Harbour Pilot

About Harbour Pilot

Harbour Pilot is a boat-handling simulator set in a 3D marina: breakwaters with a lighthouse and channel buoys at the mouth, three long piers with rows of berths between finger pontoons, fishing boats tied up along them and harbour sheds on the quay. You take a 9-metre motor launch from the open sea into the harbour and moor it in a series of assigned berths. The challenge is the water. A boat keeps its momentum when you ease off the throttle and can only be stopped by running the propeller astern; the rudder steers only when water is flowing past it, either from the boat's own speed or from a burst of prop wash; and going astern the rudder works the other way round, which is how real skippers back out of a berth and swing the bow up the slip. Wind blows the boat sideways in proportion to its strength, and a current sets the whole harbour drifting. Easy levels are calm with plenty of free berths; harder ones bring more berths to make, stronger wind and current, and more boats moored around the gap you must slot into. Gentle touches on the fenders are free, but harder bumps dent the hull, and a badly damaged hull ends the job. Moor every berth in time, with few bumps, for three stars.