Olympic veteran and top-flight coach Hugh Styles is using e-Sailing to help some of his clients get to grips with different tactical scenarios. Today's task in three virtual races is to learn how to battle your way back through the fleet after a second-row start...
Highlights
00:15 Aim of the game is to today's for us to work through some difficult traffic off the start line by playing some scenarios through Virtual Regatta e-sailing
07:30 Start of Race 1
16:35 The importance of gauging what kind of day you’re in. Here we’re looking at breeze blowing offshore in Aarhus, Denmark. It’s shifty and gusty, so there’s always opportunities to make gains - and losses!
18:01 Dark patch of water on the right-hand side of the start line. Important factor in working out our starting strategy.
20:20 Start of Race 2 - very busy and competitive off the middle of the line... Tigris is over!
27:00 What was the correct move for the pink boats? Under-tack the layline for the windward mark and two extra tacks? Or overlay and come in from above, no more tacks to do? Hear Hugh’s answer...
30:01 As in real life, try to avoid close situations in the virtual world as a penalty is a like a real-world protest room - you put yourself into a 50:50 situation where you might end up with a penalty that you didn’t deserve.
44:35 Start of Race 3 - very busy at the committee boat end. Massive congestion...
56:40 Andy Rice asks a few sailors, amateur racer Ben Clothier and Olympic aspirant Henry Bomby about what they gain from racing and being coached by Hugh in e-sailing. “Building that sharpness and working out the playbook of tactics for the real world,” says Ben. Aside from his doublehanded offshore campaign for the Olympics in 2024, Henry does tactics in the Solent on a Fast 40. “I wouldn’t go to a weekend’s racing around the cans without doing some e-sailing training to sharpen up my tactics.”
68:10 Hugh walks his apprentices through some more tight tactical situations, post-racing debriefing and asking them what they’d do differently next time...
If you fancy getting involved with Hugh's tactical training, head on over to his website Time on the Water and sign up!
