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.
A new vessel, LOTE, a 24 m hydrographic survey catamaran with two azimuth thrusters and a multibeam echosounder, whose AUTO TRACK holds her on a survey line at a set speed. ≋ SURVEY opens eight exercises off Jūrmala and in Kaštela Bay: lines on AUTO TRACK and by hand, the racetrack turn, coverage and overlap, and a sound-velocity cast held on station.
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.
▤ POSTER shows a vessel's manoeuvring data the way a ship's wheelhouse poster does: turning circles, stopping distances, the propeller's effect, the thrusters and the speed for each engine order. The figures are measured on the simulator's own physics, so they match how she handles here, and any other vessel can be picked to compare.
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.
Two working vessels, an 80 m platform supply vessel with a joystick and a simple dynamic positioning, and a 26 m crew transfer catamaran, at Baltic offshore platforms, a wind farm and a training platform in the Gulf of Riga, each with its lights, fog signal and 500 m safety zone. ⛽ OFFSHORE has ten exercises, from the call before entering the zone to cargo lifts on DP and push-on transfers at a turbine.
VESSEL → SEA PLANE: taxi with the water rudders, take off over the hump onto the step, fly, and land on the water. On the water she is a vessel under the COLREGs that keeps well clear of others, with lights as near as practicable to a power-driven vessel's.
The harbour picker offers each vessel only the harbours she fits (a harbour may be too big, never too small), and changing to a bigger vessel inside a small harbour moves her out to water that takes her hull.
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.
Two own vessels at the extremes: a 25.5 m, 48-knot motor yacht that climbs over the hump onto the plane, slams in a short chop and trims her drives, and a 5.3 m sea kayak that you paddle yourself, brace in breaking seas and roll or re-enter after a capsize.
Three more own vessels: an AC75 foiler (America's Cup class) that lifts clear of the water from about 16–18 knots of boat speed, a 40 m explorer motor yacht with hybrid and silent electric modes, and Libava, the replica of a 17th-century Dutch yacht from Liepāja.
Four more own vessels: LATEKO, a Beneteau 50 with twin wheels and a bow thruster, the Latvian-built sailing catamaran Namejs with two engines, and two dinghies, an ILCA 7 and an Optimist, that you hike out and right after a capsize.
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.