Sailing Tactics Simulator

This simulator is a descendant of our highly acclaimed Tactics & Strategy Simulator, which Sailing World Magazine called “The best simulator available for the racing sailor interested in improving his tactics.”

PURPOSE: Challenge and build your tactical and strategic racing skills in an aggressive, intelligent 30-boat fleet or match racing. Every race is different with many tactical situations and strategic opportunities. One or two players. Very realistic 3D “Roving Eye” graphics let you look around a full 360º as far as the horizon. Create your own Personal Race Area or choose from eighteen popular real-world racing areas or from variable, imaginary racing areas. Easy to use computer interface! Interactive tutorials teach 2009-2012 Racing Rules and racing tactics and strategy. Excellent mental tune up for real world racing! 

RACE SCENARIOS AND CONDITIONS YOU CAN SELECT OR CREATE:

Create A Personal Race Area – Use the Create Menu to define your race area, including the shape of the primary and secondary shores, islands, topography, current and wind directions, rivers, and bays.

Real Racing Areas – Select from eighteen popular real world racing areas: Northeast Harbor, ME; Marblehead, MA; Edgartown, MA; Newport, RI; Block Island, RI; around Block Island; Groton, CT; Essex, CT; Larchmont, NY; Annapolis, MD; Charleston, SC; Thurmond Lake, GA/SC; Biscayne Bay, FL; Key West, FL; St. Petersburg, FL; Chicago, IL; Kingston, Ontario; and Nassau, Bahamas.

Match Your Home Waters/Imaginary Racing Areas – Race in tidal sounds, around 3D islands, in non-tidal lakes, or various river and river mouth configurations. Position the coastline in a specific direction. 3D topography above and below water significantly impacts wind and current behavior. More than 8 lake and river racing areas with complex shorelines, channeled winds and, for the rivers, tricky currents. Lots of geographic variety!

Courses – Triangle, windward/leeward, downwind finish windward/leeward with long first beat, or Gold Cup. Select once or twice around, marks to port or starboard. Option for a gate at the end of any run not ending at the finish for fleets of 15 boats or more. Short course options emphasize starts and tactics. Distance race and round the island options emphasize strategy. Night racing, requiring its own set of skills, is available on any course!

Starting – Option for 5 minute or 10 minute pre-start periods, or no pre-start period with a perfect start. Model Yachts can choose 1 or 2 minute pre-start or perfect start.

Three Race Series Option – Gives finish positions and 3 race series points for the entire fleet. Your skill score is based on difficulty level selected and finish position.

Wind Strength & Weather – Selection impacts forecast, which differs ever race and gives information about weather systems, sea breezes, and wind history prior to the start. Conditions vary with time of day or night. Wind is impacted by shoreline features and air mass stability. Now, Southern Hemisphere sailors can reverse the earth’s rotation effects in the simulator to match conditions in their hemisphere!

TACTICS: Short course options and large fleet races stress tactics and place heavy emphasis on the pre-start period and getting superior starts. Your opponents know the 2009-2012 Racing Rules and are astute in both fleet racing and match racing tactics. In fact, we’ve significantly honed their abilities so their success is based more on smarts than on the individual boat’s speed. Easy to use controls and steering let you concentrate on tactics.

STRATEGY: Sophisticated interaction of wind and tidal currents (optional) with complex 3D shorelines test your strategic decision-making skills. This expert model gives you many opportunities to gain, or lose, on the competition as you learn to recognize potential advantages. Distance and round-the-island races emphasize strategy.

The Wind Chart View displays wind vectors over the entire race course at that instant and shows what caused the wind patterns - channeling, divergence, convergence, weather systems, puffs. "Page ahead" in the Tide Chart View for an hour by hour update on tide changes. Use the overhead Strategic View of the entire course for periodic updates and planning.

Wind and current logic in all racing scenarios is very sophisticated in order to support realism of the real racing areas. Effects of shoreline channeling and air mass stability on wind are very accurate. Current fetch and current effect on water roughness are computed for each boat. Some boats may be in smoother water.

INFORMATION VIEWS:

• Sizeable, zoomable overhead views for quick grasp of tactical situations.
• Race Course view – Shows marks of course and race instructions.
• Show Tracks – Displays boat 1 and 2 sailing tracks since the start in overhead and race course views. During a series race, the tracks of the best competitor also appear so you can cover them. After the race, select to compare where you sailed versus the winner.
• Laylines and equal progress line – Appear in sailing and overhead views.
• Zoomable Wind Chart – See Strategy above for details.
• Current Chart – See Strategy above for details.
• Weather Forecast view – Select any time. 

INTERACTIVE ANIMATED TUTORIALS: Use them any time, even while racing.

Racing Rules of Sailing 2009-2012 Tutorials cover:

• Opposite Tacks.
• Same Tack Overtaking.
• Marks and Obstructions.
• Rounding A Windward Mark.
• Tacking For Obstructions.
• Same Tack Before Starting.
• Room At A Starting Mark and Other Miscellaneous Topics.

Tactics & Strategy Tutorials cover:

• Windshift Effects, Lifts, Headers, and Laylines.
• Strategy For Oscillating Winds.
• Strategy For One Side Favored.
• Downwind Strategy.
• Wind Prediction and Currents.
• Wind Interference from Other Boats.
• Starting and Mark Rounding.

