As a club manager, you may be thinking how to grow your membership numbers ( including attracting young generation of sailors ), how to compete with other sports or how to improve club membership retention.

If you are a sailing coach, you may be looking for new activities to give your training a competitive edge or you might be simply looking for a plan B when there is no sailing weather.

And if you are in a cold climate, what practical activities can occur in winter anyway?

As demonstrated on the photo above, there is a new tool sailing clubs can use.

Virtual Reality technology is no longer a science fiction, but in fact more and more a practical tool that can help you make the club more successful. VR can boost your marketing activites at events or offer a unique learing experience in the clubhouse.

The leader in this space is Royal Geelong Yacht Club that has been experimenting with virtual reality in 2018. Starting with Festival of Sails earlier this year, RGYC has recently organised a virtual reality sailing night for it’s young athletes. What a great way to keep kids and parents active, bring the group together, share passion for sailing and get experience with the latest tech. RGYC is currently evaluating how to incorporate VR in it’s activities moving forward, watch this space and make sure to visit Festival of Sails 2019.

So you are curious, but what are the next steps?

Make sure to try VR Regatta on high quality VR equipment ( like HTC Vive or Oculus Rift). If you don’t have VR at home, search on Google for “VR Arcade” in your area. Give them a call and organise a demo ( let us know if they need an evaluation copy of VR Regatta ). Go visit VR Arcade and give VR sailing a go. This experience will give you a good idea of what is possible on the current generation of consumer hardware (note: modern consumer high-end VR is impressive!).

If you already tried high-end VR, but you are looking for an easier first step to get onboard with the tech, you may be interested in Oculus Go headset. This standalone headset at an affordable price offers a practical first step for clubs interested in implementing virtual reality. Big Breezy Boat is the sailing experience that lets users get a taste of sailing and familiarise themselves with simple sailing concepts like Points of Sail.

Interested in learning more? Contact us and ask any questions [email protected]

Greg Dziemidowicz

Director at MarineVerse - Virtual Reality Sailing