Spanish virtual skipper experiences real time sailing at Perth 2011
As the winner of the LiveSkipper Perth 2011 Virtual Yacht race, Romeo has ventured out of Europe for the first time, coming to Australia as part of his prize for being the first to sail a virtual maxi-trimaran from Weymouth to Perth.
“I have not won many races, “ he said. “I have made many mistakes in many races, so I did not think I would win this race.”
Using real time weather conditions from around the world, some 10,000 players made the virtual voyage from England to Australia following a 21,000km course on a foiled trimaran capable of making more than 40 knots of boat speed.
Players had to plot their course and choose their sails depending on the real time weather at their boat’s position.
Just like real skippers on real boats, there was plenty of stress and not much sleep during the voyage.
For the three weeks it took Romeo to navigate his way to Perth – albeit from the comfort of his home in Barcelona – the mechanical engineer said the pressure of competing was still very real.
“You have to watch the boat 24 hours a day and have luck to stay where the wind is,” he said. “Sometimes you see what other people are doing and you think that you are wrong. I had to trust my instinct.”
Romeo’s real world sailing experience and instinct is limited to one voyage five months ago with fellow virtual skippers. “I didn’t do anything, I was just in a corner trying to watch and learn,” he said.
The Spaniard says he had little problem grasping the concepts of sailing for success in the virtual world.
“I am a mechanical engineer,” Romeo said. “I like boats, planes, cars, anything that moves, I like. I have some physics knowledge, so I know how things work. It’s not very difficult to understand how it works.
“But real sailing is very difficult.”
The most difficult part of the race for Romeo came in the final two days of the voyage.
Despite a decent lead when his virtual trimaran was 200 nautical miles from Perth, the virtual skipper was still nervous of his closest rival
“I knew I had enough distance, but he had better wind,” he said.
The distance between the boats proved the key to Romeo’s success in the end, as the Spaniard was forced to backtrack after initially missing the finish line.
“Luckily I had enough time to turn around,” he said. “Then I was very tired. It was 7am in Barcelona, I had been up all night with my lap top by my bed, so I turned over and went to sleep.”
The Live Skipper Weymouth to Perth race was devised by the French company BeTomorrow which is providing the 3-D graphics for Perth 2011 host broadcaster Sunset and Vine. The detailed animations are also being used on the giant screen in the Worlds Villages to depict a realistic coverage of the world championship racing when there is no live television. The competition and the first prize of a trip to Perth was jointly sponsored by BeTomorrow and Perth 2011.
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