I know this topic has been on before but I couldnt find it..Can you get one for under $50 that does the job? After the last sail when I got flattened I overestimated the wind strength yesterday & rigged too small. Its also hard to estimate when the wind is so gusty that its just areas of darker patches on the water .
There's the the bottle anemometer.
It's an array of partly filled pet bottles that you put on the top of your car/picnic table/beach. The one with the least in it blows over first, the next heaviest blows over in stronger wind and so on. Its a good idea to tie them to a brick. Its cheap and accurate. A one bottle wind is always a one bottle wind. 
MkI eyeball is pretty accurate but you need to train yourself. I found this which may help. Allways hard in sheltered waters as the wind at shore may be entirely different to out on the water, but look up for a more accurate idea.
note: 10 m above ground
FORCE EQUIVALENT SPEED DESCRIPTION SPECIFICATIONS FOR USE ON LAND
mph knots
0 0-1 0-1 Calm Calm; smoke rises verticall.
1 1-3 1-3 Light air Direction of wind shown by
smoke drift, but not by wind
vanes.
2 4-7 4-6 Light Breeze Wind felt on face; leaves
rustle; ordinary vanes moved
by wind.
3 8-12 7-10 Gentle Breeze Leaves and small twigs in
constant motion; wind extends
light flag.
4 13-18 11-16 Moderate Breeze Raises dust and loose paper;
small branches are moved.
5 19-24 17-21 Fresh Breeze Small trees in leaf begin to
sway; crested wavelets form on
inland waters.
6 25-31 22-27 Strong Breeze Large branches in motion;
whistling heard in telegraph
wires; umbrellas used with
difficulty.
7 32-38 28-33 Near Gale Whole trees in motion;
inconvenience felt when walking
against the wind.
8 39-46 34-40 Gale Breaks twigs off trees;
generally impedes progress.
9 47-54 41-47 Severe Gale Slight structural damage occurs
(chimney-pots and slates removed).
10 55-63 48-55 Storm Seldom experienced inland; trees
uprooted; considerable structural
damage occurs.
11 64-72 56-63 Violent Storm Very rarely experienced;
accompanied by wide-spread damage.
12 73-83 64-71 Hurricane
Probably about all I can afford..
they are generally accurate but not precise. Meaning only use your windmeter, dont go from someone else's reading. Then calibrate yourself to the meter ie. Constant 15kt use 7m. Just like gps's dont look at the peaks, get 1 that reads an average (10s etc) & rig for the constant wind.
Ive found they all are a little slow to react to a gust and become less reliable in about 30knots, in which case it's 'kn windy rig small.
stick your pointer finger in your mouth and then hold it up into the wind if it dries in 1 sec it's 25knts 2 secs 20knts 3 sec 18knts..etc if it's still wet after a minute you forgot to take it out your mouth
some boaties reckon they are better. I'll stick to digital. Regardless of how accurate they are you have to get close to the wind you are sailing in- no good standing 5m above water level etc unless that is always where you stand to observe.
Hello, SBC,
I used one of these Dwyer instruments for years (www.dwyer-inst.com.au/Products/Product.cfm?Group_ID=187) until I went digital. The instrument meets your need for something that is low cost and best of all, there is a NSW phone number, so you should be able to contact them to find a local dealer.
My unit came in a plastic pouch and I made sure I used the pouch to protect the gauge when it was not in use. To use it, you have to face into the wind and you also have to place one finger over a small hole in one leg (which allows a the use of a low speed scale or a high speed scale). Very simple to learn and use, but I can't remember how the scale was calibrated (mph, knots, m/s, etc. If you ring them, you might ask).
As with all gauges, there are some things to learn, for example, never take a wind reading when there is a hill or a clump of trees directly behind you (the air tends to lift off the water to avoid the obstruction, so lowering the speed you measure).
I also agree that the Beaufort scale of judging wind strength by white caps is very beneficial. By comparing the wind speed to the white caps, you will very shortly be able to accurately judge wind speed.
Hope this helps (and remember, you also have my contact details).
Kind regards.
Almost forgot, the Dwyer uses a pith ball in one leg of the gauge and it is VERY sensitive to wind speed variations. After a small while, you will get used to the ball movement.
