From a distance

Rob Peake looks at what ‘sailing’ we can do via distance learning courses and online regattas

- Rob Peake

You would be forgiven for assuming that young Frenchman Stan Thuret, who completed the Mini Transat in 2017, was born into a sailing family and could handle a tiller before he could walk. Yet Thuret’s route into the sport started in front of a screen. “I learned rules and principles by playing online,” he says “That’s where it all began for me. Later on I felt like trying the real thing, so I bought a Mini, which is an active class in the part of France where I live.”

A few years later he was a semiprofessional sailor with a serious ocean race to his name. Thuret’s story is impressive for his having gone from computer screen to the Mini Transat, a gruelling event that often leads to the highest echelons of professional racing, but his route into the sport is far from unique.

And while gaming is helping recruit newcomers to the racing scene, sailing simulators and online learning courses are providing a fillip for cruising sailors. The numbers of people doing distance learning courses in RYA and other qualifications has risen exponentially over the past 10 years, but with many people now confined to lockdown status, that popularity has increased further and some providers have seen figures double since the Covid-19 crisis forced us into isolation.

The same has happened with online sail racing, where club sailors confined to land have relished trying their skills in virtual e-racing regattas. Regattas are even being organised where sailors can pit their wits against Olympians in virtual races.

Here we take a look at some of the ways we can all keep doing the hobby we love while the stay-at-home restrictions remain – and beyond.

Simulating practical skills