Bart’s Virtual Sailing Championship announced

by SailX on 29 Aug 2015 Following the record-breaking success of “Bart’s Bash”, the global sailing event that took place in September 2014 in aid of the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation (ASSF) and the success of the first-ever 'Virtual Sailing World Championship' which took place in May 2015 on SailX.com, we are proud to announce an exciting collaboration between ASSF and SailX to run a new virtual fleet racing series. This new event is to be called “Bart’s Virtual Sailing Championship”.

Bart’s Virtual Sailing Championship is a six “Act” championship that will take place over six months of the Northern Hemisphere winter. Act one will take place from first to 3rd Sept. Sign-up and get racing now!

Entry is free and open for the duration of the Championship. Please just make a voluntary donation to the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation if you're inspired by what we are doing.

ASSF CEO, Richard Percy commented saying “The aim of this championship is to provide sailors, clubs and coaches with an activity that will keep them active and engaged in sailing - and even improving their skills - over the sport’s (Northern Hemisphere) off-season. We see this as innovative way of continuing the great work done by Bart’s Bash in raising awareness of, and lowering entry barriers to, the sport of sailing.”

Act one (of six) of Bart’s Virtual Sailing Championship will be supporting this year's Bart's Bash, the World's Largest Sailing Event, which takes place on 20th September at clubs all over the world. The parties’ joint ambition is to encourage as many sailors and non-sailors to participate in Bart’s Bash and to also make sailors aware how much virtual sailing can actually improve real life sailing.

We will be encouraging first time racers to sign up on SailX and to use the 'Learn to Sail' and 'Prepare to Race' tools, such as the extensive help and support in their training for the Bash (e.g. pressing 'H' for help tips, ‘M’ to ask questions, etc). Additionally we will be encouraging clubs and club coaches to sign up to SailX in order to engage members in some inter-club rivalry and to keep them having fun and learning over the winter months.

SailX Founder, Amando Estela commented saying “We are extremely proud to be chosen by the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation to run this event. We 100% share their belief that there is something special about sailing (and sailors) in that it can have a huge positive impact on individuals, particularly kids. This belief has guided SailX development over the years and we look forward to helping them make a difference.”