Ahoy!

Welcome to the sixteenth post in the series “VR Sailors - MarineVerse Community” - introducing sailors racing in MarineVerse Cup.

Today, we are chatting with Dave Syer from United Kingdom.

In virtual reality, you can meet Dave in MarineVerse Cup as bot33. In MarineVerse Cup Dave is racing in a “Pro Series” and as of today is #15 in the world.

We have asked Dave a couple of questions..

What is your name (or online persona), and where are you based

I am “bot33” based in London. There’s a bot player in the game called “bot3” that used to collide with me a lot. I changed my tag to “bot3” to try and confuse it, but I don’t think it worked - it only confused the other humans - eventually the humans asked me not to use “bot3” so I switched to “bot33”.

What is your sailing experience?

I learned to sail dinghies in 2019 (Wayfarer and Bosun), and don’t have too much experience in real life since then. Got to RYA Level 2 so I could sail in the club boats and get some practice, but then COVID hit and everything shut down. I messed about a bit in Laser Picos at the Docklands club (https://dswc.org), and on a Hobicat on holiday in St. Lucia.

What is your favourite sailing memory?

We chartered a yacht (with skipper) for a couple of days just before COVID, and I look at the photos a lot. Sun, sand, snorkelling, and great scenery.

Tell us something about your experience with MarineVerse Cup?

I was kind of interested in VR from a technology point of view, but sailing was the main reason I got the headset. It felt like I was back on the water and I was hooked immediately. I’m usually really pleased if I place in the top 10 in the Daily Races (globally), so the highlight for me was winning the Pro Yacht Race (once only) on a day when Markolus, DTB Rastan and KonaCal31 were all sailing.

MarineVerse Cup Quest

Who and why should try MarineVerse Cup

Anyone who loves sailing, or wants to learn the basics. I wasn’t really motivated by racing when I started but it’s really good fun so I compete most days now; don’t be put off by the competitive side if that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea. I also think it would be very good experience for anyone who can’t get out on the water in real life, and I know we have quite a few people in that category in our community.

Any tips for those new to sailing that want to race in the MarineVerse Cup?

The MVC community is really a great bunch of people - very welcoming and helpful if you need tips or just want to chat. Drop into Discord and join the crew. Other than that, remember that sailing is a little bit complicated, and MVC is quite faithful to real life, so you have to stick with it to get the most out. I suppose if it was too easy it wouldn’t be as rewarding.

MarineVerse Cup

MarineVerse Cup is all about the community. If you would like to try sailing join us. You can meet VR sailors at our Discord chat server and you can downland MarineVerse Cup on Steam or via Oculus AppLab.

We hope you enjoyed this blog post in “VR Sailors - MarineVerse Community” series - stay tuned for more soon!