Eckhard Schlüter has made it. After two days and almost 17 hours, he rounded Skagen from Helgoland and arrived in Kiel. He sailed virtually, on his PC and smartphone, in the Pantaenius Rund Skagen YACHT Race. He had almost 18,000 competitors, and in the first-ever YACHT ranking he had to compete against almost 900 rivals. In the end, the 66-year-old retired manager from Munich was the best German out of almost 500 German participants. Overall, he finished in 48th place, only around twelve minutes behind the overall winner with the pseudonym koky - BFC under the French flag. Schlüter came 31st in the YACHT classification, which also included many very strong foreign participants. YACHT spoke to him directly after his finish in the late morning:
Mr Schlüter, do you also sail in real life or only virtually?
Schlüter: Sailing has always fascinated me, it was always my dream to sail, but it never fitted in with my work and family life. Then, five years ago, I took a sailing course with my daughter and that's when I really got into it. I don't have my own boat, it doesn't make sense for me from Munich, but I do charter on the Baltic Sea or in Croatia.
What appeals to you about virtual sailing?
On the one hand, dealing with the weather and routing. But then there's also the community, the dialogue with others. I sail in Team Germany 2, so we know each other over time, chat not only about the race, but also about private matters and sometimes send each other pictures.
How did you get into virtual sailing?
That was in 2020 during the Vendée Globe. There was a lot of coverage, and that's when I found out that this virtual race also existed, so I sailed in it and enjoyed it. I also had more time for it during the coronavirus period.
How intensively do you sail virtually?
I haven't counted the races, but I think I sail quite a lot. However, not every race is equally important to me. I do a lot of races just to collect the necessary credit points, which I can then use for in-game help in races that are important to me and that I sail more intensively, such as Rund Skagen. For example, for sailing equipment that you would otherwise have to pay for with real money.
What do you mean by intensive? After all, you were travelling for more than two and a half days.
I regularly look at my PC, iPad and mobile phone, check the courses and set waypoints. I've also set my alarm once or twice at night to see if I need to correct anything. I've then sat there for half an hour to three quarters of an hour, watching the others to see if I need to react, checking the Zezo router again.
Zezo router, what is it?
The Virtual Regatta simulation software has its own router, but it's no good. Zezo is a free routing tool that works together with the Virtual Regatta (VR) software and uses the VR data. I was able to draw better conclusions for my routing from this, but I had to transfer them back into the race by hand.
48th place overall is a very good result, but what did the others before you do better?
First of all, most people have been at it longer than me. The more experienced you are in the game, the better you can deal with the settings. And I believe that those who are sailing at the very front use other tools than I do, such as professional routing programmes, whereas I am certainly still a beginner. They probably invest more time and money than I do. For me, it's simply a way of getting to grips with sailing, even if I'm not sailing.
