You can stand on the shore and guess, you can log onto the many live weather data sites or you can plug in a set of whirling cups to your smartphone and turn it into an anemometer.

On the face of it the Vaavud Wind Meter might seem more gimmick than practical given that at sea you risk soaking your phone. But the clever bit is in the app’s ability to store your recording history and post your data on a map. Live wind data through crowd sourcing – clever and particularly useful for those of us who dither on the shoreline wondering which sail/boat/kite/board to take, or whether to mow the lawn.

A new compact Sleipnir model is just being released that uses an electronic sensor and can read wind direction too.