Sailing mania hits Second Life!

I've been sailing for about six months under the Flying Tako physics system developed by Kanker Greenacre, so I've long known what an amazingly rich piece of content his realistic sailboat is. The surrounding community's long been active-but-modest in scope, poised on the brink of really taking off amongst the general population but never quite making it over the hump of what I presume must seem an intimidating learning curve to the uninitiated.

So I expected more of the same general turnout at this week's Sailboat and Pirate Ship Show at the Sanchon Sailing Center. Oh my gosh was I ever wrong!



Anyone who hasn't made it out there really owes it to themselves to drop by and take a look at the fantastically unprecedented turnout - there's some really amazing work on exhibit, from sleek racing dinghies all the way up to jaw-droppingly detailed yachts and tall ships. This show really seems to be drawing together interested folks from all over the grid - I get around quite a bit in the Second Life Sailing Federation, and fully half the entries are from sailors I'd never met before.

I suspect the sailing community's visibility must have reached a critical mass. Within the past week our racing fleet has grown by twenty percent, biweekly regattas have been jam-packed at both Starboards Yacht Club and Vagabonds Yacht Club, and three new yacht clubs are already slated to debut within the next two weeks! Club memberships are at record highs, besting a quarter-thousand and rising fast.

I'm dumbfounded, delighted, and totally excited for the prospects of this summer's Second Life Cup regatta series. All I can say is that those new Openspaces sims couldn't have come at a better time.