Top end limit finally reached..

I reckon approx 2% of club sailors - and even then those in more heavy air friendly craft - could get round the course in a true 30kts.

2.5 hour race starting from 12 with the wind trace given at the start of the video. Average is always between 25-30 with gust up to 35 knots. It's in the harbour though, so relatively flat. Although the chop is often more difficult than proper waves. 

Edited by mozzy - 25 Jun 12 at 12:55pm

Originally posted by ellistine Portland Harbour anemometers were reading nearly 30knots yet the on the water commentators where reporting 16knots on their handhelds.

Wind shear. Handhelds will be too low to be very reliable. Its wind speed ten to 15 feet up that really counts.

Originally posted by RS400atC Originally posted by ellistine Something I noticed during the last Sail for Gold, the Portland Harbour anemometers were reading nearly 30knots yet the on the water commentators where reporting 16knots on their handhelds. As somebody who basis whether to sail or not on what the wall says, I wouldn't be surprised if I've ever sailed in much more than 20knots. Windspeed is normally standardised at 10 metre height. For weather people anyway. At the sea surface it will be a fraction of that. What happens at the height of  a dinghy rig will vary according to how turbulent the air is. So 16 knots at deck level could easily be 30knots at 10 metres.

There are no many dinghies with 10metre rigs. Is there an equation to calculate at mid rig height say about 3m?

The anemometers at Weymouth tend to overread a fair bit, as do the bramble/chi/camber/sotonmet ones to a lesser extent.
I think that what we dinghy sailors refer to as x kts is the wind speed at yacht mast height.
Of course the handheld at an angle to the wind next to the rib console behind the fat bloke will read a fair bit less.