Fast motor yacht simulator — 48 knots on surface drives, in the browser

A fast motor yacht is two boats in one. At harbour speed she is heavy, twitchy and reluctant to stop; at 45 knots she closes a mile in 80 seconds and overtakes nearly everything on the water. Few skippers get to practise either end of that range before they are handed the real levers. In the SkipperCheck simulator you can take the SPRINT out now, in your browser — on your phone too.

The boat

The simulator's SPRINT is a 25.5 m motor yacht: 5.9 m beam, 1.4 m draught, about 62 t as she sails, a carbon hull with a 20° deadrise, in metallic silver. Two 2,600 hp diesels drive two surface drives behind the transom. She has no rudders: the drives themselves steer (← → or A / D) and trim, and a bow and a stern thruster (Q / E, Z / C) look after the slow end. Each engine has her own lever; ↑ ↓ move both together and BOTH STOP stops them.

She has two characters, and the simulator models both:

• Slow, she is a handful. Idle in gear is already 7–9 kn, astern bites badly (the half-immersed surface props give far less thrust astern than ahead) and a crash stop from 48 kn runs about 170 m. The help's advice is the real one: come alongside on one engine and the thrusters.
• Fast, she transforms. Push the levers and the bow rises. She sits ON THE HUMP at 12–16 kn while the props ventilate, then hooks up and PLANES from about 16 kn, on to 48 kn flat out — on the plane in about ten seconds from a standstill, 40 kn in under half a minute. Off the throttles she drops off the plane in seconds and her own wake catches her up.

She leans into her turns, about 16° at 37 kn. The 3-D bridge window shows it all — the bow lifting onto the hump, the heel, the wake, the real sky over the Gulf of Riga — and the SOUND is made live from the simulation: her surface drives thunder, the two engines beat against each other, the bow wave and wake rise with her speed.

What you learn on her

Every skill below is tied to a control or mode you will find in the simulator under that name.

• Getting over the hump. Levers at about half take her onto the plane; a little less and she sticks at 13–14 kn. You learn to feel the transition, not read about it.
• Trimming the drives. DRIVES · TRIM is AUTO by default: the drives trim themselves for her speed and the sea. TRIM ▲ ▼ (keys I / K) switch to MANUAL; V or AUTO gives it back. By hand it is yours: trimmed out on the hump she will not plane; too high at speed she PORPOISES; hard over at 45 kn, or trimmed out, the props BLOW OUT and she skids; bow down she is wet and can stuff her bow into a following sea.
• Reading the sea for a planing hull. In the short, steep Gulf chop she SLAMS. When DRIVES · TRIM says so, ease off head to sea; with the sea on the beam or astern she can go faster.
• High-speed COLREG. Over 20 m she carries a 5 NM masthead light and a bell. At 45 kn she is nearly always the overtaking vessel (Rule 13), so the drill is safe speed, a proper lookout and early action (Rules 5–8). The radar PPI with AIS overlay and ARPA-style CPA/TCPA, the 7× BINOCULARS on a tapped target and the chart's CPA graphic make that lookout concrete.
• Wash and slow-speed control. Mind her wash in harbours and up the Daugava ("Daugava, port of Riga" under AREA). Both tunnel thrusters walk her sideways at about 1.7 kn in calm water; one lever ahead and the other astern turns her on the spot.
• Docking on two levers alone. Harbour Ready lesson 7.1, Two Levers, No Wheel, puts you on the SPRINT at Pärnu's Japsi river quay with 10 kn blowing off the quay, the wheel locked amidships and the thrusters locked out: outer engine ahead, inner astern turns her towards the quay; short, matching bursts; slow early because astern is weak. The debrief scores you out of 100 with up to three stars (MADE FAST, TIDY, SEAMANLIKE) and draws your track on the plan. ▶ DEMO shows it done first; ┄ GUIDE lays a dashed track to follow.
• Man overboard under power. 🛟 MOB (Shift+O) marks the GNSS position, drops the dan buoy and starts the MOB clock; the MOB DRILLS teach the DIRECT RETURN — wheel over towards their side so the stern swings clear, back slowly, the last metres into the wind, NEUTRAL a length off — with a scored debrief.

Made a mess of it? ↶ 5 MIN BACK (Shift+U) puts you where you were five minutes of sailing ago, with the same speed and engine orders.

The sea is real

Free Mode starts in the real Gulf of Riga, off the Daugava mouth. AREA switches to any Gulf harbour — you start inside it, stopped and afloat in the basin — or to about 2,000 harbours round the rest of the Baltic; with the simulator subscription the Baltic comes in detail from Luleå to Skagen, Kiel and the Danish straits, loaded as she sails. The chart is OpenSeaMap, with EMODnet depths for information.

