Good weather?

[DubeJ]

I know that a lot depends on the type of boat and where you live, but i continually hear about wind and swells, and I know what they are, but when are they ideal. I know that no wind is bad and too much is bad also (for newbies like me who just learned to reef) but at what point does one say "this is good sailing conditions" ?
For me specifically, its in North County (30 miles north of San Diego) and I use a Catalina 22. Just wondering.
Also, where does everyone get their local sailing reports from?
J

[Faster]

You're right, it's going to depend on a lot of things, boat, location, experience, preference etc...

Swells are rarely a problem unless you're trying to enter a bar harbour or there's a strong tide rip. In inland waters with fetch the wind chop can build significantly and with tidal influences can become very short and steep and create uncomfortable conditions too.

For most I suspect that 8 - 12 knots true wind is a nice sailing day, giving you 12-15 apparent when beating and leaving enough apparent to move going downwind. Many boats will start to need a reef much above that, but properly reefed you can enjoy terrific sailing in higher breezes if the seas don't build excessively. Over 25 knots true is going to give a lot of people pause - but again, it depends on all those things. Sailing near shore in a strong offshore breeze with no waves is exhilarating too..

On larger boats with long "J" measurements it's nice to get into the wind range where the working jib is adequate power.. makes tacking much easier/faster despite the higher breeze.

Like so much of sailing there's no simple answer..

[nolatom]

Faster's given you good info about wind.

For seas and swell, you could get the data from a nearby weather buoy, using National Data Buoy Center

Generally the longer the wave period (how many seconds between waves) the more gentle and easy the effect for a given height of sea. So 3 feet high with 12-second period is nice, but with a 5-second period it's nasty and will shake the fillings out of your teeth because your 22-foot boat can't rise over one before the next one hits it. Shallow water tends to shorten wave period and may increase height, hence the need to be careful going in or out of harbors or near shore generally.

I'm not familiar with Southern Cal so this is just general advice. And for weather, go to the nws marine forecasts on line and look for a weather reporting station near you, you should be able to get real-time wind speed and direction in a graph-type format.

And good sailing to you!

[DubeJ]

I used your advice, and had a great day of sailing. Thanks