Beaufort Wind Scale

Beaufort	Description of Wind		What You Would Sea	Wind
Number			or Experience	Speed Kts
0	Calm		Calm - Smoke rises vertically	Less than 1
1	Light air		Direction of the wind can be seen	1 to 3
			by smoke drifting; but wind vanes
			don't work well; sail with full main
			and large light weight genoa
2	Light breeze		Wind fills the sails; boats sail at one	4 to 6
			or two knots; wind is felt on one's
			face; wind vanes move by the wind;
			sail with full main and large light
			weight genoa
3	Gentle breeze		Boat begins to heel and move nicely	7 to 10
			through the water;  wind extends
			light flags;  change jib to a large
			medium weight (3.5 oz) genoa
4	Moderate breeze		Excellent sailing; boat may heel to	11 to 16
			20+ degrees;  a flattening reef for
			the mainsail may be advised; maybe
			shift down to a 135 genoa
5	Fresh breeze		Time to reef the mainsail and maybe	17 to 21
			shift down to a working jib; frequent
			white capped waves
6	Strong breeze		Whistling heard by wind in the rigging;	22 to 27
			There are many white caps and the
			waves are building in size; single reef
			in the main and a small working sail
			(smaller than 100% likely)
7	Moderate gale		Sailing becomes difficult; the boat	28 to 33
			heels far over and may often wash
			the decks; time to tuck in the second
			reef in the mainsail and shift down to
			a small working jib or storm jib
8	Fresh gale		Why are you out in this???  Double	34 to 40
			reefed mainsail or storm trysail and
			storm jib are warrented.  Waves are
			becoming large; there is a lot of spray
			in the air; steering is difficult.  Heaving
			to may be a good choice; or running
			before the wind under bare poles.
9	Strong gale		Running before the wind under bare	41 to 47
			poles and a sea anchor to control
			boatspeed and surging
10	Whole gale			48 to 55
11	Storm			56 to 65
12	Hurricane		Typhoon in Western Pacific	66 +
			Cyclone in Indian Ocean