Displaying items by tag: Steadfast Defender 2024

6th February 2024

Royal Navy Blames Propeller Issues for Flagship’s Withdrawal From Historic NATO Drill

The UK’s Royal Navy has withdrawn its fleet flagship from a historic NATO exercise on Norway’s Arctic coast over what it says are issues with the vessel’s propeller.

According to Marine Industry News, the HMS Queen Elizabeth had been due to sail from Portsmouth on Sunday evening (4 February) until routine checks identified an issue with a coupling on the vessel’s starboard propeller shaft.

The £3.5bn, 65,000-ton aircraft carrier — which has parts constructed in the same shipyard that built the Naval Service’s LÉ George Bernard Shaw — will be replaced by sister ship HMS Prince of Wales in exercise Steadfast Defender 2024.

The Prince of Wales has had its own share of propeller issues, previously breaking down shortly after setting out for the United States on deployment in August 2022.

Steadfast Defender 2024 is NATO’s largest exercise since the end of the Cold War, involving some 90,000 military personnel from all NATO members and Sweden.

Marine Industry News has more on the story HERE.

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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.