I will look at what does a model of a marine vessel have to do within the world of FSX flight simulation and flying. Adding a boat into my hanger full of planes was very new and its probably very unusual these days, but then again most real hangers have other things than just a plane in in them. I decided to purchase the scenery Tropical Sim St Thomas 2010 TIST and the Catamaran from Delta Sim Studios on Sim Market because it reminded me so much of the excursion I took last April of 2010 while visiting St Thomas on a cruise ship. Having visited twice in the past 4 years everything still looks the same in real world and simulation world. Looking at scenery from a different angle instead of 30000 feet I ask, why not look at it from sea level.
Cruising the Inside Passage of Alaska on a cruise ship during the summer of 2009 and the Eastern Caribbean spring os 2010 I decided to cruise it on a catamaran and compare. The Mediterranean & Northern Europe were not forgotten.
Installation:
The set up was very straight forward just following the documentation which is very clear. I suggest reading the information that comes with the product and going to their website. After finding the catamaran in the plane directory I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. The easiest way to do this is to go to map mode and set your altitude to zero elevation then drag the plane on the map into the water area. If you do not set it to correct elevation it will do gymnastics on you.
Scenery:
I took this cat allover the place and decided to retrace some places I have been, and let the pictures speak for themselves based on the saying a picture is worth more than a thousand words.
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St.Thomas
St Thomas area was very realistic considering maybe some limitations within the FSX design parameters. Looking at the airport offshore from the cat even the tanker which I’ve seen in the same location on my trips is included. Only thing missing are the Iguanas and sea turtles swimming next to you especially the little fellow that followed me in the waters off honeymoon beach.
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St.Marteen
I continued to sail around and try some other adventures out of the normal that one might not be able to do in a plane. I took it to St Maarten and watched takeoffs and landings offshore from Mako beach sitting in front of the runway and it was awesome watching. For some it could be boring but using my UT2 traffic program I was able to watch the take offs and landings as if I was there.
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Alaska
I went to Alaska and cruised the inside passage, Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau and areas off the coast in front of glaciers as well. Took it into Tongass Fjords X and its share and felt I could also do Misty Fjords in a cat vs a bush. Going to Alaska using UTA and Tongass X, I was able to capture the feeling of being there allover again. I went sailing in front of the Mendenhall Glacier although my original trip was on a inflatable raft. On my Alaskan trip I actually sailed through Tracy Arms and thought well lets take the catamaran to a glacier. And yes was worth it again. I tried some various scenery’s from Aerosoft which are stated below and all in all very worth while.
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Mediterranean Sea
Sailing Animations:
The sails are animated but will not animate with the wind gusts, the flags are animated. The detail is awesome. If you change your position you will have to raise your sails again.
Handling is good and in no time you should be sailing anywhere you want in the flight sim world.
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Catamaran Finepoints
My Conclusion:
I think every world traveller should have a boat in his hanger, especially if you have lots of addon scenery. Going on a boat trip or cruising in a cat in the flight sim world really. I feel the cat adds extra value to what I already have from a different perspective. The only thing missing was hearing the “ Big Bamboo “ song playing in the background and the rum punch in hand. But you can do this at home very easily without thinking of the local coast guard asking to come on board for a life preserver check.
by Paul Laube AKA Designer Paule & Eislinger
Developer: DeltaSim Studio
Purchase Link: http://secure.simmarket.com/ds-sailing-catamaran-fsx.phtml
Reviewers System: Intel I-7 875K, Â 8gb memory, EVGA GTX 470, Win 7-64, FSX Gold
Additional scenery’s used: Tropical Sim St Thomas 2010 TIST,  Aerosoft – Dutch Harbor, Andras Field, Helgoland, Nice, Gibraltar, Rotterdam, Flight 1 – Ultimate Alaska Terrain & Ultimate Traffic 2, FSAddon – Tongass Fjords X, Rex 2.0
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