Having sailed for most of the first 50 years of my life … owning six different sailboat, sailing in college and bareboating in the Caribbean … , I was intrigued by the Sunday afternoon model sailboat races held on Sun N Fun's Lake Ibis. While there are apparently many classes, today's races were for identical, 1-meter (10 lbs.) boats… modeled after America Cup boats of the past.
The boats are controlled by a unit which looks not too dissimilar to those used for computer games. The right-hand joy stick controls the sails while the left controlls the rudder.
Regular sailiing rules apply, with boats jockying for the most favorable posiiton
to enable them to cross the start line as quickly after the countdown reaches zero.
Then, like any other sailboat race, they must navigate upwind, crosswind and downwind legs, in this case aound four buoys forming a rectangular course, and try to cross the finish line ahead of their comeptitors.
I have been invited to partipate in next Sunday's races and am already looking forward to it.