Summer in Europe was a busy time for Sailaboat as the number of people buying their online training videos doubled from the same period last year. Over 1100 videos have now been sold to dinghy sailors wanting to learn how to sail. Apart from these videos which are streamed to PCs globally, Sailaboat also launched 3 DVDs in the UK last November with over 200 sold. A big thank you to all our customers.

Here is what some of our customers have been saying...

"Normally I wouldn't buy videos from the web, however, in searching through YouTube and torrents of yachting DVDs I couldn't find videos as good as yours" - James (Australia)

"I got great use out of them so now would like the rest of the family to get up to speed" - Dominic (UK)

"I have watched the Introduction To Sailing videos and found them enjoyable and easy to understand. I found it particularly useful to actually see graphics and VT illustrations such as rigging different types of boat, the basics of right of way and wind strengths when covering the Beaufort scale. The online price for the twelve month subscription is good value." - Debbie (UK)

"I think your videos will be great" - Anne (USA)

"Ease of purchase, ease of download and quality of production was very good" - Thomas (UK)

"Definitely recommend it - its really easy to follow, the graphics in particular showing you things like where the wind is in relation to the boat are really useful, the key learning points and common mistakes at the end of the videos are genius and the mix of shots from the top of the mast, actually on the boat in the cockpit and different graphics keep your attention" - Nat (UK)

"As there were no other reviews at the time, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this DVD. I however took a gamble and decided to purchase the product and wow I'm glad I did. This really has everything, for any beginner sailors out there, I would thoroughly recommend this product. I'm unsure of the company who actually produces these films but would definitely be interested in purchasing their other products." - J.Jones (UK)

"Excellent DVD - well worth the money. The way its been done makes it very easy to learn how to do everything. Graphics are brilliant" - LJP (UK)

Subscription prices have been reduced for all Sailaboat videos and video collections. These new prices follow a successful promotion when many more beginners to the sport of sailing purchased video collections. With subscription periods extended to 12 months (introduced last month) and these new prices, it's a great time to learn to sail.

As from 1st March 2011, everyone purchasing a Sailaboat video subscription will enjoy longer subscriptions in which to play their videos. The 6 month subscriptions have been doubled to 12 months providing plenty of time for people to go online to learn sailing techniques and then return at a later time if a refresher is required.

Sailaboat values greatly its existing customers so has decided to also extend all current subscriptions by 6 months.

To coincide with the start of the sailing season in Europe, all purchases of video subscriptions between 1st March 2011 and 18th April 2011 will receive a 30% discount.

Online sailing lessons at a great price combined with a 12 month subscription, this is a great opportunity to learn sailing techniques with online sailing training as and when you need it.

Full details of our terms and conditions are shown on the User Agreement page.

Following feedback from some of our customers, Sailaboat has now put all their training videos onto 3 DVDs.

The DVDs replicate the 3 Collections of videos currently available via subscription on the Sailaboat website, namely

• Intro To Sailing - containing 5 videos
• Learn To Sail Single Handed - 7 videos
• Learn To Sail Two Handed - 8 videos

The DVDs are easy to navigate - within each of the videos there are a number of chapters making it easy to select specific sections of each video for quick reference.

The DVDs are Region 2 format and can be purchased from Amazon for delivery in UK and certain European countries - links from the Sailaboat website (Collection pages) will take users directly to our pages on the Amazon website.

Sailaboat Ltd was established in January 2009 to make sailing training videos that could be streamed over the internet. The first area to focus on was learning to sail a dinghy. The objectives of these videos were to:

• Enable the viewer to be able to readily learn the different skills needed to sail a dinghy. Whilst many videos / DVDs available today show the skills it can be very difficult for the viewer to learn from them.
• Provide a valuable resource for people attending the basic dinghy training courses and thereby increasing the value they get from the course.
• Build the training videos in a modular form so that sailors can choose only the skills they wish to learn therefore making this a cost effective way of learning.

Tim Hore, who is our video Producer and cameraman is a senior RYA instructor and therefore knows the syllabus of the RYA basic dinghy courses. This, together with his practical experience working with beginners enabled him to select the skills and knowledge that should be included in the videos.

One of the key success factors of an effective training video is a good script - Tympani Productions, who made the videos, have many years experience writing scripts including numerous training videos. With Tim's experience of sailing and writing training video scripts, he was ideally placed to take the lead in writing the scripts for the Sailaboat videos.