The wind is today's: MET Norway's real forecast where you are. So are the sky and the weather — the sun, moon and stars where they really stand, cloud, rain, snow, fog and the visibility they leave, with lights and buoys lit at sunset. The sea builds with the wind and the planing hull answers it. 〰 CURRENT runs the Daugava by its monthly discharge; cross it and she crabs, her COG off her heading. PRACTICE WIND sets any breeze from 0 to 50 kn with gusts and veering.

The traffic is COLREG traffic: it gives way as the rules say and sounds fog signals under 2 NM visibility, and among it there is always a 183 m tanker and a 260 m cruise ship in the fairway off Riga — the ships you will be overtaking at 45 kn. The radar PPI, the AIS triangles and the chart show them all.

Shared sea — other real people on the water

Logged in, SHARED SEA is on by default — one live sea for everyone at ×1 — and you can switch it off. The boats you meet in the Gulf are other skippers' boats, and COLREG becomes a conversation between two humans. For a 48 kn yacht that is the real lesson: your overtaking is somebody else's close quarters. A practice wind you set is yours only.

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

With the ✎ SCENARIO BUILDER an instructor builds an exercise over the chart: the place (any harbour of the Gulf or the Baltic, or any point), the OWN VESSEL from the VESSEL list — the SPRINT included — TIME & WEATHER from dawn to night on any date, the wind, the visibility down to thick fog, the sea state. ⊕ VESSEL adds traffic with a type and a ROUTE, keeping her orders or following the rules; ▱ AREA and triggers make the fog close in or a vessel start when you cross a line. SAVE · SHARE packs the whole scenario into a link — nothing stored on our server — ready to ▶ RUN.

🎓 CLASSROOM → TEACH opens a private class of up to 30 students from any browser: free sailing, a scenario, a docking lesson or a drill. OPEN THE CLASS gives a code and a link. The instructor sees every boat on the chart with her track and CPA ring, can ❚❚ PAUSE ALL, send 🌫 FOG, 🌬 WIND or an ⚙ ENGINE FAILURE to one student or all, and prints a ▤ SUMMARY of time under way, closest pass, contacts and scores. The class sails its own private sea at TIME ×1. TEACH comes with the simulator subscription; students run shared scenarios for free.

Where she fits

• DOCKING MODE (ENTER or ⚓ DOCK): the harbour from straight above, drawn to scale, with FENDERS (key O), the lines (keys 1–4), MAKE FAST (L) and FORCES showing the thruster wash, the wind and her drift — in 107 real harbours of the Gulf of Riga and, with the subscription, the detailed Baltic harbours too.
• Harbour Ready lessons: 7.1 Two Levers, No Wheel is hers; the 15 m motor yacht's ladder offers her as a variant with her own stars.
• ⛶ GLASS: the 3-D view fills the screen with HELM, RADAR and CHART as panels; ⧉ SECOND SCREEN puts the bridge view on another monitor or a TV.
• 🎮 GAME CONTROLLER: her TWIN LEVERS layout — a stick each, both together on the triggers.
• ⛵ REGATTA — THE BALTIC LAP, raced in identical ELEONORAs, is the first lap; the next will be somewhere else in the world, and the race tells you about every place you pass on its mark cards. The SPRINT is for Free Mode, docking, scenarios and classes.
• The ECDIS chart plotter unit (/ecdis-simulator): plan a route, enter her 25.5 × 5.9 m, air draught and 1.4 m draught, and TEST THE ROUTE for bridges, narrows and shoals.

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 SPRINT among them — 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 course (€199) at /vhf-course: the certificate plus simulator practice is the Charter Ready idea.

FAQ

Does it run on a Mac or a phone?

Yes. It is a browser simulator — nothing to install. On a phone the two levers are dragged with two fingers.

Is the wind real?

Yes. Wind, sky and weather are MET Norway's live forecast for where you are; PRACTICE WIND sets your own for a drill.

Can I drive her with friends?

Yes. SHARED SEA puts every logged-in skipper on one sea at ×1 time; a CLASSROOM gives a group of up to 30 its own private sea.

Can a school or club use it?

Yes. An instructor builds scenarios in the ✎ SCENARIO BUILDER, shares them as a link and runs a 🎓 CLASSROOM with fog, wind and engine-failure injections. Students run shared scenarios for free.

Do I get a certificate?

The simulator gives practice and scored debriefs, not a certificate. The certificate comes from the VHF course — see /vhf-course.

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Take the SPRINT out now: /colreg-simulator?scenario=familiarization&area=gulf-of-riga&vessel=pershing · the docking unit: /boat-docking-simulator · /sailing-simulator · /ecdis-simulator · /vhf-course

Related reading

• Boat docking simulator — berthing practice in 107 real harbours, in the browser
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Boat types are described generically; SkipperCheck is not affiliated with any boat builder or class association.