Maybe it's time to consider a stinkpot

[flyingwelshman]

Not so windy: Research suggests winds dying down

[Valiente]

Except for high summer, it seems windier in Toronto than when I started sailing 10 years ago. I have also noticed that there seems to be more easterly wind now than the mostly westerly wind of former times.

Barometric changes do influence wind, but a warmer world means warmer air, which rises, and which creates low pressure and gradients in the process. It's the tilt of the earth that heats the planet differentially, and the spin of the earth that helps to move masses of differentially heated air from place to place. That isn't going to change, although the location of "windiest spots" may move with the climate.

[WanderingStar]

Don't buy into research too much, they still can't get the weather right for three days.

[flyingwelshman]

Originally Posted by WanderingStar

Don't buy into research too much, they still can't get the weather right for three days.

Yeah, I'm sure another report will come out soon saying the winds have increased...

[timebandit]

I would rather putt around in a sailboat with a chance to put up sail than drive a stinkpotter knowing that is the best it will ever get.

[SEMIJim]

Seems as windy as ever to me, if not windier.

We tend to get pretty decently consistent good sailing weather in spring, thru early summer, and very late summer into fall. But during full summer it tends to get hot, sticky and often essentially windless. That's one of the two reasons we're currently looking for a small, inexpensive stink-pot (16' or so): On those days where we want to be on the water, but there's no air, we'll just hop in the little stink-boat and cruise around. The other reason is there are neat areas nearby that, quite honestly, we cannot go with our 5' of draft.

We also have friends who own part of an island on the other side of the bay. An hour or better by car (you have to go around the bay), and somebody has to come fetch you. Two hours or better by sail (depending on the air), and still somebody has to come out and fetch you because of the lack-of-depth. Twenty minutes or less by speedy stink-pot cutting directly across the bay, and pull right up to the island. We love Abracadabra, but some things are better-suited to a different kind of vessel.

Jim

[Leither]

Research about weather trends seem to be about as reliable as research on what is good for your diet ie contradictory, especially when interpreted by the press, so I tend to ignore them.

My guess is that this particular report would be a very poor basis for changing your lifestyle so drastically......

Stuart