ILCA 7 dinghy simulator — hiking, the mainsheet, capsize and righting, in the browser

A Laser teaches sailing the hard way: the sailor is the ballast, the sheet is the throttle, and the gust you did not ease for puts you in the water. Most people get their first season's capsizes cold, on a club evening, with a rescue boat waiting. In our simulator you have them first — the righting, the death roll, the gybe that goes wrong in 24 knots — in the real wind over a real Gulf of Riga. You can sail her now, in the browser, on your phone too.

The boat

The simulator's ILCA 7 is the Laser-class single-hander to her figures: 4.23 m long, 1.37 m beam, a 59 kg hull with an 80 kg sailor aboard, a 7.06 m² cat rig on an unstayed mast, and a 0.79 m daggerboard (0.2 m with the board up). No engine, no jib, no spinnaker, no reef. She has a tiller, and she has you.

Her numbers below are the simulator's own behaviour. Hiked out in 8 knots true she makes 4.2 kn close-hauled at 45° and 4.8 kn on the beam. In 16 knots she climbs over the hump near 5.8 kn and planes: 9.7 kn on the beam, 12.5 kn at 110°; in 20 knots, 13.9 kn. Sitting in, close-hauled in 16 knots, she must be eased down to 3 kn to stay upright. A tack takes about two seconds, righting about half a minute; capsized she drifts at 0.3 kn, her sail in the water holding her down.

She goes over as the real boat does: sheet held and not hiked, she capsizes in the gusts from 12 knots true. Running with the board half up she death-rolls from 14 knots — board down, or the sheet trimmed in a touch, she does not. A gybe in 24 knots capsizes her. In a gale past 35 knots the help says plainly: dinghies capsize.

The 3-D view is yours from the boat, low on the water, with the wind dial showing true wind in blue and apparent in orange; the BRIDGE, CHASE and TOP views are a D-pad or a tap away. The sky over her is the real one — the sun where it stands over you now, the real moon and stars at night.

What you learn on her

• Steering a tiller. ← → or A / D, or drag the tiller — push it to port to turn to starboard, as in the boat. AUTO (key P) hands the course to the sailor, and TACK / GYBE then work as on the yachts.
• Playing the mainsheet. ↑ / ↓ trim and ease, or MAIN TRIM / EASE. The help's rule is the one every coach shouts: in a gust, ease the sheet first, then hike harder.
• Hiking. HIKE IN / HALF / FULL (key H). The sailor is her ballast; lean out on the windward side as the breeze builds. Heeled over she slows and slides sideways; laid flat she capsizes.
• The daggerboard. DAGGERBOARD DOWN / HALF / UP (key B): down to beat, half on a reach or a run, up in shallow water — and with the board up she slides sideways, which you will feel in the leeway.
• Capsize and righting. CAPSIZED: RIGHT THE BOAT (key R). The sailor swims round to the daggerboard, stands on it and pulls her up — half a minute to a minute, longer in a strong wind.
• Getting the sail down. Her sail comes down only within 45° of the wind: luff up, let the sheet fly, and the unstayed rig swings free and empties. Further off the wind it is pressed out and will not come down — the simulator tells you to HEAD UP INTO THE WIND. It goes up wherever she lies; with no engine and the sail down she drifts beam- or stern-on while the sailor holds her bow up.
• Being small among ships. You are small and low; big ships cannot see you and cannot stop. Keep out of a narrow channel or fairway (Rule 9(b)). At night a sailing vessel under 7 m shows sidelights and a sternlight if practicable, otherwise a white torch in time (Rule 25(d)(i)). Better: sail by day.
• Recovering from a mistake. ↶ 5 MIN BACK (Shift+U) puts you where you were five minutes of sailing ago, same speed and sails; ↶ 30 MIN BACK (key U) half an hour back.

A practice wind is a tap away: WIND → SET, 0–50 kn from any point of the rose, gusts NONE / LIGHT / STRONG, STEADY or VEERING. Set 12 knots with STRONG gusts and sail close-hauled without hiking: you will capsize, and learn why. Then do it hiked FULL, eased in the puffs.

The sea is real

Free Mode starts in the Gulf of Riga, off the Daugava mouth heading for Ruhnu — in full detail, with 107 real harbours to start in, enter and leave. The whole Baltic is there too, from the Estonian islands to the Danish straits, with the major lighthouses lit at night; with the simulator subscription it comes in detail from Luleå to Skagen and Kiel, and about 2,000 harbours open from the AREA picker.

The wind is today's real wind — the MET Norway forecast where you are — and so are the cloud, rain, sleet, snow and fog and the visibility they leave; the sea builds in a minute or so when the wind changes. Day and night follow the real sun. A CURRENT tile shows the stream where she is, or sets one of your own, 0–4 kn.

Round you is COLREG traffic that keeps the rules — always a 183 m tanker and a 260 m cruise ship in the fairway to Riga among it. The RADAR PPI, the AIS triangles with CPA / TCPA, and the OpenSeaMap chart with EMODnet depths are there. In a Laser you use them to stay out of everybody's way.

