My personal experience when sailing of the beach (or very big lake with the other side far far away) is that seastate is your first concern. Wind direction comes second and windforce is a close third.

You can handle (=survive) windforce 6 to 7 (about 33 knots) on relative flat seas, but not more then a force 5 (20 knots and over) on confused seas. Note that survive is the key word here. These conditions are not much fun at all, you are truly surviving. First priority is keeping it all in one piece and make it home. Any small breakage will make serious bodily harm or death a serious possibility if there isn't a serious outside rescue structure in place.

When rusty, as in several months of no sailing, only kamikazies, glory boys and [email]f@cked[/email] up nitwits would try to go out in these conditions. At least that is the score where I'm sailing and yes we have lost men overhere who thought they could handle it, as in we pulled some bodies from the water while some others were never found.

So when rusty, but skilled otherwise I wouldn't go past force 4 or 15 knots. With flat enough seastate and a favourable direction of the wind or dependable nearby help who is keeping an eye on you.

Wouter