Introducing the MuVIT Boats Gallery

One common question we get is are there more than one boat, when we explain that there are many available the next question is what are they and do they come with the package? I show them the gallery of MuVIT boats and there you go, but that requires you to be there so I’ll try to answer that question here.

To start off, understand that the gallery shown here is not every possible vessel by any means, there are many more of all sizes and types, almost anything you can think of someone has modeled. I created none of the MuVIT boats shown in the gallery, I merely pulled them together into the simulator. The ones shown below are just the ones that come with the MuVIT package when we build the system, if you are a DIYer you will have to find them, download and install them. If you want to explore other vessels, just use the links above.

So, which boats come with the MuVIT system?

By default, there are 19 MuVIT boats installed when we ship the system. A few are defaults with Virtual Sailor and the rest are ones we selected based on input from folks at conferences and shows and a couple are just for fun. You of course are free to remove any of them but once you get the hang of selecting which ones you want in a scene you can where have so many choices is a good thing. The ability to demonstrate the capabilities and dynamics of various configurations can be quite useful.

The MuVIT Boats

There are a variety of boats as already mentioned, they come in sail and power, so let’s take a rundown of some of them. Note that most of these boats will allow you to move around in them, and go below into cabins, which is pretty cool when you hit something and start sinking…Most have twin engines but they can be configured to operate as a single in the setup menu. Be aware that if you built your system as a DIY, these MuVIT boats are the baseline we operate from and build our scenarios with, so if you plan on downloading any of our canned scenarios these are some of the vessels you will need to have available.

• Cruisers – These include a 30-foot Bayliner and a 38-foot Carver aft cabin. There is also one just named Cruiser since it isn’t modeled after any particular vessel, this one comes with a fully instrumented helm including depth and radar. All 3 have flybridges, with the Carver starting out on the flybridge and having no lower helm. The others have varying degrees of instrumentation but of course, the instruments are always available as popups using either the keyboard or tablet depending on your configuration. The Sunset 33 is roughly modeled on a Searay, not exactly but close, no flybridge good basic instrumentation at the helm.
• Runabouts and other open boats – There are 6 of these in various configurations. 2 of them are your basic open fishing boats, and 2 are basic if somewhat classic open cockpit boats. One is a somewhat gaudy and very basic pontoon boat with no instruments but it handles as one would expect and they are pretty popular boats so it seemed a good choice to include. The Justin has minimal instruments at the helm while the Mako has a full complement of gauges such as tachometers, speed, for each engine, etc. These runabouts tend to handle well and are kind of fun to operate in calm waters, but as you would expect don’t always fare well when you adjust the weather to a more aggressive state. The Mako, in particular, is way overpowered which makes it a bit squirrely and I’ve sunk it many times in rough seas, I’ll probably be tweaking the dynamics of that one or may remove it in the future, we’ll see… And last but not least is a RIB, the helm on this is minimal if you don’t mind not seeing the wheel or throttle. The instruments are there but hard to see, to be honest. This one is just an exercise in how one of these handles and not much for window dressing.
• Sailboats – 3 different sailboats are included. the first is a little pram which is fun to play with and the other 2 are larger being in the 30-40 foot range. The sails work and are adjustable via a mouse operating the capstans and you can also raise or lower them from the tablet interface or keyboard, we hope to add other sail adjustments to the tablet in the future. The usual instruments are available but in the sail simulations, you also get further information about the wind, apparent wind, etc.
• Other – Of course there is a Jetski. It goes fast and bouncy but the view is somewhat restricted, but it wouldn’t be right not to include it. Then we have a tug which can include tows, potentially useful for demonstrations. The JTS is a large commercial vessel we use to demonstrate how long it takes them to slow down and stop and last but not least is a minisub, just for fun. At some point, we may include the controls for that on the tablet but until then you’ll have to use the keyboard controls. One we didn’t mention yet is the Ranger. This is actually the default boat in Virtual Sailor. If you try to join a multiuser session and your boat isn’t the one they are using it will probably default to putting you in the Ranger. This is kind of interesting because the Ranger is a gunboat. Now if everyone else is on jetskis…

So there you have it, a brief description of the MuVIT boats that we install on our turnkey systems. You can look on the addons tab of this site and find lots of others you could add from log rafts to cruise ships, yes even the Titanic. We just selected the ones we thought most appropriate to our United States Power Squadron audience with a little license there at the end. Something you’d like to see included, let us know.