Gale force for coastal areas, between and . The definition is very non-standard. A common alternative definition of the maximum is . The most common way of measuring wind force is with the Beaufort scale which defines a gale as wind from to . It is an empirical measure for describing wind speed based mainly on observed sea conditions. On the original 1810 Beaufort wind force scale, there were four different "gale" designations whereas generally today there are two gale forces, 8 and 9, and a near gale 7: The word "gale" is derived from the older "gail", but its origin
Floating wind turbine Maine expressed concerns in 2010 about dealing with the United States regulatory environment. Since the proposed site is in Federal waters, developers would need a permit from the US Minerals Management Service, "which took more than seven years to approve a yet-to-be-built, shallow-water wind project off Cape Cod". Also, the agency is under fire in June 2010 for lax oversight of deepwater oil drilling in Federal waters. "Uncertainty over regulatory hurdles in the United States … is 'the Achilles heel' for Maine's ambitions for deepwater wind." Scale modeling and computer modeling attempt to predict the behavior of large–scale wind turbines