Ten Ways to Improve Your Sailing in the Off-Season

by Damian Lord, The Final Beat
A lot of people spend the winter away from sailing altogether – and it can sometimes be a useful way to recharge your enthusiasm for sailing. But for most it can be an enforced break, and starting again in the spring can mean taking time to get back up to speed.

If you want to hit the ground running in the new season, here are 10 things you can do that will help.

10. Use SailX to Improve Your Sailing Tactics and Strategy
You’re not going to thank me for this suggestion. SailX is dangerous – it is highly addictive and frustrating. And also quite brilliant fun.

Of course, being a computer game, or simulator, or whatever these things are called, it has its differences from real sailing. If you’re anything like me, you’ll spend the first while playing it like you would sail, but that doesn’t always lead to the best results. You need to treat it as a version of sailing, and adapt your strategies to suit the game.

But it can help you improve your sailing in real life. There are numerous (and I mean numerous) rules situations, so it can be a really good way of improving your knowledge of this area. Some protests are pretty mad (like this one – you’ll need to log in to see the replay of the incident) and would hopefully never come up on a real racecourse, but the majority are very helpful in understanding the finer details of the racing rules of sailing.

It also helps you to get used to developing a starting and a race strategy, as it tends to reward sailors who are good at planning ahead, playing the odds well, and taking advantage of small details. And because of the different viewing options you can get good at looking ahead and spotting likely advantages or problems and acting to get the best from situations.

It can be an enjoyable way to pass the winter months if you can’t get out on the water.

For the other nine things you can do that will help…click here.