Usefulness of a sea breeze?

How helpful are seabreezes when the normal wind is too slow for fun sailing? I may be mis-remembering, but I think while a seabreeze from afternoon heating may feel lively onshore, it doesn't extend far offshore. I'm guessing it has more effect on imposing a uniform direction of wind instead of strength beyond a few hundred feet.

It seems to mainly boost sailing back and forth along the shore, hemmed in by shallow water and fishermen casting hooks towards you on one side. On the other side is the deep blue where the wind reverts to it's slow background speed. If we have hugged this shoreline a ton of times and yearn to break out, then I guess we can stay home on seabreeze-only days?

Long answer can be found in https://www.amazon.com/Wind-Strategy-Sa ... 1909911542

Short answer is that a sea breeze only extends a little bit from the shore with its maximum strength right at the shore. A sea breeze loses strength the further from the shore that you get. The topography of the shore line will effect this, as well as the temperature differential between the land and the water. A sea breeze is an attempt by nature to balance the air pressure difference between the hotter land and the cooler water so the bigger the difference in temperature the stronger the sea breeze will be and the further its effects will be felt.

Sea breezes are more likely in lighter prevailing breezes. Seasons and geography can be important to both whether a sea breeze will occur and its strength.

Jim Clark-Dawe

Thanks; as soon as Amazon releases some of my reward points I will download a kindle copy of that wind book.

PS amazon reward points not usable for kindle downloads for some reason