It is hardly fair to talk about first impressions as such; I first saw the
virtual VO70 back in May at Tradewinds. I was out sailing, and the majestic profile of Dutch's boat caught my eye. I parked my Fizz right beside it, and gazed at the formidable build. Then Dutch popped up and we talked boats...
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| Sailing a virtual VO70 |
Shortly after that, Dutch built his
beautiful marina, and ofcourse I visited regularly to see the amazing work in progress. The boat was now
kinda complete... built bit by bit to visual perfection, but it still lacked someone to breathe life into it. There was no sailing engine inside.
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| Woohooo... virtual seaspray!!! |
We had some great fun taking photos - setting up a handfull of boats to look like
live action... Back then the boats were staticly sitting on the water, arranged in patterns like clay sculptures. Notice there was no seaspray. Unlike this shot right above, where the boat is very much alive. All that's missing is a few drops of water on the lense.
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| High speed beating |
So what's it like? It sails. That in itself is fantastic. It is a huge boat, and it still works after crossing a sim border. It is fast, looks great, has great sounds, and the seaspray is just lovely. I will try to catch the seaspray - flying towards me - on camera. Those daggerboards move up and down, and the swing keel... hmm... more on that. There is a huge gennaker too, and lotsa gadgets for the crew.
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| Push that button |
So first impressions were great. First
sailing impressions are still sinking in. So far I am glad I pushed that button. A VO70 is a fantastic sailing machine, and this one can be sailed by one person. That alone makes it worth while. I'll recommend any one interested in sailing to try it. However, I have yet to discover, whether or not the VO70 can make the cut for cruising or racing.
More testing to be done. This is not a review; It is only my first impression sailing the giant thing. Be back with more details.
I tried the demo as well...
ReplyDeleteHere are my 2 cents worth:
- a canting keel that has no noticeable effect on how far the boat heels, and that is phantom, might just as well not be there at all.
- a canting keel that is automatic might just as well not be there. Where's the challenge in that?
- a boat with a keel of estimated 3 meters should draw 3 meters, not one.
- a land impact of over 200 means that any parcel that I want to sail through needs 200 free prims. I yet have to understand how that is a good thing.
I'll stick with my wildwind Open70 for a bit longer.
Thanx Yuukie, - I got the impression that the demo is somewhat crippled compared to the full version; But I dunno for sure. Yet.
DeleteHave not had a chance to sail the full version but can say that sailing the demo was a less than impressive experience, The hud seemed to give me much information i did not need and little of what i did need. Also found that as i crossed sim lines more and more of the boat disapeared and i was left sailing an invisible phantom boat. For a boat that was promoted so much by so many i had frankly expected more. Even now i find that although many seem to agree with me that the boat is a bit of a pig, all the boat bloggers remain very correct and polite in their writeups. Perhaps they are concerned about the political ramifications of ever saying anything negative about any of the products they review. Or perhaps im out to lunch with my views
ReplyDeleteWell i did sail the demo during this weekend on Blake sea!
ReplyDeleteSL was crazy, so for some time the boar would not rezz at all, nor for me or my love, we knew it was there when editing it, but no way to see the boat!
Yesterday all back to normal and we sailed the boat from Hl Jacq ne till Satori north coast, no problems on sim crossings, no problems on land impact, even if we have to agree, will be hard to have a race with 10 of these together on same sim!
Ronin, ZZ, thanx... I've sailed it some more, and it can be quite stable, provided... I dunno what. Sometimes it simply hates simcrossings. Sim corners with several consecutive crossings are especially bad. Boat disappears and I find myself standing at the bottom of the sea - still "steering". The heavyness may also become a problem, but while testing, I found another problem... it is simply too big and too fast for inshore sailing, and most of our virtual waters are just that... inshore.
ReplyDelete