SailSimXL app for iPhone and iPad

SailSimXL is dinghy/yacht sailing simulator for the iPad that can be used as a learning and teaching aid for sailing.

SimSailXL is the iPad version of the popular iPhone App SailSim. It adds Gravity Wind allowing the iPad to be held up in front of a class and turned through the gravity wind to show key points about sailing such as sail trim, dead zone, sheet usage, leeway, heel and much more.

SailSimXL is an iPad only stream and will be developed in a separate stream to SailSim to include some great new features later in 2011.

Your iPad turns into a sailing boat. You can set the wind direction and then see how changes in boat heading effect the set of the sails, centerboard and boat speed. As you turn the iPhone (boat) the wind direction stays constant relative to the boat and the sails adjust and change shape as they would do in real life. This can be used to demonstrate key principles of sailing to students. You can override the set wind direction with a touch of the screen as explained below. To set the wind direction, press the i button, point the iPhone into wind, hold it there and press Done.

Press the apple icon (hats off to Mr. Newton!) to enable Gravity Wind. The wind now flows in the same direction as gravity so you can demo in front of your class. Special thanks to Rick Loheed, Assistant Director of Waterfront Activities, James P. Muldoon River Center, St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

You can manually tell the SailSimXL where the wind is blowing from by touching the screen. Using the mast as the center point, touch the screen around the boat to set the wind direction. The wind indicators will show you where the wind is blowing from.

SailSimXL shows you:
o Boat Heading
o Centerboard (Daggerboard) position
o Boat speed for each sail angle
o Boat tack
o Point of sail
o Wind direction - as compass direction and arrows
o Relative wind position (as you would see on an instrument)
o Color coded sheets for teaching
o Extra big fonts for clarity
o Gravity Wind option

Tom Lochhaas at sailing.about.com said:

Sailing Simulator App for iPhone
Friday August 7, 2009

Well, here it is: another new sailing app for the iPhone. Twice before I’ve written about fun things that you can do with your iPhone on a sailboat that might dangerously distract you from the sailing at hand. But SailSim is different—this one is actually pretty cool.

First there was the app that turns your iPhone into a mini-chartplotter. I imagined a sailor peering at the tiny image of his boat approaching a rocky shoal—and at a critical moment receiving a call and bringing the phone to his ear just in time to run aground. Then there came an app that calculates your windspeed based on the roar of the wind through the iPhone microphone, perhaps enough to distract you from studying that other chartplotter screen just at the moment when you, well, might avoid running aground. My issue with these is that as nifty as they are in themselves, a techno-savvy sailor might be distracted by having too much fun.

The fun of SailSim, however, doesn’t happen while you’re sailing. This new app is more a learning tool you’d use off the boat. Using the iPhone’s accelerometer and the 3GS’s compass, SailSim shows how a sailboat reacts to changes in direction relative to the wind. You turn the phone (boat image) and watch how the sails move to stay trimmed to the new wind direction. As the heading changes, the sails move and the speed changes, and maybe you’d like to gybe or tack the boat? What a fun way to teach principles of sailors to newbies—or enjoy a tedious business meeting!


Keywords: Sailing, dinghy, sail training, navigation, sail, compass, sailing simulation, sailing game.

Check out our other apps: NavStation - for big boat navigation, VitalStatistics - for travelers, LedOTron & LedOTronFree for musicians and music makers and LedOthel, a retro version of the classic Reversi strategy game.