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Displaying items by tag: Gonzalo ‘Bocha’ Pollitzer

The latest in Royal Cork Yacht Club’s ‘Stay@Home’ webinar series is a free tactics and strategy session (for members only) this Sunday 17 May with two of the most renowned coaches in the sailing world.

Gonzalo ‘Bocha’ Pollitzer and Fernando Gwozdz, from Argentina, have an impressive haul of world and national championships to their names, from Optimists to J24s.

Many will remember Fernando as resident coach in the Royal Cork for five years in the late 2000s, coaching the likes of Richie Harrington and Séafra Guilfoyle to success in the Optimist, 420 and Laser classes.

Now Fernando and Bocha have agreed to come on board to develop youth sailing in the Royal Cork.

This first session is open to all club members, coaches and instructors — sailor or non-sailor, young or old.

And the club says pending the success of the session, there will be tailored webinar series by class in the pipeline which will supplement Ireland’s upcoming return to sailing.

For more details on the strategy seminar this Sunday evening at 7pm, see the RCYC website HERE.

Published in Royal Cork YC

Esailing & Virtual Sailing information

The concept of e-sailing, or virtual sailing, is based on a computer game sailing challenge that has been around for more than a decade.

The research and development of software over this time means its popularity has taken off to the extent that it has now become a part of the sailing seascape and now allows people to take an 'active part' in some of the most famous regattas across the world such as the Vendée Globe, Route du Rhum, Sydney Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, America’s Cup and some Olympic venues too, all from the comfort of their armchair.

The most popular model is the 'eSailing World Championship'. It is an annual esports competition, first held in 2018 and officially recognised by World Sailing, the sports governing body.

The eSailing World Championship is a yearly competition for virtual sailors competing on the Virtual Regatta Inshore game.

The contract to run the event was given to a private company, Virtual Regatta that had amassed tens of thousands of sailors playing offshore sailing routing game following major offshore races in real-time.

In April 2020, the company says on its website that it has 35,000 active players and 500,000 regattas sailed.

Virtual Regatta started in 2010 as a small team of passionate designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs gathered around the idea that virtual sailing sports games can mix with real races and real skippers.