Received: from opus.hpl.hp.com (opus-fddi.hpl.hp.com) by jr.hpl.hp.com with ESMTP (1.37.109.24/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1) id AA001134028; Mon, 6 Jul 1998 18:13:48 -0700 Return-Path: <scottw@force4.com-DeleteThis> Received: from hplms26.hpl.hp.com by opus.hpl.hp.com with ESMTP (1.37.109.24/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1) id AA078654023; Mon, 6 Jul 1998 18:13:43 -0700 Received: from proxy3.ba.best.com (root@proxy3.ba.best.com-DeleteThis [206.184.139.14]) by hplms26.hpl.hp.com (8.8.6/8.8.6 HPLabs Relay) with ESMTP id SAA29996 for <wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis>; Mon, 6 Jul 1998 18:13:42 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ScottPC ([208.219.104.72]) by proxy3.ba.best.com (8.9.0/8.9.0/best.out) with SMTP id SAA12879 for <wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis>; Mon, 6 Jul 1998 18:09:18 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19980706181402.0069bfa4@shell15.ba.best.com-DeleteThis> X-Sender: swink@shell15.ba.best.com-DeleteThis X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.1 (32) Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 18:14:02 -0700 To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis From: Scott Winkler <scottw@force4.com-DeleteThis> Subject: Bay Area Wind Trends? In-Reply-To: <88256639.0060937D.00@psp-smtp-03.peoplesoft.com-DeleteThis> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Sailed for my 2nd day of the 98 season yesterday and caught the peak wind
at Coyote 5-6:30pm on a 6.3, ASD 8'11" (200#). While the sesh was fun, it
really felt more like September, eg the wind came up late, was on the light
side and backed off quickly. I gather the lingering effects of El Nino are
responsible for the troughing effect Mike Godsey is so elegantly reporting,
but I dimly recall July 4th's past when I was glad to take a day off to
heal blistered hands and various torqued muscles from big air prior to the
4th. Also, my 6.3 Prisma (mid 97) is looking pretty beat, and it occurred
to me that I've been sailing this beast almost exclusively since I got it!
Now that the 98 season is pretty much in the crapper, I've had time to
ponder the overall trend of bay wind, and it seems to me that I'm sailing
less and less year over year, on larger sails. Can any of the quant's out
there analyze real meteorlogical data to support/deny this?
Some personal caveats:
1. I've been relegated to weekend warrior status. But if the overall wind
patterns in the Bay area are constant, then windy weekends should
statistically match the general stat's for # of days of sailable wind at a
given location. It seems like in the old days, every weekend in prime
season (June/July/August) would blow except for maybe 1 day/month.
2. No bs, but I weigh the same as when I started windsurfing in 85. I used
to regulary sail 5.0 and 4.5's, then it was 5.5,5.0 and now it's mostly the
6.3, and I'm eying a 7.0. I know sail technology allows for wider range,
but the diff between 6.3 and 5.0 is more than sail technology!
3. I no longer can afford the luxury of hanging around windless parking
lots speculating about when and where it might blow. So I follow the "No
blow, no go" rule, meaning I may miss sessions where the when comes up
late, and dies early. Again, at the risk of sounding like an old fogey, the
wind at Coyote used to come up around 1pm and build until 3 or 4.
Yesterday, it didn't go over 15knots until 4ish.
********************************
Scott Winkler
Force 4 New Venture Partners
415 917-9674
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jan 05 2013 - 02:01:21 PST