eSail Sailing Simulator News

The eSail German version is here at last! After several months of work by 7 translators and reviewers eSail is now much more accessible to German speakers. As well as translating the main tutorials, challenges and the interface we have also used Google speech synthesis, so you don't need to read as you are sailing - our virtual narrator will talk to you.

Thank you to all the fantastic contributors who took part in this project.

eSail is a great way of improving your sailing skills. It has numerous tutorials, sailing, mooring and anchoring modes, sailing challenges, races, Live Sailing mode, ‘Learn yachting with eSail’ training course and more.

Use eSail to practise your skills before skippering or crewing a real world boat. Or keep your sailing in the virtual world – it’s up to you!

German Flag Vectors by Vecteezy

In this new beta eSail now has German language support provided by our amazing community translators.

Please have a look and let us know what you think. In particular have a listen to the speech in the first tutorial 'Einstieg'. We have tried a female and a male voice from Google 'Text To Speech'. Let us know which you prefer!

Thank you to all the community translators, testers and reviewers for your contributions.

German Flag Vectors by Vecteezy

eSail v1.7 now has French and Russian language support provided by the eSail community. Adding localisation has been a big task and at the same time we have upgraded the underlying Unity engine which will bring future benefits. There are also a number of other minor improvements and changes:

• New binoculars to help with navigation
  
• Mainsail boom now moves more realistically when mainsheet is slack
  
• Improved the look of sail cloth so it responds better to lighting
  
• Weather forecasts now also have text in a new comms panel, helping when wind and wave sounds might make it difficult to hear
  
• Telltales are brighter
  
• Marine life scaled down
  

Thank you to the amazing community translators who have made this release possible.

Flag Vectors by Vecteezy.

The beta (v 1.7.13 - v1.7.17) is mainly being provided so that we can check the French version. Our French text has been provided by our fantastic community translators. If you are able to help by checking the French wording please let me know, or just go ahead and download the beta.

To install the Beta version:

1. Right click on eSail in your Steam client.

2. On the drop down menu click 'Properties'

3. Click on the BETAS tab.

4. Select beta- from the drop down list.

You can find the binoculars in the chart drawer. The hand compass is now stored in the chart drawer too.

NOTE 1: the chart draw is not available until you have Master Explorer status (have found all the first level POIs). This will be changed in the next build so you can use the binoculars straight away!

NOTE 2: the Russian and German languages can be selected but are not complete.

French Flag Vectors by Vecteezy

eSail has today launched a new ‘Man Overboard’ (MOB) add-on for eSail Sailing Simulator. The add-on – or downloadable content (DLC) – has been developed with the help of marine safety expert Keith Colwell, author of the RYA Sea Survival Handbook. It includes tutorials, challenges and random triggering of MOB during normal sailing. The drill includes heaving-to, deploying equipment and recovery of the MOB under power and sail.

‘Man Overboard’ features 2 tutorials, 2 challenges and a random MOB mode while ‘Live Sailing’ so you can test your readiness when the unexpected happens.

Man Overboard was created in close collaboration with Keith Colwell. Keith has worked for many years as a reporter and editor for sailing journals. He has also worked for the RNLI for 15 years and during that time trained and managed RNLI Sea Safety and Community Safety volunteers to give advice to yachtsmen, boat users and the general public on how to stay safe when on or by the water. He became a RYA sea survival, powerboat and marine vhf radio instructor/assessor in 2004, while working for the RNLI, and currently works as a freelance instructor.