Not For Beginners?

[Guybrush3pwood]

I thought a sailing simulator would help me learn how to sail (or at least be a good introduction), but I find I'm struggling with it. This is probably a lot of fun for people who know what they're doing, but for somebody like me who has never stepped foot on a boat, it's pretty much useless. Most of the tutorial is telling you to do things, but it doesn't seem to indicate if what you're doing is correct or not. It keeps saying things like "make sure your telltails are completely horizontal" but when I look at the telltails, they're just flapping all over the place, and no amount of adjusting anything appears to change that. It would be nice if the tutorial were...a little more like a tutorial and would give you some kind of feedback on how you're doing, but when all it does it tell you something and then only require you to click the next arrow, it's less than helpful as I'm not learning anything.

So I have to ask, would this be something for beginners or should one have some experience before even playing the tutorial?

[RomeoTangoBravo]

I'm someone who did exactly what you're describing. I had never set foot on a sailboat, and eSail was the first thing I encountered that finally made it clear what all the lines running back to the cockpit actually are. The tutorial was absolutely fantastic for me.

I probably had 70 hours in eSail when I did my ASA 101 course and then finally went out with an instructor on a J24. I considered my time spent in eSail invaluable. I thought a lot less about the tactics of sailing -- where my sails ought to be for the given sail angle -- because I was comfortable with that from eSail.

I spent more time on the boat focusing on the mechanics in the cockpit that no simulator would ever give me. For instance, where do you stand in relation to the tiller as you're tacking? How do you deal with the jib sheets when you tack and you're single-handed?

Regarding sail trim, autosail is one nice feature of eSail. When in doubt, I can click that and see what the deck hands do. For instance, presumably they'll get the telltails flapping assuming I'm not sailing downwind. Then I can uncheck autosail, take over and see how the sails respond when I adjust.

There were a few of the tutorials I ran more than once. However, scratching your head when things don't go right and then figuring it out is a big part of learning sailing -- at least it was for me. And I was very happy to do that in eSail first before I was standing in a real boat.

[Guybrush3pwood]

Autosail? Which button is that? The tutorial doesn't even mention that.

I wish it would just give a little more guidance. It keeps telling me to do things and my response is "ok...how?!"

[RomeoTangoBravo]

Ah, AutoSail isn't available in the tutorial, but it is in live sailing. More about that in a second.

I just re-ran the tutorial up to "Adjusting the Mainsail." I think that's the point you were talking about. Short version: make sure you stay with the wind on your beam. Let out and pull in on the mainsheet to get the telltails horizontal.

You probably won't get all of them horizontal, but you can certainly get 2-3 of them when you find the right spot. For what it's worth, the boat will also probably pick up a little speed when you find this "sweet spot."

If it's just not clicking and you're not seeing it, you've actually gotten far enough in the tutorial to go into live sailing. Motor out to some point, raise the mainsail, and put the wind on your beam like the tutorial described. Then lock the autopilot and click the "AutoSail" button. It's on the left side of the screen under the tablet-looking control.

When you engage AutoSail, one of the deck hands will trim the sail. Watch what they do. After you sail a little bit with the deck hand trimming the sail, take it out of AutoSail. Pull in and let out on the mainsheet and watch what happens. At this point, it really is learn by trying.

With all this said, re-running the tutorial reminded me of some things. This and the next few steps in the tutorial are more difficult, and they do anticipate that you will do some research on your own.

In particular, this "Adjusting the Mainsail" tutorial mentions that you need to research "points of sail" on your own. Take that recommendation seriously. The next three steps in the tutorial will assume you've gotten familiar with these terms:

• Broad reach
  
• Beam reach
  
• Close reach
  
• Close haul
  
• Tacking
  
• Gybing
  
• Difference between starboard and port tack

[cbaldwin256]

Hi Guy. Sorry you are finding it more difficult than expected. We did a lot of testing with sailors from absolute beginners to the more experienced and getting the right balance of difficulty is tricky (maybe impossible!). As Romeo has indicated, eSail does not claim to be the only training or learning you will need. There are millions of free resources available and there are also some beginners articles under guides here.

If you get stuck, just pause eSail and research the term or issue.

Unlike a proper instructor, immediate feedback is difficult. There are millions of things users can do. However I do agree that with telltales for instance that showing which way to move the sail would be helpful. This is actually being added to the Sandbox in V2. And there are some other areas where we will continue to improve feedback so I am not ignoring your comments by any means.

[Pathogen]

Just stick with it - it will make sense eventually. I think the tutorials are very good, and once you understand what your sheets do, and your points of sail, you can get a ton out of this game. Take a look at ASA's sailing app on IOS too. it's free, and it is very basic. It will help you understand the mechanics a bit, and keep you going in Esail.

[Mudraxus]

Well I also never stepped on a boat before I learned with E-Sail. In fact I helped out a buddy who just had made his license afterwards, and he was impressed that I knew exactly what to do in most situations.
I think the tutorials are very helpful. There are a lot of new terms to learn for sure, But If you have your browser open in the background you can easily look up anything new and continue with the tutorial. And it also helps to do tutorials a couple of times. Just hang in there, its really rewarding once you got the hang of it

[Kerbo]

I had never sailed anything so had a similar experience with the tutorials at first. Using Google and searching these discussions helped a lot. Once you figure out the basics it's very satisfying. Good luck and happy sailing

[Guybrush3pwood]

Yeah, spending more time with it, I'm starting to get a feel. That and watching some videos on sailing on youtube are definitely helping to supplement. Sorry, my frustration got the better of me in the OP.

[cbaldwin256]

Well we are definitely going to add some guidance and feedback with positioning the sails in the tutorials so your feedback has helped, and hopefully will help other users. Watch out for version 2 !

[brouk1111]

I think as my colleagues says, follow tutorials and it will really teach you. Or combine with some RYA book for begginers like RYA Yacht Sailing Techniques by Jeremy Evans or similar.

[Murdock]

I noticed in freesail mode if you set your sails manually and make sure the jammers are locked, then turn on autosail it'll keep your settings and just adjust the main and jib sheets. Finding that out really helped me not feel so rushed and overwhelmed. Trying to constantly adjust the sails manually in an efficient way is just about impossible. It took a while for me to get the controls and UI down but honestly I think I've learned a ton so far.

[retraite58]

Originally posted by ph4l3:

I noticed in freesail mode if you set your sails manually and make sure the jammers are locked, then turn on autosail it'll keep your settings and just adjust the main and jib sheets. Finding that out really helped me not feel so rushed and overwhelmed.

Same here. When I turn headwind I stay in manual mode for the sails, the helpers do nothing, it is easy to get on the other side. No messing with the sails.
Since I know it is dangerous to do such a move backwind in real life, I feel the scare out of me and do it only in low backwind in eSail.