Sailing lends itself well to Gamification. Games not only promote the sport and bring new participants to the sport, but also allow sailors of all levels with the ability to train by simulating racing decisions over and over again.
Sailx is one sailing game that is used by thousands of sailors, from beginners to Olympians to practise making better decisions. The game is running an online regatta in conjunction with the RYA Volvo dinghy show.
The‘RYA Volvo Dinghy Show SailX Championships 2012’ is still open for entries. Sailors can enter and compete in the online sailing event up until very last regatta, which will be held at 2130 GMT on Sunday 26th.
To date, 550 individuals (including World Champions and Olympians) have taken part in 50+ boat fleet-races, five times every day.
Amando Estela founder of SailX.com commented:
“We are absolutely delighted with the support we have received for this Championships –from players, from the RYA, from The Royal Corinthian Yacht Club and from our prize sponsors Volvo, Bollé and Yachts & Yachting. It really was the last minute when we all agreed to run this competition but with their help it’s really taken off and with a few days still to go til entries close on midnight on Sunday 26th Feb, there is still plenty of time for people to enter so who knows how big its going to get!”
Both a ‘Live Finals’ and an ‘Online Finals’ will take place over the weekend of 3rd and 4th of March. The ‘Live Finals’ will be one of the highlights of both days of the RYA Volvo Dinghy Show at Alexandra Palace, London. 40 finalists will race a live 5-race regatta in front of the Volvo Main Stage and shown on the big screen.
At the conclusion of the ‘Live Finals’, the individual winner of the Championships will become the first recipient of the new “Virtual Endeavour Trophy” (a new version of this famous trophy that is being specially made for this competition) as well as huge bragging rights!
The Individual winner will also receive a Volvo XC90 ‘Weekend Experience’ and a pair of Bollé sunglasses!
For those who are in any doubt about a sailing game’s ability to engage an audience, the 550 individuals who have played in this competition so far have notched up 1500 hours (63 solid days) of gameplay in over 905 races.
