Ouch! Seas may reach higher on Whitehead Scale

Ahoy.

Our perfect boating weather in the middle of winter might take a slight change of course this weekend with the chance of showers. However, the seas will be relatively smooth as long as the wind doesn’t start blowing greater than a five on the Beaufort Scale of Wind Force. Beaufort what?

Adm. Sir Francis Beaufort in 1805 started to determine wind speeds to help sailors. He would look at the sea and determine the wind force by conditions of the sea. For example, if the ocean had small wavelets with glassy appearing crests, then he called that a light breeze of four to six knots, and a force two. If the high wave had crests break into spindrifts with foam, then he figured winds were blowing 34 to 40 knots, creating a force eight. You get the picture. The scale goes from force zero, dead calm, to a force 12, a deadly hurricane.

Hence, the Beaufort Scale, and commonly referred to as “force whatever,” especially in the movies. I do not use his scale because I would have to memorize 12 wind categories; however, it is still used in some sailing circles.

I use my own Whitehead Scale, which uses basically the same methodology by looking at how the wind is affecting the seas to guess the sea conditions.

The major difference is that I do not use a numeric scale, but a pain and able-to-eat-a-meal scale. Flat seas imply a calm, no-pain voyage where we can sit down to eat a meal on a plate. However, three- to five-foot swells with, say, 20-knot winds mean some bumping and yawing of the vessel, causing mild pain plus fatigue, and you must eat finger foods while bracing yourself in your helm seat. Larger swells, especially with stronger winds, indicate pain that may take a couple of days to recover from, and the vessel is being tossed around, pounding off the tops of the swells. Additionally, you are lucky to hit your mouth with any food in these conditions, and these are the times when you question yourself why you are in the yacht delivery business anyway.

So, the next time you are chatting with your friends about your recent voyage, you have the option of using the formal Beaufort Scale or the Whitehead Scale to describe your voyage. When listening to people who use the Whitehead Scale, I have noticed that the scale keeps increasing with each reiteration of the voyage or the next serving drinks.

TIP OF THE WEEK

Tip of week is for you to attend a free sailboat racing seminar at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club at 7 p.m. this Thursday. This will be valuable if you have never raced or are a novice sailor who wants to learn more about racing.

The seminar is aimed at the novice sailor or longer-time sailor who is interested in the sport of sailboat racing. The goal is to increase participation in local racing events, the club’s Paul DeCapua said.

“In addition to the free seminar, Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club has created a special non-spinnaker class for the attendees of the seminar (and others) to compete in. This new class allows sailors who don’t belong to a yacht club or to PHRF to try racing in a ‘fun’ environment,” he wrote.

The seminar will include the basics of racing, the new non-spinnaker class, how boats are rated and rules of the road, my favorite -- starting, sailing the course, finishing and scoring the race.

The club is gracious to offer this free seminar to everyone, with a bonus that you can reserve a table in their dining room or eat in the bar prior to the seminar. I have eaten many times at the club, and I can attest that the food is great.

Please call the yacht club at (949) 644-9530 to attend the course and if you want to make reservation for dinner.

Tune in to the No. 1 boating talk radio show in the nation every Saturday at noon. “Capt. Mike Whitehead’s Boathouse Radio Show” is on KCBQ-AM (1170) or online at www.boathouseradio.com.

Safe voyages.

* MIKE WHITEHEAD is the Pilot’s boating and harbor columnist. Send him your harbor and marine-related thoughts and story suggestions by e-mail to mike@boathousetv.com.

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