Frequently asked questions

Sailaway II and III are two entirely different games. Both will live side by side. Sailors may prefer to keep using Sailaway II for various reasons. However, the Sailaway II servers are scheduled to retire August 2025

The purchase price will be very low when compared to Sailaway II.

There will be a temporary offer for SA2 owners upon release.

Sailaway III is not yet released, but Sailaway II is available on this website
Or you can buy it on Steam (Sailaway II Pro ony) – http://store.steampowered.com/app/552920/
These are the only places that sell and distribute Sailaway. If you see the game on sale elsewhere it is safe to assume it is not legitimate and you should not purchase it. If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is!

Sailaway can be played on PC and Mac. The minimum requirements can be found here

Sailaway II is playable in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Russian & Japanese.
Please note there may sometimes be small gaps in localised text. In those cases the english word or sentence will be used instead.
Sailaway III is translated by sailors and will be available in many languages, including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch. If your language is not available and you want to help, please contact us.

Yes, you can install it anywhere you like, At work, at home and on your laptop without having to pay multiple times, since the license is registered to your Sailaway account, not to your computer.
But you can not log in on 2 computers at the same time.

When you buy Sailaway via the Steam store, Sailaway will pay a commission. Buying Sailaway from this website will save us that commission fee. You can still add Sailaway to your Steam games library if you buy it on this website.
During the buy process, you are prompted if you want to play via Steam or if you want a direct download. When you opt for Steam, you will receive a code that you can use to unlock Sailaway in your Steam client. Or you can of course buy Sailaway directly from the Steam store.
If you opt for direct download, you receive a Setup program or a Mac disc image to install Sailaway on your computer. There are installation instructions for Windows and for MacOS X

Steam is a digital distribution platform for games and software that includes helpful integrated features such as forums, guides and automatic updates. If you would like to know more please visit: http://store.steampowered.com/about/

You will need to add the key to your Steam account, there is a step-by-step instruction here

No, on Steam you can only buy a Sailaway II Pro license. Sailaway Free and Sailaway Basic are only available on this website

Yes, when you log in on this website and go to the Buy Sailaway page, it will recognize that you already own Sailaway and give yo instruction on how to port your license to Steam.

Yes, you can install Sailaway locally as well. You will need to log in with email and password that you specified when you first activated Sailaway on Steam. The same email and password that you use for this website. Beware that you can only use Sailaway on one computer at the a time.

For Sailaway II, the best way is to find out the controls is to start Sailaway and to click on the Question Mark ? in the top right corner of the screen. A little menu will drop down. Click on the first option underneath the question mark. You will now see a list of all the controls.
Most of these keyboard shortcuts can be adjusted in the main menu (press ESC key) under Options - Gameplay.

Bubbles are the in-game currency to buy boats and many other things. You will receive an initial amount of bubbles upon purchase of Sailaway III. This should be enough to buy a boat and set sail. Extra bubbles can be bought later if needed. But this is optional. There is no need to buy extra bubbles if you just want to sail, race, have fun or customize your boat yourself.
It is even possible to earn bubbles. For instance by making a beautiful livery and selling this to other sailors. The earned bubbles can be exchanged for real money. more info...
Very important: Sailaway III is NOT a pay to win game. It is not possible to make a boat go faster by spending more bubbles.

A challenge in Sailaway is a predefined journey that can be sailed at your own convenience. The fastest time to complete the journeys is registered. Challenges are useful for records attempts like the fastest to cross the Atlantic, or for adventurous journeys.

In Sailaway III the events offer a few extra options. The most common event type is a Race, but races can now also have a flexible start period. This is particularly useful if sailors live in different timezones. Instead of the finish date and time, the sailed time is measured for a race with a flexible start. Of course an ordinary race with a fixed start time is still possible.
The challenges that you may know for Sailaway II are still there and work mostly in the same way.
For sailors who like the social aspect of sailing together but aren't keen on trying to beat the other boats to the finish, there is the Flottilja. This is a laid out route with a fixed or flexible start time, but without a leaderboard.
Lastly you can define a Cruise, which is a laid out route that can be sailed at your own convenience and in your own pace.

