Second Life International Folkboat Fleet (SLIFF) races start from the SLIFF HQ in Skagway, Blake Passage most Sundays

While I enjoy sailing in Second Life, having my own Loonetta 31, I’ve admittedly never really taken a close look at sail racing. So, when MarkTwain White recently invited me to observe the weekly Folkboat races which take place around the islands of Blake Passage on most Sundays, I was curious to learn more.

First up, a little bit of background. Folkboats – also called Nordic Folkboats – are a class of sloop-rigged sailing boats some 7.68 metres (25 feet) in length. They came about as a result of a 1942 competition organised by the Scandinavian Yacht Racing Union for a low-cost, easy to sail boat. While there was no outright winner, the competition organisers took the best features of several of the submissions and commissioned Tord Sundén to design a…