Recently in Sailing Category

Well, sometimes when you are reading a navigational chart, all those little symbols are so mysterious. NOAA used to print something called Chart 1 which explains what is going on. Chart 1 is now available online so you can figure out mysterious, but important things like obstructions and wrecks when you are tooling around.

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Virtual Skipper has a bunch of European sites that have a huge number of boats that are designed for it. The skinning work is amazing, so check out and you put them in c:\program files\Virtual Skipper 4\Templates\ and create a file which is the name of the boat:

• Virtual Winds
• VSK-Aus.com. These are the Aussies sailing down under
• VSkipper.com. The Italians have a really big site.

Alex liked the ship simulator, so how about Sailing Simulators. Some cool ones out there and Google has a good list and Virtual Winds is another good list of serious sailors:

• Virtual Skipper. Yet another of these games. Alex has actually played this and the most amazing thing about are the graphics. You really feel as though you are right there in the boat. There is also Internet and LAN play so you can hang with others. IGN rated it 6.8/10. It has four boats to sail and only a few missions. But, they didn't like it mainly because it was too realistic so I wouldn't be too concerned about the low point score. It's terrific for folks who love sailing and its probably the best there. Overall, Metacritic shows that the game is good, but it doesn't have enough rocket booster and guns for the teenager.
• Virtual Transat. This might be too real world, but this is a real time virtual sailor. You actually logon to a web site and really do sail over 90 days or so it takes to go across TRANS ATlantic. It is a high level simulator, in that you register to a virtual regatta, there is a huge map with winds and then you pick your course, so while Virtual Skipper is about tactics, this is about strategy. Should you go high or low, through a big wind or around. See wikipedia for more on single handed racing.

Here are some casual versions that were frankly kind of cheap looking on a fancy PC:

• Virtual Sailer. Wow, the list just doesn't end. The graphics don't look super though, more flat colors and it is a DirectX 8.0 application so a little old and it is a 1999 application that really looks it.
• Sailing Simulator Another cool niche application, there is also a motorboat simulator by the same guys. This by the way is a real training application for sailers. They have a demo version too and it looks kind of toylike like Virtual Sailor.
• Posey Sail also has one. that lets you learn tactics. If you can believe it they have five different version and plenty of demos including a coastal cruising, novice instructor, distance racing, sailing tactics (including competitive) and advanced racing. It may be accurate, but it sure isn't too pretty.
• 21st Century Sailing Simulator. This demo I actually couldn't get to run.
• Volvo Sailing Simulator. A simple application, it shows you how to adjust the rudder and most importantly how to sheet in or sheet out to get maximum speed. Not a long term game, but fun to teach folks.

Chuck Husick on boatus.com. Darn it, the basic marine radio I bought I think I left on the boat while docked and it seems to have walked away. A good chance to get a pair that are good. Thank goodness for basic guides on the Internet.

• Things you want are Receiver sensitivity. Most provide 0.25 microvolt sensitivity.
• Selectivity. You need 80 dB for Intermodulation selectivity and 70 dB for adjacent channel selectivity and spurious response relationship.

For Handheld radios, you need a few more:

• Waterproofness and it should float too. In case you drop it "-)
• Standard batteries or rechargeables. You need standard alkalines for emergencies. The ideal is to have something that holds NiMH AA batteries and can also hold alkalines.

Then there are some new devices like Garmin RINO that combines a GPS with a FRS/GMRS radio. So you can share position with a standard family radio service. Kind of cool.

National Marine Electronics Associations Product Awards. Since there aren't great reviews of marine electronics, this award list from the trade association is a good surrogate for good handheld radios:

• icom ic-m88 in 2003. This is $289 with $30 rebate now from sailnet.com or Boat-us.com. This is a tiny li-ion battery unit. 70dB in selectivity statistics. Main drawback is the back-up alkaline battery mode only has 1 watt output.
• Standard Horizon HX460S in 2002. This is also a Li-ion miniture unit. $249.
• Standard Horizon HX350S in 2001. $189. This is a ni-cad unit, but you can put standard AA batteries in that are rechargeables for very long battery life (the ni-cad is 1100 Mah, but you can put in 6×1700Mah AA's in to get really long life). This is the one I originally bought and worked fine, although it was big.

Windstar Cruises. My brother was asking about cruises. I told him we'd not been on many, but had research it quite a bit (before the age of blogs). We really recommend the Windstar cruises. The Tahiti trip is amazing. The ship is just 400 feet long, all the cabins are the same and it is small enough to get into the very shallow lagoons. I'll never forget stopping the middle of the ocean to catch the sunset off of Bora Bora while looking at the four masts. Also, it is casual, so you don't have to wear formal attire. We also did the Istanbul to Athens leg and that was also great. Little less advantage in having a small boat, but it did mean we could get into Bodrum and see ephesus, while the bigger ships couldn't get in there.

Windworks Sailing Center. Connie and I just did the second round of classes on sailing over there. They have a really great series called "Adventure":http://www.windworkssailing.com/adventure_lessons.htm Lessons where you don't have to sit a class room and have the instructor say, please say "PORT" class, and you say, "PORT". Instead, you read the book at home and then head out, so it is much more practical. After two 2-day sessions and studying the US Sailing books a little, Jim (a great instructor) has got us taking out 38' sailboats out with ease. How terrific. Now on to Coastal Navigation and the final class on Bareboat cruising and we are ready to head to Tahiti!

NOAA Tidal Data. When sailing, its important to know what the tides are doing. This is the official NOAA site for this. Says that tomorrow at noon will be slack tide in Seattle at -2 feet below mean low/low tide. So, at 1PM or so, the tide is going to rising or surging.

The Landing School: Boats For Sale - LS 26 Weekender. What a beautiful boat that "Lewis":http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/llevin/default.asp told me about. He's looking for one that he can use in Maine. Also a nice one for around here. Also he finally explained to me why a sailboat actually moves forward. Let me short circuit this by saying that the "conventional":http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/BernoulliEffect.html explanation of the Bernoulli Effect is not the answer. Where somehow the air on top of the foil must travel faster than the air flowing underneath, like the two flows have a date at the back. To me that answer has always been hard to fathom. If Connie the molecule leaves around one route that is 8 miles and I, "Rich The Molecule" leave on another that is 4 miles, where does it say that Connie is going to paddle twice as fast. More likely, we'll go at the same speed and she'll only be half way around when I finish. Some folks get it right like "Sci-fun":http://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/scifun/Activities/FunPhysics/bernblower.html, but it still doesn't explain why a foil like a sail has force. "NASA":http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/bernnew.html. Provides the best explanation that I've seen and of course it is complex. It is not just the Bernoulli Principle or the Newton conservation of mass principle. What happens is that the answer is complex and there is something called the Euler Equations that you have to understand. Thanks Lewis!