The weather info is downloaded from NOAA. Sailaway uses the FPS, 0.25 degree, 6 hours in advance prediction tables. These predictions are then gradually applied to the weather in Sailaway.more info...

HDGt (True heading) is the correct direction of the bow of the boat with respect to the absolute north pole of the planet.

HDGm (Magnetic heading) is computed by taking the true heading as a basis and adding the following two effects to it:
- Magnetic deviation - This should be a value that is affected by the location of the compass in the boat, but currently is it a simple random value per boat design that is kept very small between -0.75 and +0.75 degrees.
- Magnetic declination - The difference between the magnetic north pole and the true north pole. it is computed according to the World Magnetic Model WMM2025.
Or: HDGm = HDGt + magnetic deviation + magnetic declination

COG is always a true direction, not a magnetic direction. It is computed by taking the true heading as a basis and adding the following 3 values to it:
- Sideways drift of the boat.
- Ocean current according to the data provided by NOAA's Ocean Surface Current Analyses Real-time (OSCAR) program.
- Tidal current as specified by applying the FES tidal elevation model to the tidal current information that is provided by world editors in Sailaway.
Or: COG = HDGt + drift + ocean current + tidal current

The map in Sailaway uses HDGt to show the boat. The display of boats is disabled in non-GPS mode.
The instruments in Sailaway use either HDGm or HDGt depending on what the developer of the instrument chose to use. In non-GPS mode the display value of HDGt is always overwritten with HDGm.
The map on the website uses HDGt to show the boat. The display of the maps is disabled in non-GPS mode.
The boat info page on the website shows HDGm.

Send an email to support@sailaway.world and we'll apply the necessary authorisation to your account

Send an email to support@sailaway.world and we'll apply the necessary authorisation to your account

On PC:
Open Windows Explorer
Go to C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\LocalLow\Orbcreation BV\Sailaway III\
and locate the files called Player-prev.log and Player.log
Right-click the files one by one and select "Send to" and then email to send them to support@sailaway.world
On Mac:
Open a Finder window
On the Menu bar, go to Go > Go to Folder
In the dialog that comes up, put in "~/Library/Logs/Orbcreation BV/Sailaway III/" and click Go
Locate the "Player-prev.log" and "Player.log" files in that folder.
Right-click the files one by one and select "Share" and then email to send them to support@sailaway.world

Sailaway aims to be a realistic sailing simulator for long voyages. This is why it has almost no compromises. It uses real time and the real positions of stars, moon, planets and the sun. It would be weird to see the sun shining when in reality it should be night. Or see the sun appear next to a full moon in the sky.

That means that it is dark when it is dark at the coordinates of your boat. However, the world is a very big place and it’s a sphere. It is always light somewhere. The easiest way is to teleport somewhere with a more convenient timezone.

If you want to sail near your home town and you only have time at night this can be a bit limiting. This is why there is an option in Sailaway III that lets you change the time of day temporarily.

The used heightmaps are not perfect. Orbcreation BV does not have the resources for that. But it is possible to correct any errors yourself. Sailaway III has a very handy tool called the World Editor. Any edits you make will be available to all other sailors. Send an email to support@sailaway.world to obtain the necessary authorisations. Together we can make the world more accurate step by step.

If you want to help make the better or more complete, send an email to support@sailaway.world. We can give you access to the translations and you can edit them for yourself and for other sailors .

There is probably a gamecontroller connected to your computer. One of the axis of the gamecontroller constantly returns a non-zero value. You can configure your gamecontroller in the main menu under Options, Gameplay and then scroll down. Disconnecting the gamecontroller should also solve the problem.
It is also possible that you have set the graphic quality too high. Your computer is so busy that it is not able to keep up with the keyboard and mouse controls anymore. You can reduce the graphics quality when you go to the main menu (ESC key) and then to Options - Video. The biggest effect on performance will be the video resolution setting. Then the video quality and then the other settings.

Your computer probably can't keep up with the keyboard and mouse controls or the video anymore. You need to reduce the graphics settings. Go to the main menu (ESC key) and then go to Options - Video. The biggest effect on performance will be the video resolution setting. Then the video quality and then the other settings.