Maui Wind Scale

I’m sure any information designers out there will cringe at this and don’t anyone show this to Edward Tufte. This shows my sail quiver and an approximation of sail size I use for given average wind speed as registered on the iWindsurf Kanaha sensor. So, when I say it’s been light, I mean that I’d need my 5.3 super baggy or 5.7 to get planing. In the summertime, I generally don’t bother sailing if it’s in the light zone and in the winter I don’t bother if I can’t get planing on my 5.7.

On the other end of the scale, earlier this year it was nuking for several days in a row with average wind speeds around 32 or 33. One day I came off the water after getting totally spanked on my 4.2 and tried my wife’s 3.7. Fully powered on that and then overpowered. In the meantime, she had rigged her 3.3 and then only managed a reach or two before that was too much. So, I thought, what the hell, let’s give her 3.3 and 67 liter Thommen a try. Fully powered! Checking the iWindsurf graph later in the day it showed it was averaging 33mph at that point.

So, there you go. Maybe this will help make sense of when I say it’s been moderate or strong or light, etc. Forecast looks like it’s going to stay on the light end of the spectrum for several more days as high pressure is kind of weak and a bit too close to us to generate the strong trade winds we usually see this time of year.