Another member of the team, Nigel Palmer, added a different dimension to the scripts. Nigel had 12 years experience in the field of training, including 5 of them managing a training department in a Global organisation where they transitioned a number of traditional training programs to video based learning. We also received feedback from a dinghy sailing instructor to get an external view on the scripts.

Where appropriate, the scripts include sections on Common Mistakes, Key Learning Points and Next steps and all have a glossary of terms to help the user with sailing terms.

When a video is purchased, these scripts are made available for download so it becomes an invaluable reference source for the viewer.

Once happy with the scripts, the next stage was to organise the filming.

As mentioned earlier, a key objective we had was that viewers would be able to readily learn from the videos. The filming techniques we used were to be fundamental to us achieving this. In particular, being able to see what the crew and helm are doing throughout a manoeuvre and where the wind is blowing from in relation to the dinghy were vital. The techniques we used to achieve this were:

• Filming from a newly designed camera (called the Elipticam) that is secured to either the bottom or the top of the dinghy mast. This camera can pan from side to side of the dinghy so that it can film all movements of the crew and helm as they move across the boat to perform different manoeuvres.
• The use of 2D and 3D graphics. These are used to explain the more complex manoeuvres where pictures and words are not enough to get a clear understanding of what to do. These graphics and conventional filming bring together wind direction, the path the dinghy takes and the position of the helm to clearly show how manoeuvres should be performed.

The filming was done at both SailLaser in Weymouth (the home of the 2012 Olympic sailing events) and also at Littleton Sailing Club so we have a mix of both coastal and inland sailing. The sailors used for the filming were experienced dinghy instructors and competent club sailors - what they all had in common was being able to show clearly what they were doing. Different makes of dinghies were used covering both single and two handed sailing.

Once filming was completed, editing was the next step in the process.

We shot approximately 30 hours of film that needed to be edited - there wasn't a target for the length of each video, what was important was to cover all the relevant points in a way that the viewer could learn.

It was in the editing suite that we:

• Integrated the 2D and 3D graphics with the film shot from cameras in a chase boat, from the shore and the mast camera.
• Edited sections of the film to be either slow motion or freeze frame.

So important was this we spent 2 days on most videos.

Last step in the process was to record the voice over and add some background music. Although they may be seen as less important, the voice over and the background music are in fact vital to ensure the videos are easy to listen to and clear. A professional voice over artist was used to put this final touch to the training videos.

The videos were then ready for encoding and uploading to our streaming partner and then we were ready for launch.

In 2008, Tympani Productions Ltd engaged Nigel Palmer, a Marketing and Training consultant, to help them with their Business Planning. From one of the working sessions came the idea to make training videos on sailing dinghies, keel boats and yachts. There were a number of compelling reasons why this was a good idea.

• Firstly, Tim Hore, a co-owner of Tympani Productions Ltd, had a real passion for sailing dinghies and yachts and had over 35 years sailing experience including 8 years teaching new dinghy sailors on Level 1 and 2 courses. Tim is an RYA Senior Dinghy Instructor.
• Secondly, Tympani's business was making high quality videos including instructional videos. Between Tim and Penny King, the other co-owner, they had over 55 years experience in the TV and production industry.
• Technology has progressed significantly in the last 5 years especially broadband availability. Now it is commonplace to stream video to PCs across the world. (It is estimated that YouTube have over 100 million users just in the USA.)
• Tim and Dave Bradley of Bradley Engineering were collaborating on a new camera that would make a significant leap forward in filming different sailing manoeuvres such that all the movements of helm and/or crew could now be seen clearly as they move back and forth across the dinghy.
• From a marketing perspective, there were some DVDs available in different countries but of varying quality especially from a training perspective. If you wanted to learn to sail using video there wasn't an option to just purchase the skills you wanted to learn - you had to purchase everything on the DVD.

So, a Business Plan was developed and the company, Sailaboat Ltd, was registered in January 2009.

The initial plan was to produce a series of training videos that would enable new sailors to learn how to sail and experienced dinghy sailors to either address missing skills or perhaps transition from sailing single handed to two handed or vice versa.

The videos would cover all the sailing fundamentals and also include a number of sailing tips. Most importantly, they should support and add value to people attending traditional dinghy sailing courses.

Future plans include training videos to help dinghy sailors sail faster and more effectively and also keel boat and yacht sailing.