purple_stars wrote:
what instruments and tools do you use for wind and weather ?

i am only just now reading about some of this for the first time.
obviously there is a wind vane for measuring wind direction, but how
do you measure wind speed ? or do you ? i know the basic tool for
measuring wind speed is an anemometer, but i've never actually used
one before. do you use one ? is it mounted on the boat or handheld
? or do you just look at the waves and "guess" ? how do you use it,
i mean, how do you use the information yourself in your cruising,
what purpose does it serve for you ? how do you measure pressure
and/or humidity ? or do you ? what kind of instruments do you have,
do you just use a regular wall mounted barometer ? in general i'm
curious what instruments for wind and weather that you folks use, how
you use it, what purpose they serve for you, etc. i'm constantly
reading in books that some boat captain had 30 knot winds and the
pressure was falling such-and-such an amount per hour ... was s/he
just guessing at the wind speed based on wave heights and general
observation, or was s/he holding a handheld anemometer up in the air
or what ? the books never say! was the captain watching a glass
barometer to get the pressure ? i'm sure some boats have more
sophisticated instruments and methods than others, but what are they
? and i'm assuming too that some folks use weatherfax and things to
get weather reports in addition to making direct measurements to help
predict weather and see what's going on. and i've even read about
using airmail to get weather maps. experience, i'm sure, also goes a
long ways, cloud observations, that kind of thing.

what kind of weather instruments do you use and how do you use them ?

can you recommend any good books on this topic for cruisers ?

We must assume from your questions that you are a comparative newcomer to
the sport of sailing, otherwise you would be aware of the immense plethora
of wind and weather instrumentation available to the boat owner.

Most modern instrumentation is by means of various suitably-located sensors
linked to a central computer, and thence sent to various instrument heads
situated adjacent to the helm, some of which are multi-functional, i.e. they
depict more than one parameter by using a built-in switch.

Any boat equipped with Raymarine instrumentation (or other similar set-up)
will answer most if not all of your questions far better than we can, and my
advice is to find such a vessel in your anchorage or marina, and make
friends with the owner, most of whom will be only too pleased to show off
their expensive hardware!


Dennis.