Shared sea — other real people on the water

Logged in, SHARED SEA is on by default — one live sea for everyone at ×1 — and you can switch it off. It never speeds up. The boats you meet are other skippers' boats, and the rules are then for real, with a real person on the other helm. A practice wind you set is yours alone — the others keep the real wind and see PRACTICE WIND by your boat's name.

Classroom and the scenario builder — for schools, clubs and instructors

✎ SCENARIO BUILDER opens over the simulator: a name and a brief, the place (any harbour of the Gulf of Riga or the Baltic, or a point on the chart), the OWN VESSEL (the ILCA 7 from the VESSEL list, under way or in the harbour), TIME & WEATHER (dawn to night on any date, wind from / speed / gusts / veering, visibility down to thick fog, the sea state). Add ⊕ VESSELS with a type and a course or a drawn ROUTE; draw ▱ AREAS with triggers that change the wind, bring in fog or start a ship. ▶ RUN sails it; ■ END debriefs. ⇗ MAKE A LINK packs the whole scenario into a link — nothing is stored on our server — and whoever opens it has it ready to RUN.

🎓 CLASSROOM → TEACH opens a private class: FREE SAILING with one vessel for all or each her own, a set wind or the real one, day or night; or a SCENARIO, a DOCKING LESSON or a DRILL. OPEN THE CLASS gives a code (like K7QM-2XPA) and a link — we never send e-mails. Up to 30 students at a time, from a laptop, a Chromebook, an iPad or a phone. The INSTRUCTOR VIEW shows every boat with her track and CPA ring; ❚❚ PAUSE ALL, 🌫 FOG or 🌬 WIND to one or all, ↺ RESET TO START, a ▤ SUMMARY to print or download. The class sails in its own private sea, never the public one. TEACH comes with the subscription; students join shared scenarios and classes for free with a SkipperCheck account.

Where she fits

• Docking mode (ENTER or ⚓ DOCK) works for every boat in the Gulf's harbours: the harbour from straight above, north up, free visitor berths in green. The dinghy has small fenders (key O), one line (key 1), and RIGHT HER after a capsize. The Harbour Ready docking lessons run under engine, so they are for the yachts and motor boats; the Laser docks free-form.
• 🛟 MOB on every boat marks the position, the dan buoy and the clock; the MOB DRILLS under sail — FIGURE-EIGHT, QUICK-STOP, DEEP BEAM REACH — are the methods a Laser sailor will later use on a keelboat.
• 🎮 GAME CONTROLLER: any pad or flight-sim stick the browser sees, in the SAILS layout — helm and mainsheet on the sticks, the right stick looks round.
• ⛵ REGATTA — THE BALTIC LAP, raced in identical ELEONORAs, is the first lap; the next will be somewhere else in the world, and the race tells you about every place you pass on its mark cards. ⚑ PILOT, ⛓ TOWING, ⛽ OFFSHORE, ≋ SURVEY, the ECDIS plotter and the glass bridge belong to the working vessels and ships. The Laser is where you learn to feel the wind.

Who it is for

Leisure and professional alike. The charter skipper who wants the first day of the holiday to feel like the fifth, the club sailor keeping an eye in over the winter, the family learning on one boat together — and, on the same sea, the cadet before the first watch, the deck officer brushing up the rules, the instructor who needs a situation the whole class can see. Nothing here is "for beginners only" or "for professionals only": the sea, the rules and the boat's behaviour are the same for everyone, and the simulator judges every run by the same standard.

How to start

Free Mode is open to everyone — no account needed — with the 15 m motor yacht and the 50 ft cruiser LATEKO at up to TIME ×10. Every other vessel — the ILCA 7 among them — the docking, sailing and ECDIS units, the scenario builder and Classroom TEACH come with the simulator subscription; students join shared scenarios free. SHARED SEA and the regatta need a free SkipperCheck login.

Our main product is the VHF course (€199) at /vhf-course: the certificate plus simulator practice is the Charter Ready idea.

FAQ

Does it run on a Mac or a phone?

Yes — any modern browser, nothing to install. On an upright phone the HELM panel sits under the view.

Is the wind real?

Yes: MET Norway's live forecast where you are, with the real sky, weather and fog. Or set your own practice wind, 0–50 kn with gusts.

Can I sail with friends?

Yes. In the shared sea you meet other skippers' boats at ×1; a class puts a group on its own private sea with a code.

Can a school or club use it?

Yes. An instructor builds scenarios, opens a class for up to 30 students and watches every boat; students join free.

Do I get a certificate?

The simulator gives practice. The certificate comes from the VHF course — see /vhf-course.

Sail the Laser now: /colreg-simulator?scenario=familiarization&area=gulf-of-riga&vessel=laser&sails=1 · all sailing boats at /sailing-simulator

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Boat types are described generically; SkipperCheck is not affiliated with any boat builder or class association.