I discovered a game called Virtual Sailor 6.8 designed apparently by a lone person. It is extremely impressive given that fact. The water and air current physics are particularly impressive. It's supported mostly by a small community of moddelers and skinners. I have done some skinning myself but found the limitations of some of the released boats too much and gave it up. The game supports online multiplayer and you can race or simply enjoy the sites. There are many user-created maps of areas around the world and they are big.
The game however isn't specificaly designed for racing and to me, learning to sail a virtual boat has one end and one end only: that is to test your new found skills against an opponent, real or AI, it doesn't matter. So I have migrated to a game called Virtual Skipper 3 designed by a French company called Enlight. You may have a hard time finding it at the store and have to order a copy --- I got lucky and found one left at EB.
Anyway, the community for this game seems to be LONG DEAD. Not that it was ever big to begin with, but I am looking at forums where the last written post was middle 2004. Sad, because the game physics and graphics are truly outstanding --- and this is coming from someone who's used to playing RTW with all the graphics maxed out and huge army sizes. The water is stunning --- best I've ever seen in a game. As for the AI, I am admitedly not a sailor but have always loved the subject. You would think I could win a regatta once in a while against the AI on the easiest level, but these AI sailors are very tough. And I have practiced forever. Also, for anyone who likes to spend their time reskinning, some of the best PSD templates I have ever seen or used have been released for this game (all labelled in French but the color coding makes a lot of sense). Four types of boats are available: ACC, Offshore, Melges and Multi-Hull. Each type has drastically different characteristics. I have painted, downloaded and enjoyed some wonderful boats.
I can't figure out why this game has not had a lasting appeal. Of course this is the second sequel so obviously they're turning a profit, but I just can't understand why there isn't a healthier community of virtual sailing enthusiasts out there. It's DEAD! One big gripe many people seemed to have with the game was that while you could design your own courses, you couldn't actually race an AI boat on them. They could only be used for personal practice or multiplayer. However, 40+ courses were released and all contained fabulous and challenging single player races.
Anyway, I post here because certainly there are boating enthusiasts. Has anyone besides me heard of or played VSK3? Would anyone be interested? Feel free to PM me because I am tired of getting my tail whipped by a bunch of AI sailors and I would like to now get my tail whipped by a REAL person who, after the tail whipping, can actually tell me what I did wrong! LOL.
Links:
Virtual Sailor 6.8: http://www.hangsim.com/vs/
Virtual Skipper 3: http://www.virtualskipper.com/indexUk.php
MQA