Virtual Sailing Canadian National Championship announced

by Sail Canada on 6 Mar 2013 Virtual Sailing Canadian National Championship, to be hosted by Sail Canada, will start on 18 March and run for six weeks. Sail Canada is proud to join US Sailing and RYA in collaborating with the award-winning inshore sailboat racing and training game SailX.com, and the co-hosting of the first ever virtual sailing competition.

A Unique Online Game
SailX is a unique online game that enables users to race virtual sailboats against others from all over the world in real time and in strict accordance with the Racing Rules of Sailing and with each race lasting only five to seven minutes.

SailX is designed to 'game' the mental aspects of sailboat racing, with the gamer able to issue simple instructions to a virtual sailor onboard their race boat. These instructions are deliberately simple (tack now, gybe now, etc.) yet the rationale behind them is based on the same complex strategic and tactical considerations that exist in real-world racing. Because of this (like chess or checkers) the game is simple and addictive for the 'newbie' and at the same time extremely challenging for the advanced user and real-world sailor.

'We had Olympians training and being coached on SailX for London 2012 and we have more online now preparing for Rio 2016' explained Amando Estela, Founder of SailX.

An Exciting Build-up to Summer
Sail Canada is anticipating that this online Championship will help bring the community of Canadian sailors together online, and provide us with an exciting and distinctive build up to the 2013 sailing season. More important however, it's hoped that the event will help every sailor to emerge 'hot' and more ready to race than they have ever been after the cold of Canadian winter!

SailX creator Amando Estela also commented on this regatta saying 'it will be fascinating to see some top Canadian sailing talent battle it out in this regatta. Of course a computer game can't test all of the skills involved in sailing, but as a high-performance rules and strategy based game these regatta results will provide a fairly good insight into who really has the best understanding of these fascinating and vital areas of our great sport.'

While the Championship is not due to kick off until the 18th March, racing takes place on SailX 24/7 (approx. 100,000 races per year in fact) so there is plenty of opportunity to practice. Users who wish to prepare for more competitive racing can take part in the US National Championships which runs right up until the start of the Canadian National Championships - by taking part in one of the Official Regattas which take place at 0000, 0300 and 0600 GMT.

Registration is Easy and Free
'It's a very simple process to get involved' Amando continued. 'To play SailX all you need to do is visit the SailX website by clicking Sail X and register as a SailX user. Registration and racing is completely free and once you have registered you'll be racing as part of a truly global community of racing sailors with some 31,000 racers from 117 countries worldwide taking part. Once registered, your entry into the Canadian National Championships will be completed automatically the first time you complete a single race in one of the Official Championships races which take place at 2100, 0000, 0300 and 0600 GMT each day from 18th March until April SailX website