50 ft cruising yacht simulator — LATEKO: sails, sheets, reefs and docking, in the browser

Most charter skippers meet a 50-foot yacht for the first time on the day they sign for her: fifteen metres of boat, a 100 hp diesel, a 2.3 m keel, twin wheels, and a marina to leave within the hour. There is no time to learn what her bow does in a breeze or how long the crew takes to get the main up. LATEKO, a 50 ft cruising yacht, is in the SkipperCheck simulator for exactly that: every sail on its own, the reef, the gennaker, docking under engine, and the drills a charter skipper should have done once before it is real. You can sail her now in the browser, on your phone too, with nothing to install.

The boat

LATEKO is a 50 ft cruising yacht: 15.48 m long, 4.48 m beam, a deep fin and bulb keel drawing 2.30 m, about 13 t light and 14.5 t loaded. She has a 100 hp diesel on a shaft, a bow thruster (no stern thruster), twin wheels, a spade rudder and an autopilot. Her rig is a masthead sloop: a 41.9 m² main and a 130 % genoa of about 70 m² on a roller. Instead of a spinnaker she carries a gennaker of about 135 m², an asymmetric tacked on a short bowsprit, set and doused in its sock, no pole.

She behaves like the real thing. In 12 kn of true wind she makes 5.7 kn at 40° to the wind, 8.1 kn on a beam reach and 4.8 kn dead downwind; she heels about 12° close-hauled in 12 kn and 27° in 20 kn, 19° with a reef in. Reaching in 25 kn she never gets past about 9.5 kn. Under engine she does 8.5 kn ahead and 6.3 kn astern, and her propeller walks the stern to port. Her bow thruster alone turns her through 180° in about 30 seconds. Unreefed in 25 kn gusts the spade rudder stalls and she rounds up; heeled past about 25° it loses its grip. Stopped under bare poles the bow blows off first.

The 3-D view shows her from the helm, a chase camera or from above; the wind dial shows true (blue) and apparent (orange) wind. ▤ POSTER opens her wheelhouse poster: turning circles, stops, prop walk, what the thruster holds against the wind, her sailing speeds, tack and gybe in 10 kn, all measured from the simulator's own physics.

What you learn on her

• One sail at a time. HOIST SAILS / DROP SAILS set or strike everything at once (hoisting stops the engine; START ENGINE to motor-sail). Under them a row per sail: MAIN UP / REEF / DOWN (key N, Shift+N the reef) and GENOA OUT / PART / ROLLED (J, Shift+J). The crew takes real time, a big main half a minute and more.
• The main only head to wind. The main goes up, comes down or is reefed only with the apparent wind 20° or less off the bow; off the wind the order is refused: HEAD UP INTO THE WIND TO HOIST THE MAIN.
• Weather helm and lee helm. Under the main alone she wants to round up and the helm sits to windward; under the genoa alone she carries lee helm, reaches and runs easily, cannot point as high and may not come through a tack.
• Sheets and the autopilot. EASE / TRIM, or AUTO TRIM while you concentrate on the helm; TACK and GYBE (keys T and G), P for the autopilot; the red NO-GO sector shows where she will not sail.
• The gennaker (S). Hoist it from a true wind angle of 70°; it draws best from about 80° to 150°; deeper than about 158° it collapses in the main's lee. The crew sets it in 20 kn or less, comfortable to about 16, hard work to 23. GYBE takes its clew round the outside of the forestay; put the stern through the wind without GYBE and it wraps. Carry it in too much wind and SPINNAKER PRESSED turns to OVERPOWERED, then a broach or a Chinese gybe.
• Reefing in earnest. Tap WIND and SET a breeze of your own, 0–50 kn with LIGHT or STRONG gusts and a VEERING shift. Past 35 kn a gust lays her over, the rudder comes out and she rounds up with everything flogging. Reef early, then drop everything.
• Docking under engine. ⚓ DOCK (or Enter) turns the screen into the harbour from straight above: engine lever, rudder, the bow thruster on Q / E, FENDERS (key O), lines 1–4 and L for MAKE FAST. FORCES draws the wash, the wind and her drift, so prop walk and the bow blowing off are things you see.
• The helm's feel. MID AUTO brings the rudder back to midships by itself as a helmsman's hands would; ↶ 5 MIN / 30 MIN BACK puts you back before it went wrong, with the same sails and engine orders. A gamepad or flight-sim stick steers her too (SAILS layout: helm, mainsheet, jib sheet).

The sea is real

Free Mode starts in the Gulf of Riga, off the Daugava mouth, heading for Ruhnu, with the Gulf in full detail. The whole Baltic is there too, and AREA lets you start at any of about 2,000 Baltic harbours; with the the detailed charts load as she sails and she starts inside the harbour, afloat near free berths she fits. A second sea, Central Dalmatia, has Split, Hvar and Vis.

The wind is today's forecast from MET Norway, and so is the weather: cloud, rain, snow, fog and the visibility they leave. The sun stands where it really stands, with the real moon and stars at night; lights and buoys come on at sunset. The sea builds with the wind; the Daugava runs by its monthly discharge, and you can SET a current of your own.

