Simulators?

[slogfilet]

Greetings! Noob here, and little boating experience... I've enjoyed simulators for various vehicles (planes, cars, drones, etc.) but would love to find a realistic boat simulator, specifically with a trawler. Does such a thing exist? Are the basic mechanics close enough to real life that maneuvers could be practiced?

Loving the forum, and have been lurking. It's funny, I've never had any desire for a boat beyond my canoe ("a boat is a hole in the water you throw money into"), but I keep coming back to the idea of a trawler. I enjoy van life... maybe it's a similar calling.

 

[Comodave]

Welcome aboard.

 

[SeaDogAK]

It’s not super sophisticated but there’s an iPhone game called BoatMaster that is fun to fiddle around with practicing maneuvering.

 

[MYTraveler]

I have never seen anything comparable to Microsoft Flight, and frankly can't imagine that it could be very stimulating once out of the harbor, there are very good docking simulators configurable for single / twin, etc.

 

[sjisailor]

Compared to flying or driving, I'd say recreational boating is much less dependent on very fine and rapid motor skills (with the partial exception of docking as MYT notes). So a simulator would be simultaneously less useful and less interesting than those for flying.

My first trawler training captain years ago compared it to flying by saying, "unlike an airplane, with a boat you can just stop and drift, with time to think about things."

I am aware of David Burch's radar simulator which is an excellent (although definitely not exciting!) simulator for radar plotting.

 

[SteveK]

I have tried a simulator for docking, a link may have been posted here on TF. It was amusing for a few minutes. I prefer watching paint dry.