Be aware of what is around you. Have good situational awareness. The best way to do this is to zoom out with the control-8 keys. I sail with a double zoom out (control-8 twice). Be aware that when you zoom out there will be a distortion that makes things look further away than they really are. Play around with single zoom and double zoom to find the one that works best for you.

Additionally, make use of your mini-map. It’s an excellent tool to determine what boats are near you.

 Myrrl Massiel wrote an interesting forum post on a different way to increase your situational awareness. You can read about it in this archived post on the Forum: http://slsailing.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=431