Winter is here and we have 5 months to go before the Ice Breaker!

In the meantime you can practice your sailing strategy, picking lay lines and planing tacks by playing the free version of Virtual Skipper 5 Online. You can take the helm of some big boats like the Class America, Open 60, Melges 24 and sail at 14 of the best competitive sailing locales.

For the computer savvy you can also install 3rd party additions, including the Tornado Olympic class boats and the Extreme 40 class.

UPDATE: Having tried out Virtual Skipper 5 I was a bit disappointed with the type of sailing you could do with it. It’s great for developing strategy but the game play can be a bit slow and all of the sail adjustments are too automated. It seems that the other main sailing platform out there is Sail Simulator 5. They also have a free demo version available where you can race online. This game is more fun right off the bat and you have full control of all of the boat’s adjustments. You can even control the skipper and crew positions to adjust boat balance or to move your weight out onto the trapeze, and if you mess up you actually capsize the boat. You can also purchase the add-on Boat Set 1 that gives you a bunch of new boats including the Hobie Tiger and the NACRA F18 Infusion.

For more information on the NACRA Carbon 20 and other models get in touch with Brett over at Icarus Sports.

Pineview was the perfect way to finish off the 2010 season.

Have you had enough sailing this year????? well I haven’t, Lets repeat last weekend 

just for fun, same place, same time. port boat ramp around noon, Oct 2, 2010,

I missed the second day of races, but as you can see below the first day was quite the drift fest. A good portion of the race had nearly no wind at all. The blue track was the first race which had very little wind and ran counter-clockwise, the red track was the second race after a bit of wind picked up from the West and we reversed the course to run clock-wise. We eventually peaked at just over 10 mph!

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Lydia Kluge joined us at the 2010 Summer Games and afterward put together this great article that was just published in the Park Record newspaper.

Wind, Wisdom, and Winning!

Utah Summer Games, Deer Creek Reservoir

Last Saturday, at Deer Creek Reservoir in Provo Canyon, twenty dinghy and catamaran sail boats competed alongside kiteboarders, windsurfers, and stand-up paddle boarders, in the final events of the annual Utah Summer Games. Initially scheduled for 12th June, but postponed due to inclement weather, the deferred proceedings went without a hitch. Bright blue skies patterned with feathery white clouds, rolling green shoreline, mostly steady winds, and a backdrop of the snow-capped Timpanagos mountain range, made for a great day’s racing. The conditions were also a welcome relief for those who participated at Deer Creek last year and told stories of a squall rushing in, flipping boats, and capsizing crew. Despite these difficulties, the majority of participants were back this year, eager to pit their skills against other athletes.
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