© Virtual Regatta
Incredibly, Rémy finished more than two hours ahead of any other boat – a real rarity in a game with so many players. He crossed the line at 00:22 UTC on Friday, 18 days, 11 hours, 22 minutes and 16 seconds after setting off from Lisbon. French player tame bird crossed the line in second place, with La_Semillante TPN, also from France, in third.
Rémy, a 62-year-old retired computer salesman from Waterloo, is no stranger to Virtual Regatta having played in major races including the Volvo Ocean Race for several years, but this is the first time he has won anything. He opted for a course similar to that of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet, crossing the Doldrums in the west them skirting the coast of Brazil before diving south to the latitude of the Roaring 40s. But the secret to his success was staying slightly more to the east of the game leaders, which allowed him to sail fewer miles to the Cape Town finish.
“My strategy was to avoid following the big players because by doing that I would never be able to get ahead of them,” said Rémy, a cruising yachtsman. “I knew from playing this game before that it is always better to get to Cape Town by being west instead of going down the African coast but in my opinion the star players were going too far.
“Of course I had to negotiate the St Helena anticyclone but my calculations said that my route would put me in front, and it did. There are thousands of players in this game but to my surprise there was no-one around me, I was alone. I ended up finishing more than two hours, and fifty miles, ahead of anyone else.”
Despite his impressive victory Rémy, who came around 2,200th in the first leg, revealed that he hasn’t spent 24 hours a day glued to his computer playing the game. “Some people spend all night in front of the computer but I don’t do that,” he added. “I programme the boat the best I can before I go to sleep then I check again in the morning.
Of course if I wake during the night I’ll go to the computer and just check everything is ok. “The last few days of the leg were actually very easy for me because I was so far ahead. I could relax, and read all the messages of congratulations I was sent on the last day.”
Players now have some time to rest and recuperate before Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race game starts on Sunday December 10.