The chart is OpenSeaMap with EMODnet depths and the echo sounder reads them. The radar is a real PPI with ARPA-style CPA/TCPA; the AIS overlay gives every ship her name, type and vector. Among the traffic there is always a 183 m tanker and a 260 m cruise ship off Riga, and the other ships give way as the rules say.

Shared sea — other real people on the water

SHARED SEA is one sea for everyone: time ×1, the same real wind, and the boats you meet are other skippers' boats, sailed by real people now. A crossing off Ruhnu is a COLREG situation with a human on the other helm. Logged in, SHARED SEA is on by default — one live sea for everyone at ×1 — and you can switch it off. In a practice wind you keep your own breeze and the others see PRACTICE WIND by your boat's name.

Classroom and the scenario builder — for schools, clubs and instructors

✎ SCENARIO BUILDER lets an instructor build an exercise over the chart: the place (any Gulf of Riga or Baltic harbour, or a point at sea), the own vessel and her start (in the harbour, UNDER WAY, or MADE FAST at a berth), TIME & WEATHER on any date, other vessels with routes and anchorages, and TRIGGERS that bring the fog in or start a ship. ⇗ MAKE A LINK packs the whole scenario into the link itself.

🎓 CLASSROOM → TEACH opens a private class: free sailing, a scenario, a docking lesson or a drill, with a code and a link. Up to 30 students at a time, from a laptop, a Chromebook or an iPad, in the class's own private sea at ×1. The instructor sees every boat with her track and CPA ring, can PAUSE ALL, bring in 🌫 FOG, change the 🌬 WIND, fail an engine or call 🛟 MAN OVERBOARD, and ▤ SUMMARY scores each student. Students run shared scenarios for free; TEACH is for the subscriber or instructor.

Where LATEKO fits

• Docking in 107 real harbours, and the Harbour Ready course: she is the lesson boat for Turn in a Breeze (Andrejosta, 15 kn), When the Wind Sets You On and When the Wind Blows You Off, Pinned: Stern Out First, the marina boxes at Engure, Skulte, Salacgrīva and Roja, Into Harbour After Dark, and the whole of Module 6, Stern-To for Charter: a lazy line, a crosswind, your own anchor, and 6.C Pre-Charter: Leave, Call, Berth. Each lesson is scored out of 100 with three stars, a GUIDE track and a ▶ DEMO to watch first.
• ☑ PRE-CHARTER: the handover walk-round outside, on deck and below, SPOT THE FAULTS with defects planted, nine SYSTEMS drills from the engine checks to GAS ON AND OFF, and 8.2 RADIO CHECK BEFORE YOU SAIL on her lines at Andrejosta.
• ⚠ EMERGENCIES: seven drills on the 50 ft cruiser LATEKO in real places in the Gulf: dismasting, running aground inside the Kolka reef, engine failure on a lee shore off the Jūrmala bar, a fouled propeller, steering failure, fire and flooding. In an accident she sails under a training name with a made-up call sign and MMSI: no real boat is shown in distress.
• 🛟 MOB drills: FIGURE-EIGHT, QUICK-STOP and DEEP BEAM REACH under sail, DIRECT RETURN under power, each with its guide line and a debrief.
• The ECDIS chart plotter unit: plan a route, CHECK ROUTE against the depths with her 2.3 m draught and a metre under the keel, then ▶ EXECUTE and see whether the 50 ft cruiser LATEKO completes it or goes aground.

Who it is for

Leisure and professional alike. The charter skipper who wants the first day of the holiday to feel like the fifth, the club sailor keeping an eye in over the winter, the family learning on one boat together — and, on the same sea, the cadet before the first watch, the deck officer brushing up the rules, the instructor who needs a situation the whole class can see. Nothing here is "for beginners only" or "for professionals only": the sea, the rules and the boat's behaviour are the same for everyone, and the simulator judges every run by the same standard.

How to start

Free Mode is open to everyone — no account needed — with the 15 m motor yacht and the 50 ft cruiser LATEKO at up to TIME ×10; every other vessel, the docking, sailing and ECDIS units, the scenario builder and Classroom TEACH come with the simulator subscription; students join shared scenarios free. SHARED SEA and the regatta need a free SkipperCheck login. Our main product is the VHF Radio Course (€199), which gives the certificate — the "Charter Ready" idea is that certificate plus the handling practised here: /vhf-course.

FAQ

Does it run on a Mac or a phone?

Yes. It is a web page in Chrome, Edge or Safari on a Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android, nothing to install.

Is the wind real?

Yes, today's forecast from MET Norway, with the real sky and weather. Tap WIND and SET your own breeze to practise a reef or a gale.

Can I sail with friends?

Yes. The shared sea puts every skipper on one sea at ×1; a club or school can open a private class with a code for up to 30 students.

Can a school use it?

Yes. The scenario builder and the Classroom are made for instructors: shared scenarios, injected fog and wind, an engine failure, a summary per student. Students run shared scenarios for free.

Do I get a certificate?

The simulator gives practice, scores and stars, not a certificate. The certificate is the VHF Radio Course's.

Sail her now: LATEKO under sail in the Gulf of Riga, or dock her at Roja: /colreg-simulator?scenario=familiarization&area=roja&vessel=lateko&dock=1. More: /sailing-simulator, /boat-docking-simulator, /ecdis-simulator, /vhf-course.

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Boat types are described generically; SkipperCheck is not affiliated with any boat builder or class association.