With such a narrow field of view and the gaps betweens the troughs and crest of waves breaking around them How can you judge wind speed fairly? Not enough tops of waves around to judge. Just by seeing the the wave lengths and height compared to boat the swell is larger than 2meter 6 feet. That proa is what? 60 feet or meters! I'm not saying the second clip has large swell just showing nice speed in descent winds looks like coastal sailing vs first clip offshore sailing.

Haven't been off shore much But over the last 20 years windsurfing and kiteboarding 3-4 days out of each week or more if the wind blows 16 or better, on average and as high as 35- 45mph in the winter. Sailing at wind speed or better in those conditions I know what the waters surface looks like when moving that fast. Now video from a mono hull or even a hobie, prindle, nacra cat which I buzz by routinely. What the camera captures is gonna look way different moving slower. The camera will catch more white caps.
This might be more of what your accustom to in your off shore passages. Me offshore, I'd be hanging over the rail looking like a tortoise.

Todd

--- In harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au, Paul Wilson <opusnz@...> wrote:
>
> >>>>>No way! in such a narrow field of view you can't rely on white
> caps to be used as an indicator of wind speed. Camera's always lie about
> windspeed. Swells, in First clip are larger than 6.5 feet. The swell is
> more like 10 to 12 feet or 3 to 6 m if not larger In what appears to be
> lighter winds than in second clip.
>
> Todd
>
> You could be right since you are much more sure about it than I am :).
>
> In my experience offshore and open ocean, at 15 knots of wind, there are
> white-caps almost everywhere. At 12 knots they are sporadic. This
> changes a bit with current, water depth, and salinity. Helicopter
> pilots I worked with on offshore oil and gas rigs need to be able to
> estimate wind speed when landing and they say the same thing. I looked
> closer at the video again. The video shows just the odd whitecap. Since
> there is only the odd whitecap my guess is 10 to 12 knots, and 2 meter
> swells. You need to remember that a forecast of 2 meter swells is the
> average wave height, not the largest waves. The second clip shows
> impressive speed in what looks like relatively light wind. I suspect
> with the mainsheet hauled in, they are making use of the apparent wind
> and cracking off the miles. Great video.
>
> Maybe the video poster will clear it up since I think they read this
> site once in awhile. Sorry, I can't remember their name.
>
> Paul
>
> tsstproa wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>