Hope this helps.
several years back i had one of these grey $100 1inch fan driven anemometers from whitworths, it had a big easy read display with a light, showed windchill, auto off etc. and was waterproof, and thought it was the bee's knees, but the battery would go flat in just a month with it turned off. They replaced it with another faulty one and apparently there was a faulty batch. I eventually just got my money back.
later i discovered you could buy the same for only $35 but it was yellow
three of us with different types of anemometers compared them side by side on the beach and all were pretty much spot on with each other
at whitworths it looks like mine has been replaced with this one
www.whitworths.com.au/wind-hh-anemo-therm
I think I'll get one of those form Whitworths.
I used to be able to tell what sail to rig, but I realise , esp after Maui, that I have forgotten what strong wind feels like. Chronic underpowered GC sailing has turned my touch to mud.
I had no idea what sail I might need on any given day. I was using a 4.2 in what looked like calm water half the time. One day I tried 3 rigs before I found something that was close to right. Clueless...................
15kts will get average size grains of dry sand on the beach moving though. Fine sand blows in about 12. No sand moving means no sailing for me, that's for sure, and that has saved me a bunch of wasted rig-ups.
Standing on a dune or hill adds a lot, as the hill pushes air up causing increased pressure. Polarised sunnies add 5kts if you are looking at white-caps, as does the low sun in winter time, so there are a few traps there. Measuring anywhere but the waters edge can be deceiving.
Get an anemometer, and you quickly realise that people mostly grossly over-estimate wind speed.
I got the yellow one pictured from whitworths- paid $70 for it I think and it's been goin great for over 2 years now (still on original battery).
As haircut said you can get them for $35 from ebay, I just dont trust alot of stuff from ebay but they'd probably work fine and have warranty.
I got mine cause whilst being great at telling how much wind at local spot, travelling to new spots where wind is a little offshore or the spot has current threw out all of my indicators for wind.
There is no such thing as an accurate hand held wind meter. The reading is affected by friction and turbulence from the ground, your hand, the position you hold it, where you stand. Just about everything goes against getting an accurate reading.
The only way to get any sort of accuracy is to mount them on a pole several metres up with no obstacles near them. Even obstacles on the downwind side can make a difference. Then you have to take a plot over several minutes and observe the averages and peaks. It's all too hard.
The best way is to learn to judge the wind from the environment and the feeling on your face and the sound in your ears.
If you have to get a wind meter get one of these.
www.hallwindmeter.com/
They don't have batteries to run out and they sensitive to bad handling than the pith ones.
The twirly anemometer ones are better than the propellor ones but they're still expensive pieces of not very accurate technology.
I have to strongly disagree wihth all this.
Yes, many things affect wind, and it's rarely constant anyway, but an objective anemometer will get you much closer than a guess, every time.
I used to have one some years ago, and when I trusted it over all the seasoned opinions, I always had a better sail.
In fact, I realise now that it is why I developed a good feel for the wind in the first place.
I frequently had people next to me saying "It's at least 25kts", when really, it was 17.
I was taught the "door slamming" method of wind speed. If it's windy enough to blow your car door shut, it's good....(thanks Nige)
Delusional optimists more like it.
Similar to the door slam effect, I find that unless it's a bit of a struggle to carry my gear to the water, I'm gonna be underpowered.
I had this idea when i was first getting into shortboarding about a 1m stake with a ribbon tied to the top. I would start with a long ribbon and 'tune it' by trimming it back until it was at the right length to only lift off the ground when I could comfortably plane. this would be the indicator to help me decide when to head out on marginal days, my optimism and enthusiasm to sail often makes me believe there's more wind than there is; wishful thinking.
never followed through on it though...i questioned how effective it would be.
An alternative anemometer design. Lots of trial and error there for you.
If you wanted to be really cute, you could have a number of different length ribbons in different colours, each assigned to a different sail.
Just had a look online for teh "Whitworths" one.
They are on ebay for a fraction of the price. The prices are all over the place, but you can certainly do much better than teh Whitworths price.
If you have an iphone there is a wind meter you can download for about a dollar.
I was out one day with a few guys and one brough a weather station and the other had the iphone.
There was no difference in the readings which goes to show that the iphone is the is todays equivilent of the swiss army knife.
Here's a screenshot:
...(thanks Nige)
