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Realistic simulation

Sailaway aims to bring the most realistic sailing simulation possible.

Global scale

The Sailaway server stores height maps for the entire world. This means that the simulation knows what the Dutch cost looks like, or the Swedish coast or the Madagascar coast. It knows the water depths and the height and shape of all mountains.
These height maps are automatically used to render beautiful maps and realistic landmasses wherever on the earth your boat is.

Weather

Every 6 hours GRIB data is read from NOAA providing Sailaway with up to date weather information. This data is used to simulate the clouds, fog, wind, rain and snow. The waves for the region are computed with the historic wind information, the depth and the proximity of shallow areas and landmasses. This is done for the entire earth. more info...

Time of day

There are no compromises for usability or convenience. This means that if there is no wind, your boat will simply drift with the current. It also means that if the sun is down at the position where your boat is, your screen will be dark. And depending on the moon phase and clouds/fog it can be pitch dark. Luckily there is a small red headlight available in Sailaway II, otherwise you wouldn't see anything except a black screen.

Night sky

Speaking of dark, the nightsky is accurately simulated as well. It shows all the stars, the milky way, the moon and the planets at their actual positions. If you want you can overlay a drawing of all the starsigns

All players in one world

All sailors in Sailaway share the same world. This means you can encounter each other and race against or with each other. You can even sail on the same boat together. There are chat channels available to communicate with your friends, with people in an interest group, people of your team, your crew or with everyone.

Viewing distance

Games and simulations usually have a horizon that goes no further than 5km. This is because positioning beyond that becomes inaccurate. Sailaway uses a view horizon of 50km, and also implemented the curvature of the earth. Low objects like the hull of a boat will no be visible at that distance, but the sail might. Of course depending on the current weather and visibility.

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