Every release of the SkipperCheck COLREG and ship-handling simulator, newest first: what changed, in plain words, and a link that opens it straight in the simulator.
Modules 5 and 6 are complete (pile boxes, the lasso, a harbour after dark, a catamaran stern-to and a charter check-out run), and Module 7 adds power and ship handling: twin levers on a motor yacht, a crash stop on a tanker, the tanker with tugs and the cruise ship's pods. That makes 34 lessons in seven modules: practice for the ambitious, not a professional qualification.
Tap a WIND readout and switch from REAL, the live forecast, to SET: pick the direction, 0 to 35 knots, light or strong gusts and a steady or veering wind, then practise docking or sailing in exactly that. Other skippers in the shared sea see that you are on a practice wind.
Every bow and stern thruster now has the force of a real installation for that vessel, taken from the makers' published data: weaker than before on the 15 m motor yacht and the B.Yond 40M, stronger on the tanker and the cruise ship. Boats that have no thrusters in real life have none here either.
Every harbour in the Gulf of Riga and round the Baltic now has empty berths of each kind its water can take: finger berths, stern buoys, Med slots with lazy lines, alongside berths, pile boxes and mooring buoys, in the mix local practice uses. Bow and stern lines and springs can go from either side.
Stopped or at a crawl the wind now blows her off the way her shape says: a sailing yacht's bow falls off first, a motor yacht's stern. Going astern the screw kicks her stern, twin screws split ahead and astern turn her on the spot, and the thrusters spool up and fade with speed; under way and under sail she handles as before.
Docking mode now draws the forces on her in its own quiet chart style: small bubbles where the thrusters and the propeller throw their wash, the wind's arrow with its gusts, and the way she is drifting.
Ten more docking lessons: bows-in and stern-in boxes and backing out of one, a crosswind box, a buoy under the bow and a bow-to with a stern buoy, rafting up, and stern-to on a lazy line, in a crosswind and on her own anchor.
Nine more docking lessons: a first landing, the easy side and the hard side, wind setting you on and blowing you off, a gap just long enough, sideways on both thrusters, and leaving a berth with one line and the engine.
SkipperCheck's own docking course runs in docking mode: a briefing, short runs with a live score, stars and a debrief. Module 1, six lessons on how she carries her way, her stern, the rudder and the kick of the screw, is free.
Docking mode now shows the harbour as seen from the air, with CHART to switch back to the plain plan, and the harbours whose pontoons had been guessed are laid out again like real marinas: fingers, buoys, Med mooring and alongside berths, left empty for practice.
The docking plan is drawn like a pilot book's marina plan: clean and north up, with graded contacts, her navigation lights at night and the thrusters shown in colour. Depth no longer slows or stops her: the water is deep everywhere and only the shore stops her.
Docking mode became a to-scale, north-up harbour plan in which only she and the traffic move. She can lie in a finger berth, stern-to Mediterranean style on a lazy line, a buoy or her own anchor, on a mooring buoy or at anchor (key 5), with fenders all round.
FENDERS (key O) and four lines, bow, fore spring, aft spring and stern (keys 1–4), are now the skipper's job, and the lines hold her in the physics: warp her in, hold her against the wind or spring her off. Harbours with no mapped pontoons got marinas laid out, so every boat has room.
Ran aground? ↶ 1 H BACK (key U) takes her back to where she was up to an hour earlier. ⛶ FULL fills the window on any device, with ✕ EXIT to leave, and ENTER or ⚓ DOCK opens docking mode: the harbour from above with only the controls you need.
Free Mode is free for everyone, with no account. The shared sea and regattas need a free SkipperCheck account. The detailed Baltic and Croatian charts and every docking lesson come with Marine Simulator Training or the Skipper Refresher Course. The simulator is a training tool, not a navigation product.