Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Para World Sailing Championships

Nine countries took part in the 2019 Para World Sailing Championships last week in Puerto Sherry, near Cadiz in Spain, writes Irish competitor Patrick Hassett.

The Spaniards had a home advantage as tides were tricky and the Spanish Nationals had been held there three weeks ago.

Racing was held over four consecutive days with three 50-minute races each day. I was very happy with my performance at this level as I came either 13th or 15th (out of 18) in the majority of these races, with the final race of the series being my best (11th). My overall result was 15th.

Other competitors included two-time Paralympic gold medallist Damien Seguin (who finished first) and fellow Paralympians Antonio Squizzato and Bjornar Erikstad, who finished second and third respectively.

The weather in Puerto Sherry was amicable. However, the waves gave me more experience with the bilge pump than I had anticipated!

The course was a standard windward-leeward, with a gate as the leeward mark. The finish line was crossed with the boats on a run which was unusual.

The event allowed me to gain experience racing against a large fleet of 2.4mRs. I also got the opportunity to chat to sailors who had been sailing these boats for many years and pick up some tips and tricks from the veterans.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to continuing to improve my sailing.

Published in Racing

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.