A new wind in my virtual sails
I have always loved sailing. As a child, my father took me out on his Ranger 26 sailboat and his various Hobie Cat and Sunfish sailboats. But time constraints, as well as financial, have kept me from owning my own sailboat.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that owning digital boats has stemmed my pining — at least temporarily.
In Second Life, I have *several* boats — from the smaller Flying Tako and Flying Fizz to the ACC 2.0 and ACA32 racers (modeled after the Americas Cup racing boats) to much larger craft by the now-defunked (unfortunately) Kokakola. Kokakola was an Italian designer, and I am very fortunate to own 4 of his vessels — of which my favorite is the Puma racer (a red and white 40-footer with the large Puma shoes logo along the side, mainsail and spinnaker). I was very sad indeed to see Kokakola drop off the grid in Second Life. But I have his boats to enjoy, nonetheless.
As fun as sailing in SL can be (at times), it can also be equally frustrating. Sim crossings can get squirrely, or lag you out altogether. So after a very quick Internet search, I came across a title called Virtual Skipper 5. VSK5, as it’s known, features the Americas Cup racers predominantly, with three other classes of boats to race both online and off. The very passionate community also designs add-on boats, as well.
It was a bit curious to me that I’d not previously discovered VSK5, especially since the publisher also makes a title I do already own — Pro Cycling Manager 2008 (a road bike and Tour de France sim game). After spending a day with the simulator, I must admit I’m thoroughly enjoying it. The graphics (most notably of the seas) aren’t quite as earth-shattering as I had hoped — Ubisoft does a better job, IMHO, with the Silent Hunter 4 submarine simulation title — but are certainly respectable. The true fun is in the ability to create your own races (and seas), as well as the wholly scalable difficulty of simulation. Novices can just point the boat in a decent angle to the wind and let the AI handle sail trimming and optimal navigation lines. Diehard experts can commandeer everything manually with the assistance only of a compass and a wind direction vane. Those of us left can fall happily in the middle somewhere.
So, don’t be surprised if you find me out on the digital seas with ones and zeroes flipping through my hair. It may not be exactly the real thing, but I don’t have to worry with stretched sails and hours spent on teak wood maintenance…
