What is your weather window?

[Neptune's Gear]

Ha ha Andrew, you are right! Puysegur is a great place! You want to hear a crap forecast, listen to Puysegur! A main issue with any vessel is how much sail to use. Light boats generally need less than you think. Too little causes wallowing which is horrible. Too much is hard on the boat and crew. Personally I'm happy with up to around 35 knots or a bit more from behind, but try to avoid more than 20 on the nose, especially if it's shallow, or wind against tide!

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[mrohr]

Depends, I like Boatmans 3 day"favorable" forecast for a long ocean passage. However with a strong crew and a sturdy craft I might embark on a passage that I would not attempt with a green crew, but as others have said, I do not head out in deteriorating conditions.
Often I have left somewhere when conditions seem marginal but found that things were not that bad once outside and was thankful to be underway. This decision is made easier if there is a bailout plan B (some shelter along the route or that promises a change of scenery after being stuck too long with an antsy crew in in a too familiar harbor.
A plan B ( or C) does much to ease the captains mind ,and I am perfectly willing to turn and run with my tail between my legs back to the anchorage if the departure proved too ambitious. ------------So depends.
And ,o yes, I have made the mistake of letting outside influences push me into situations that a regretted with attendant loss of crew confidence.

…………………..luv you all………………………………..mike……………………………………...

[capttman]

As my sails age my tolerance for high winds decreases. Simple inverse relationship :-)

[DoubleWhisky]

I do not like to sail in the wind of less than 8-10 kts, as we have quite heavy boat.
Beating to the windward the boat is most happy with about 15 kts true, so 10 - 20 kts (true wind) is the best window.
Reaching or running 15 - 30 kts true is a "window of comfort". 30 - 40 kts is not a problem for the boat, but on short and mostly confused waves dominating Eastern Med it make for uncomfortable ride and I prefer to avoid it, as my wife is somewhat prone to the seasickness.

[zboss]

Originally Posted by tomfl

I am still concerned that so few posts in this thread are focused on wind speed alone. Even when the size of waves is mentioned there has been no consideration of the period or direction, less yet shape.

When the wind is out of the North off South Florida, even a 10-15 knot speed will produce square waves of a short period that closes the weather window for lots of folks.

There are also many harbors or passes through reef or sand bars that become impassable in the wrong wind, wave, and/or current conditions.

Weather windows are a lot more than simply wind speed.

We won't sail in anything over 3 foot seas with a 4 second period.

However, our boat doesn't start moving until the wind hits 15. I don't bother sailing at all below 10. All sails flying until 22ish.

at 22ish, yankee comes in, staysail stays up. Main without a reef.
at 27ish, 1st reef
at 30ish, 2nd reef. Reef staysail.
at 35ish, 3rd reef, second staysail reef.
at 40ish... hang on.