EASY TO USE COMPUTER INTERFACE: Very intuitive screen layout. Includes easy to use control buttons and single key commands. Buttons are color coded to give quick status updates on your boat controls. Optional, variable ratio steering. Independently controlled split screen 360° graphics, make this an excellent simulator for two players!

REALISTIC 3D 360° "ROVING EYE" GRAPHICS: In the zoomable 3D Sailing View, improved “Roving Eye” graphics let you look in any direction a full 360° to keep an eye on the competition. Look as far as the horizon to spy approaching puffs of wind or calm zones. Look at your boat from any angle. Use 3D landmarks to “see” wind shifts. 500% more detail in graphics!! In the overhead Tactical View, zoom in for a good look at close-in tactical situations. Zoom out to survey oncoming competition.

FLEET:

FLEET: Choose from Optimist, Laser, Boards (Windsurfer derivative), Snipe, JY15, 505, Skiff, Thistle, Flying Scot, Lightning, Star, Tornado Catamaran, Non-Spinnaker Catamaran, A Class Catamaran, E-Scow, Keelboat, Etchells keelboat, Ideal 18 keelboat, 25 foot Sport Boat, 35 foot Sport Boat, Offshore Catamaran, Sprit Offshore Racer, Offshore Racer, Racer-Cruiser, Cruising Canvas, America’s Cup, or Model Yacht classes. Boat behavior, sail inventory, and automatic shape controls are extremely accurate for each class. Specify length, displacement, sail area, rig, tiller, or wheel for the Sprit Offshore Racer, Racer-Cruiser, Cruising Canvas, Offshore Racer, and Keelboat. 30 boat fleet or match race in any class!

Boat performance is modeled extremely accurately for all classes, including Model Yacht, giving accurate response to your steering commands, sail adjustments, and to puffs and lulls.

Steer manually, by key press, or by click steering. Option to fine-tune tacking downwind angles or pinching and footing when beating, by small increments, up to a total of 7º of adjustment, using single key and button commands.

YOUR OPPONENTS: Race against the computer or another person.

Two Players - You each sail your own boat, simultaneously, on the same computer, using new independently controlled split screen 360° graphics. Match race or fleet race (computer sails the rest of the fleet - 1 to 28 boats). Adjust the difficulty level for each player, if you have different skill levels. This is an ideal feature if you want to teach or practice with the other player!

You Against The Computer - Sail your boat in full screen 360° graphics. The wily computer sails the rest of the fleet (1 to 29 other boats). Match racing at higher difficulty levels, the computer is formidable!

OPPONENT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: All computer opponents know their pre-start maneuvers, tactics, strategy, the latest Racing Rules, how to give and avoid bad air, and how to sail the selected boat. In this simulator, we’ve further refined opponent abilities, especially when match racing. Opponent expertise increases with the difficulty level you pick – up to world-class performance! At higher difficulty levels, computer controlled boats are much smarter and round closer to marks. The speed advantage of these boats at high difficulty levels is much less. However, speed potential of all boats in a fleet is not equal.

FEATURES THAT HELP YOU IMPROVE YOUR RACING & ENJOYMENT:

• Continued improvements in simulator speed and graphics detail to take advantage of newer, faster, wide screen computers, while still being fully useable on older Pentium and OS X computers.
• Sound Effects give you feedback on sail trim (luffing sails), boatspeed (rushing water), etc.
• Coach, if asked, critiques your tactics, strategy, and basic trim while racing and after the finish. Continued refinements to coaching model. Expanded help screens give tips to improve your racing. Use interactive Tactics and Strategy Tutorials at any time during or after racing to learn more.
• Instant Justice Protest Committee penalizes all offenders, tells the 2009-2012 Racing Rule violated and its number. Use the interactive Racing Rules Tutorials to learn more. Options for automatic warning and simulator slow-down if your boat is likely to foul.
• Show your sailing tracks to compare how you and your opponent are sailing. View during and after race.
• Laylines and equal progress line can be displayed. They show in all views.
• Option to Replay a Leg in progress or just completed.
• Racing Suggestions e-book gives expert advice on boatspeed, tactics, strategy, wind and weather patterns.
• Reference manual e-book gets you racing quickly. Help screens give tips for using the simulator while you are racing.
• Header And Lift Information - Track headers and lifts on the compass or have the computer do it for you. Use 3D objects on the shore as another aid for noticing windshifts. Look for veering and backing puffs of wind on the water.
• All boats are identified by name and distinctive hull and sail color for fast identification while racing. Name your boat! Display boat names while racing and on results page to keep track of competition during a race series.
• Option Selections in the Windows version are saved when you quit the simulator for easy repeatability. Use Macintosh single key commands to quickly select options before the first race.
• Quickly control simulator speed pressing Control Buttons and single key commands – Slow while starting, at mark roundings, or during tricky maneuvers. Speed up on long downwind legs.
• Simple Boat And Sail Controls let you concentrate on perfecting tactics and strategy! Tiller, wheel or simple click steering. Pinch and foot Buttons and keys. Manual or automatic mainsheet options. Quick single key and Button sheet adjustments. Lots of easy and fast Control Buttons and Hot Keys!
• 15 levels of difficulty keep you on the learning curve and having fun. Difficulty impacts sailing conditions and determines opponent abilities so that even the best racers will be challenged.

Sail to New Heights with Sailing Tactics Simulator!!