Dart 15 Forums

In a desperate attempt to go faster next year I have been looking at sailing software to practice my sailing whilst on dry land in the winter.

I've seen Sail Simulator 4.2 and Virtual Skipper but not sure how much use they would be in helping me race better and go faster.

Has anyone got any experience of such packages or know of any better ones than these?

cheers


Richard Jones (D15 1665)

Richard,

One of our members lent me a double DVD of the above title. It was so good I bought one on e-bay from Mobilis Productions . Their website is www.mobilisproductions.com but it is being revised at present - but gives contact e-mail addresses where you find find how to get it as there aren't any on e-bay that I can see.

About 5 hours of video and commentary. It is based on Tornados and F18s but is fantastic for cat sailing in general. Produced in 2004.

There are two DVDs included called 'initiation' and 'competition' - the latter features 4 world class crews with multiangle cameras and sound on board plus extended commentary from the crews (about 15-20 minutes for each boat).
The other DVD is a menu driven set of training explanations for just about every manoeuvre(?) you might need to make. It starts very basic but as you delve the menus you get more and more (they are hierarchical and this is not immediately apparent).

It was about ?40 and comes with french and English audio - you might find it under 'Le DVD du Catamaran de Sport' as the french title.

Do note though that they cover boat speed and sail handling rather than anything to do with 'tactics' against other competitors like shadowing and other nefarious but totally legal activities.

A bit late for Christmas but worth having - even to just watch big cats in action. If you want to have a quick look at it I am in Staplestreet, Hernhill and you could pop over sometime.

Richard,

For getting your Sprint 15 to go faster, it's best to read advice tailored for the boat - it has some different characteristics from most cats, which mean that generic advice doesn't always apply. And cats have different characteristics from monohulls.

You'll get a lot of advice, mostly good and sometimes from the very best Sprint 15 sailors, from the Tips area of this website. They're easier to read from paper, but you won't want to print them all off..... You may also find further advice in the Chat messages, but finding it may be difficult - you can try using the Search facility.

Good books are Catamaran Sailing by Brian Phipps (basic) and Catamaran Racing by Kim Furness, but remember their advice is not always going to suit a Sprint 15 exactly.

I've got VSK3, a present. It's fun, but I don't think it helps me to sail my Sprint 15 better........

Richard,

Sorry - I did not make it clear that the Mobilis DVDs are not 'simulator' software, they are purely instructional video and graphics presentations

Steve

Hi,

I've been playing with Sail Simulator 4.2 for a couple of years and it doesn't really help with sailing a 15 since you can't really feel what is happening to the boat but its fun never the less and allows you to practice manoevouring without getting wet! There are some sites that arrange racing in its multiplayer mode but I've not looked at these. Also there is no 15 simulated just a tornado

It has some nifty views so that you can pretend to be the helmsman and your view is what he 'sees'.

I've also used Laser Match Racing also by Stentec (you might not be able to get this anymore since its pretty old) and that was pretty good for tactics since it has an umpire and gives you penalties for various misdemeanours as per the racing rules.

I think the only real way to get better sailing a 15 or any boat is to actually sail it since sailing is largely a 'feel sport' ie you sense what is happening\wrong with the boat, this is obviously difficult to simulate in a computer.

I've also read various books and would recomend George's suggestions of The Catamaran Book and Catamaran Racing as good ones to read, they cover 18's or Hobies mostly but the 18 stuff is easily transferable to the 15.

Martin Searle, SSC