
For those starting-out with sailing – which I enjoy simply for the pleasure, rather than for racing or anything – there are numerous little freebie boats available to help, of which the veritable little Nemo, which can be found in rezzers all over the waterfront in Second Life, is perhaps the most famous.
However, my attention was recently drawn to a relative newcomer to the freebie sailing market by a comment left by ZZ Pearl Bottom concerning the work of Burt Artis. My interest grew following a visit to the Three Pines Sailing School and Resource Centre, where I found a vendor for the boat, and decided to grab a copy and have a look. And even to my untutored sailor’s eye, the boat is a heck of a lot of fun, and great introduction to sailing in SL.

The boat in question is a Shields sloop-rigged keeled racing boat, and is offered in a size pretty close to the physical world boat on which it is based (that has an overall length of 9.19 metres, and Burt’s is 11.29 metres). It’s a mesh build, with a land impact of 27 and is quite packed with features – including two versions of the boat itself: the original 1.0a and the more recent 1.2, which is the one I took out on the water.
For those with an technical inclination, I’m reliably informed via that the the sailing engine is based on the original Tako scripts that Kanker Greenacre published, with the WWCmod from Mothgirl. The wind system used by the boat is Zephi Boat Weather, developed by Burt and JoyofRLC Acker. Also included with the package are a set of texture and UV maps (the boat is mod when rezzed, allowing you to customise it). The whole thing is delivered in a neat little sailor’s knapsack when purchased.

On the water, the boat looks good – although barefoot sailing (or in a pair of wellingtons / galoshes!) is recommended, as the floor of the boat can get a little wet 🙂 ). The skipper should board first via the usual right-click and sit, which will place you sitting on the boat with legs dangling over the side, and displays the initial set-up menu, with instructions in the board’s note card manual.
From here, everything is more-or-less operated by keyboard and chat commands. To start sailing, simply type “raise” – this both hoists the sails and rotates you into a position inboard the boat and handling the tiller. If you’re sailing with friend, you my need to issue the “crews” or “crewp” command to get them seated correctly.
Handling-wise, the LEFT / RIGHT
keys turn the boat, and the UP / DOWN
keys let the sails out or take them in. Colour codes help to understand the sail settings: green – good; cyan is tight and blue is much too tight (so let the sails out); yellow is loose and red much too loose (so bring the sails in). You can also go “in irons” (steering into a headwind), indicated by the wind colour turning orange, which can happen rather quickly, killing your momentum and requiring some careful manoeuvring.

Crew and helm positions can be altered in chat to suit the sail position, using the “hp” (helm port) and “hs” (helm starboard) commands and “crewp” and “crews” (crew can move themselves using the LEFT / RIGHT
arrow keys). There are also keyboard commands for setting the angle of the sails, etc., and to “wing” the jib in place of a spinnaker when downwind.
If all this sounds complicated, it’s not – a little practice gets you sailing along nicely and the commands give a good feel for sailing more complicated boats.
Texturing-wise, the maps that are provided are basic, but sufficient to nicely customise the boat for personal tastes. It took me less than 10 minutes to have my Shields 1.2 repainted and named.

Sailing on my own, I found the Shields 1.2 to be a delight: smooth and easy on region crossings and fast enough when “in the green” without being stupid fast and feeling like it has a secret V8 powering it. The wind system keeps you very honest, and encourages more thought on sail management than simple “raise and go” and manually changing the wind to suit needs. Region crossing with crew did result in us ending up in some odd seating positions, but these were easily corrected via chat / with the arrow keys, and didn’t interrupt sailing.
All told, this is a great boat – one couldn’t ask for more from a freebie; so if you’ve been looking for something to try that offers a little leg room and gives a good feel for SL sailing, why not give the Shields a go? Vendors are available around SL, including at the Three Pines Sailing School – just follow the link towards the top of this article, and wander down to the quayside.
A note: For those that use always Alm on, like me, there is the boat hud where you can change the interior floor texture that is set by default to 100pct transp to 0 and does hide the water showing inside.
And when ou rezz the boat, if you want to add new parts like i did (flags, a small outboard engine, a a bell and so on and on, make sutre you select set scriptes to not run, before adding and linking the new parts.
After just set scripts to run again.
There is already a Shields only group in world, where any can loo for the many events being already hosted for it (Race classes, races and even cruises).
There is also vendors for the boat in most yatch clubs.
Personally the biggest revolution of the shields is the stunning work on the mesh sails system and how it really crosses sims as smooth as no other boat i did use or made.
And as i was a sort of (bad) beta tester, to see its evolution since the 1st version (0.62) and how Burt’s skills on blender improved (the v1.0a only difference is the build of the hull, a older version done on blender, compared to the 1.2 that is much more smooth on the edges).
And to end the shields is all that one can wish for to start sailing, be casual cruising one or serious racing and the best intro to sailing in Sl since the Fizz,
Also allow me to point out to another free build from Burt’s that is mandatory as well.
http://www.virtualworldsailing.com/index.php?/topic/645-burts-opduwertje-released-and-free/
it is the perfect power boat to use on Bay city channels and we placed a vendor a d drive all version rezzer at our Argos region house for any to use:)
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looks like I gotta go sailing !
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Reblogged this on fashion tips for low budgets and commented:
Wow beautiful free sailboat!
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