Virtual Elliot 6

The Real Elliot 6m looks like a lot of fun. It is a three seater very much suited for racing; In that respect it resembles the Yngling, but the Elliot 6m has a slightly more modern design. Check it out here.  You can probably imagine my excitement, when I spotted an Elliot 6m lookalike, - something called a Super6, - at TYC. I watched it for a while, but noone seemed to sail it, so I finally went for myself to check it out. This is it:

Me and my Super6 somewhere around Tradewinds.

As you can see, it has a pretty snappy hull; In fact the hull is what turned me on in the first place. The package includes hulls in other colours as well as spins in different colours. Very nice. Modern sails too. I like. So... what is it like? It comes with the BWind sailing engine, so it sails really well. The sound is delicious, sim crossings are handled well, and the boat feels very responsive. Upwind sailing is good, but the overall trim needs adjusting, since it comes with a slight leeward helm. Spin up...

Going back to Tradewinds; Full speed ahead.

Again, a really nice appearance. What you cannot see is how the feedback works. The trimming is done via the usual keyboard input and the feedback is - I am sorry to say - done by numbers. No telltales. No windvane. There is a booring hud full of numbers. Neither the sails nor the sounds indicate speed or trim status. Very unsailorish. On top of that, the hud feels obliged to tell me my tack. As if I didn't know.

Again cruising the beautiful waters of Tradewinds.

So the hull is nice, but have a look at the mast and the sails. They need more work. First up, the sails are flat like pancakes. There is no option to trim the depth of the sails; I checked. Then there are the battens. They don't look right at all, especially the three top battens look weird. Finally there is the mast itself. Two sets of spreaders?? Not at all reslistic on a boat like this, and even if... then the cap shroud should not form a straight line from hull to mast. All in all... this is a very nice hull with a good sailing engine, but it doesn't quite make the cut for real sailors. All that aside, the BWind sailing engine - in this version - has no wind shadowing. If you race, you will be racing against the machine, not your competitors. I sure hope to see an update of this otherwise nice little sports boat.