pyroboy08 wrote:
I recently got into cat sailing when I bought a 16. I bought ss5 and I must say that it has helped me improve my sailing skills quite a bit. I started off with the sails on automatic to see what positions they performed best at. Then I set them to manual and adjusted until it matched the performance of the auto sails. The sim also made me feel much more comfortable about flying the hull since I can set the weight of the crew in the sim to that of my actual weight. I am surprised how easily I could apply the skills from a computer game to my boat. The h16 in the game seems to handle just like mine except that the boat seems to tack much easier in the game than in real life. Also, the tendencies to pitch pole in the simulator seem unrealistic, but I cannot be sure since I have never pitch poled my boat, nor have I sailed in very strong wind conditions. I just wish the game had more online activity and I haven't seen a server for cats.
Totally agree... Pitch pole is pretty close... Sail in 20+ with decent waves... Sit a bit to far forward, or include a friend. I trap out... And last year lost my footing and flung all the way around the bow. Later had a bruse on. My upper arm from the forestay harness.
It is neat to adjust weight in the sim, you can also move yourself fore or aft to raise the keels. I also like to paly with different sail adjustments to see how they will react in real life. I liked seeing which way to move the tiller when I'm about to tip over to get out of it.... Push appears to be the answer.