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.
Two new vessels: a 28 m harbour tug with two azimuth stern drives and winches, and an 18 m push tug with flanking rudders. Towlines sag, stretch and part at their weakest point, and a line leading abeam can pull a tug over. ⛓ TOWING has six exercises, from a disabled yacht to escorting and braking a tanker.
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.
A 16.5 m pilot launch with a heavy collar fender, and ⚑ PILOT with transfer drills: put the pilot aboard a tanker, a bulk carrier or a container ship under way, or take him off, by day or night, in a calm, moderate or rough sea. The ship's own pressure field pushes and pulls you alongside, so the approach from astern on her lee side matters.
On the big ships the bridge view opens out to 140° across, you can step out onto the bridge wings and LOOK AFT, and the consoles are live. The glass-bridge layout puts the radar, the chart and the controls into the bridge's own screens, so the view has the whole window.
On your own tanker and cruise ship the bridge view has a full wheelhouse: raked front windows with wipers that run in rain and snow, live radar, chart and conning screens, and a wheel, telegraph, pod levers and joystick that move with your orders.
Two own vessels with big-ship handling: a 183 m product tanker on an engine telegraph (slow to start, slow to stop, prop walk going astern) and a 260 m cruise ship with two azipods and a joystick, both with tugs on key T. Free Mode traffic always has one of each, drawn in detail.
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.