app, I bought it.  It can be calibrated and seems reasonably accurate.  Hey for $.99 .....!

[skip1930]

I watch for white caps as the wind blows the top-O-waves off.
The more blown off the better.

skip.

[MacGyver]

I really appreciate the input everyone. I most certainly have plenty to look into now.

It is our plan to better learn the conditions at Carlyle Lake, and I think knowing the wind speed for the most part will help us to put 2 and 2 together, so that we might better sail the boat. May help us decide on reefs and such, etc.

Thanks, and any more input is great!

Mac

[atrometer]

An old Rule of thumb is at around 12 kts whitecaps form.

[Jon898]

Two "instruments" not yet mentioned are your eyes and ears.  They are analog instead of digital, but you could debate whether digital has any place on a sailboat in the first place.

Eyes - observe the conditions around you and correlate those to your experiences.  That's essentially what Admiral Beaufort used in recording the scale named after him over 200 years ago.  It's probably more applicable to small boats to do this than to hang on an actual "number" produced by an electronic gizmo, after all, downwind in 10 knots (top end of a Beafort F3 but with an apparent speed maybe 5 knots) is completely different than a beat upwind in the same wind (apparent speed maybe 13 or 14 knots).  Bear in mind though that the Beaufort scale has observations for land and open-ocean seawater, so lake and fresh water conditions would differ (freshwater waves being steeper and shorter period and shallow water affecting things as well) and you can't use the Beaufort ones out-of-the-box.

Ears - listen to what's going on around you.  Examples:  Halyards lazily slapping on a mast (obviously someone else, as you'd never allow that on your own boat) is usually a light breeze (F2), while banging away at more than once a second is usually somewhere to the top of a F4; if the shrouds are whistling, it's probably the beginning of a F6; one that I used to use that correlated well with a F5 (17 to 21 knots) was to hold up an open can (pull-tab type) of beer...if you could make it whistle in the wind, it was a F5.  Of course, the ultimate wind speed device may be the Admiral saying "you can kill yourself, but I'm not going out in that!"...similar to kahp ho's post.

[NateD]

We did mention eyes and ears, in the context of being relatively poor gauges of true wind speed.

The shrouds on my CP23 would howl at about 15 mph wind and 5 mph boat speed with some heel, that works out to about 17.4 knots, well below the F6 (22-27 knots) cited. Not saying the scale is wrong or eyes/ears won't give you a rough estimate, but they won't be as accurate as a good instrument.

[atrometer]

We did mention eyes and ears, in the context of being relatively poor gauges of true wind speed.

The shrouds on my CP23 would howl at about 15 mph wind and 5 mph boat speed with some heel, that works out to about 17.4 knots, well below the F6 (22-27 knots) cited. Not saying the scale is wrong or eyes/ears won't give you a rough estimate, but they won't be as accurate as a good instrument.

Uh, 15 MPH = 13 Knots