For the second year in a row, the award-winning sailboat racing simulator SailX.com will be running the “Virtual ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships”. After last years' successful collaboration with ISAF and the team in Dublin, this years' virtual event will take place from 20th May – 30th June 2013, to provide a fun and beneficial build-up to the main regatta to be held in Limassol, Cyprus from 13th – 20th July.
Unlike the real-world competition where spaces are naturally limited to the few that qualify and can afford to attend, the virtual event is open to every sailor that may want to take part – even including non-youth sailors in fact, who will have a separate ranking.
In this innovative competition ISAF Youth Worlds competitors will battle against some of the smartest minds in inshore sailboat racing, including top-level coaches and sailors, sharpening their mental game and readying themselves for battle in the real world as they do so. With mental performance being such a vitally important aspect of inshore sailboat racing, the use of simulation has now become a core part of a sailor’s training - as much as it has become so for pilots, medics, soldiers, etc.
Click HERE to register.
Results will be categorised by age and the winning individual in the 'Youth' classification will be awarded with the 'ISAF Youth Virtual Sailing World Championships Trophy'.
Yiannos Photiou, Chairman of the Organizing Committee, commented, "The SailX racing environment and social tools will help us bring the young sailors who are coming to Cyprus together before July, plus it will also help us engage many more sailors young and old from all over the world. Hopefully we will be able to make them feel part of this great event."
SailX creator Amando Estela commented "It will be fascinating to watch the top youth sailing talent from all over the world battle it out. Of course no simulation could never test all of the skills involved in sailing, but this “Virtual Youth Worlds’ will quickly show us those competitors who really understand racing strategy and rules – both vital areas for success in our sport. More important however, I’m 100% sure that SailX will help every competitor to emerge ‘hot’ and ready to race in Cyprus come July!"
Click HERE to watch a video of racing in last years Virtual ISAF Youth Worlds.
Click HERE to watch a video of Steve Hunt (S1D Coach of the Year) using SailX (the 2D version) to provide some top racing tips
About the ISAF Youth Worlds
The ISAF Youth Worlds is the world's leading championship for youth sailing and attracts thousands of young sailors from all over the world. The event was first held in Sweden in 1971 and the 2013 ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship in Limassol, Cyprus will be the 43rd championship.The event has attracted thousands of young sailors since its introduction from Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, North, South and Central America. Recently the introduction of the ISAF Athlete Participation Programme has seen the horizons of the Youth Worlds expand even further and attracted many new nations to the championship. To date, 104 different nations have competed in the Youth Worlds.
Past notable winners include American's Cup skippers, Chris Dickson (NZL), Russell Coutts (NZL), Dean Barker (NZL); Olympic medallists, Ben Ainslie (GBR), Robert Scheidt (BRA), Alessandra Sensini (ITA), Iain Percy (GBR) and Elise Rechichi (AUS); Volvo Ocean Race sailors like Stuart Bannatyne (NZL) and Richard Clarke (CAN). The most successful ISAF Youth World Champions are Great Britain's Sally Cuthbert and Poland's Zofia Klepacka having won four successive titles in the Laser II and Mistral respectively.
Great Britain is the current holder of the NationsTrophy, awarded annually to the top performing nation at the Youth Worlds. The Nations Trophy was first introduced in 1991 and in 1999 became the Volvo Trophy until 2010. France is the most success nation through the history of the Championship, winning the Nations Trophy on a record eleven occasions and holding a record 70 medals: 22 gold, 30 silver and 18 bronze.
Click HERE to go to the real event website
About SailX.com
SailX is a high-quality online simulation that enables people from all over the world to race virtual (strict one-design) sailboats against each other in real-time in a fully moderated environment and in strict accordance with ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing.Racing is simulated very accurately on SailX but with one significant tweak – everything happens at about five-times normal speed! This means the game is fast, furious and great fun - with each race taking only 7-9 minutes depending on the wind – and importantly the racing provides many more ‘mental game’ learning opportunities than the real world.
The result is a game for players of all ages and skill-levels. For kids and complete beginners, it's fun to sail different boats and courses and to interact with people from all over the world. For schools and federations SailX is a fun way to teach decision-making and responsibility and a way to use (inevitable) gaming time to push a healthy sport. For advanced players & sailors, SailX offers unlimited depth, complexity and sporting relevance - to the extent that top-level sailors and coaches actually use it to improve their real-world racing.
SailX is now the leading inshore sailboat racing simulation environment in the world (by far). The SailX community is made up of over 32,000 users from over 100 countries worldwide. On average SailX hosts a 12-person race every 5 minutes, 24hrs a day, every day. That's over 100,000 races and 1,200,000 individual finishers every year – and over 100 years worth of racing since SailX started!
SailX has a searchable database over 18,000 ruled protests complete with incident videos and community commentary
Further Information:
* Click HERE and HERE to watch a Steve Hunt, S1D Coach of the Year, training video on the basic SailX keys (using SailX 2D)
* Click HERE to download a list of the basic keys for SailX
* Click HERE to see an overview presentation on SailX
* SailX Facebook page
