I’m Learning How to (Virtually) Sail on the Meta Quest 3
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This might be the whitest thing I’ve ever written, but I’m getting into sailing. A friend recently took me on a boat ride around Santa Barbara, and I finally really understood what Christopher Cross meant when he sang, “The canvas can work miracles. Just wait and see.”
Except I don’t know how to do it do it. So I was just sitting there, not really veil. It’s personally frustrating to feel useless on the poop deck (it’s called a “poop deck”, right?), so I downloaded MarineVerse Sailing Club for the Meta Quest 3, and it became my “Upgrade of the Week”.
How I learned to sail the (virtual) seas with MarineVerse Sailing Club
The next time I go sailing (which I hope is soon, eh, Doug?), I’ll be armed with all the salty seamanship skills one can learn in virtual reality. MarineVerse Sailing Club lets you pilot and pilot five different watercraft, from dinghies to yachts, in exotic virtual reality locations around the world, like fake Sydney and ersatz Rio. But more importantly for me, it’s a way to learn the basics of sailing: things like the names of parts of the boat, and more advanced nautical techniques like tacking, gybing, and right-of-way rules. It offers a series of easy-to-follow lessons that are much more interesting and fun than just reading about sailing, and you can take what you’ve learned and compete against other people in multiplayer races, or simply sail the virtual seas.
I haven’t really touched on the community aspect yet, but Sailing Club has an active user base of thousands of scalawags, many of whom are real sailors, who participate in organized racing leagues and frolic on the sea on Discord, just like a real sailing club. It’s the kind of niche community that thrives in virtual spaces.
What do you think of it so far?
The emphasis is on realism rather than thrills and the graphics are very latest, so I don’t know if I would recommend Sailing Club strictly as a gamebut as a learning tool or cheap solution when you’re away from the marina, it’s worth $29.99. Even if you add in the cost of a Meta Quest 3, it’s only a small fraction of the $10,000 you’d pay for a cheap sailboat.
Obviously you’re only scratching the surface of navigation knowledge with a VR simulation, and the best VR navigation experience is about a two on the awesomeness scale compared to floating in the ocean, but if you’re like me and don’t want to be a total navigating noob is a very fun first step. Ahah!
