The winter series of Wednesday evening social evenings continued with an evening of fun and games in a Sailing Simulator. With Sarah providing the evening meal the twenty-one members had a go at posting a fast lap time on the virtual trapezoid course.
After three long hours, a time of 1m 59s was posted by Steve Ivory on his second attempt and he took home the bottle of Champaign. The full results are available in the 2009 results page.
The next evening will take place on Wednesday 9th December with an ‘online’ Virtual Skipper tournament.
The sailing simulator is essentially a computer connected to a large boat cockpit mounted on a cradle. The cradle tilts the cockpit simulating the heel of a boat when the sail is powered up. The helm is then forced to hike-out to counteract the heeling moment to get more speed. With a tiller, tiller extension and centre mainsheet you’re quickly whisked away from the clubhouse into the virtual sailing area displayed on the screen.
A big turnout meant limited time for each member to get to grips with the controls before going on and attempting the trapezoid course and posting a time on the top-gear leader board.
First to have a go was Simon Witham posting a time of 2 minutes 28 seconds, but as the first go in a ‘just powered-up’ simulator Simon was to post a better time of 2 minutes 12 seconds later in the evening.
Karl Pountney had the second go. He seemed a little more at ease with the controls with the tacks and gybes looking a little too much like the land-drills practiced on his recent instructor’s course. On the ‘b’ of bang, Karl was straight off the line and quickly made his way past the guide-boat on the screen and on to the downwind legs. A quick time of 2 minutes 5 seconds would stand unbeaten right up until dinner was served when Jon Hand managed a time of 2 minutes dead on his third or fourth try.
Later in the evening Simon Miles was to post a time of 2 minutes 1 second taking the lead in the first attempt leader board. Sue Howcroft came close with 2:08 and Steve Mills was close behind with 2:09.
As the evening drew to a close, Steve Ivory and Andy Gregory managed to squeeze in a second attempt at the top time. Andy managed 2 minutes 8 seconds falling short of the target of 2 minutes, however Steve Ivory posted 1 minute 59 seconds to take the champaign prize and climb to the top of the leader board.
With no more time for additional attempts, that was it.
Virtual Sailing returns on December 9th with a virtual skipper competition courtesy of Tim Robins and Gerry Howcroft.