Russian sailing simulator presented in Moscow

Director of 1'Russian Sailing University Leonid Kleiman presented at «Moscow Boat Show» an e-sailing simulator for sailing training. It is a prototype so far, so it is possible to race virtually only on the yacht similar to«Luch», in two modes - training and racing and on the short distance - start and tacking up to the 1st mark.

In the app you can set the slope of the start line, the distance to the mark, the difficulty (the level of the virtual opponent depends on it), the wind strength and the wind pattern (constant wind, bend, turn, oscillating or random). Use left and right buttons to steer, F button to gain/finish the sail, spacebar to make the overstag turn.

3D modeling of the simulator was done by the specialists of Space Research Department of Moscow State University.

«Guys said: we can draw you great waves, but here we are not experts on boats. As a result, their virtual "Ray" in the early stages of development had a transparent cockpit, in which the water splashes», - says development director of 1'RPU Peter Kreinin.

Pupils of Moscow sailing schools tried the simulator at the Moscow exhibition and the creators got the first portion of feedback: they say the children liked it.

The application does not account for the currents, however, as Leonid Kleiman assured itBoat's correspondent, it will not be a problem to simulate it in the full version of the program. The problem is, as is often the case in domestic sailing, financing. Further development of the application requires a financial injection, and the project is in search of partners and sponsors.

Leonid Kleiman is probably the right person to create a really high quality computer product in yachting. «For eight years he worked in the Russian office of Microsoft», first as a manager of strategic projects and then as a business development manager, for four years he was executive director of the Russian Yachting Federation.

Interestingly,he chose a name for this IT project almost identical to that of the Cyber Sailing World Championship, which was first held under the auspices of World Sailing in 2018.

Kleiman is aiming exactly there, at«big» sailing cybersport.

He believes that World Sailing's current partner, the French company Virtual Regatta, has one significant downside: its main products are virtual models of big offshore regattas (not surprising, given the French passion for offshore). A person who decides to participate in such a regatta must abandon his business for the entire time the regatta lasts, which can be weeks and months. He must be constantly in front of his computer and sleep intermittently, like a true offshore yachtsman. The most pumped up participants find a way out - as virtual VOR winner Rémy Quetstroey did, for example. By writing a script that made his boat move automatically, he finished faster than real yachtsmen. The French have an inshore version for racing Olympic distances, but they are slipping into the arcade.

«In the Russian big regattas, like National Sailing League or World Sailing Cup, all the participating boats are equipped with GPS, and there are sensors on the course, which registerchanges in speed and wind direction during the race. We have a software solution with which peopleon shore can monitor the actions of the yacht's crew in real time on a large screen or computer screen and evaluate their effectiveness," said Leonid Kleiman. -Or organize a virtual regatta so that onshore spectators could take part in it, chasing the virtual prototypes of real teams, getting data about the wind from the real distance .»

You can chase on the virtual «Lucha» on the website of 1'Russian Sailing University.