Looking for a good boat simulator

Are there any free or paid boat simulators that allow you to design and test boats but also do some mission profiling by sailing or motoring short routes?

There is a speedboat sim but not sure if it can be used for slow boats or low powered ones.

 

No simulation will get close to hands-on experience. Go sailing young man.

 

Of course. I have been sailing and like it.

You have no idea what it is like looking across the water wishing I was on the boats and ships that pass.

Maybe you do.

But you miss the point of the simulator - it is a design tool - I want to see what sort of a boat will work for me, for example will it be too slow to be worth it? How long will the batteries last in intermittent use or in different weather conditions?

I am trying out Flight Gear with the float planes and some other changes that might do the trick.

 

For those interested, here is one online in-browser sim:

Boat Simulator https://www.silvergames.com/en/boat-simulator

Turns out it is pretty good for my purposes. I took a 30 minutes excursion including stopped for about 15 minutes. The funny thing was the boat got stuck and would not move forward even at full power. Managed to reverse and pull out of it. Next, it would not turn at slow speeds, turned it in reverse and headed back which turned out to be 10 minutes at medium power which I estimate to be a fast 15 knots or so. Even in a simulator, the feeling of being all alone out there with the motor not moving the boat and steering problems is a good lesson that on water excursions need to be taken seriously. I also managed to get stuck on some debris sticking out of the water, again, reversed out of it. Boats need reverse, it seems. I did run aground once or twice but no damage done, which is a minus, really, in a sim.

30 minutes of cruising is fine for my purposes, and an electric boat should manage that but will be much slower, of course.

Very useful.

 

There is "Ship Simulator Extremes Demo"

ShipSim.com - Demo's http://shipsim.com/downloads/demos

My computer has difficulty running this at its correct speed, high enough frame rates, but it should have no problems running on a more modern machine. It is a really nice simulator. Impressive detail and maybe realism.

 

There is a boat add-on to the Microsoft Flight Simulator, although graphics are nice, the boat waves go through the boat visually in some cases and turns very flat. This may have been corrected in later versions.

There is a fishing simulator, which be necessity involves driving a boat, the boat graphics look a little static, however it seems to work.

Then there are boats in farming simulator, the physics engine leaves much to be desired, however the scenery and realism including trailering an launching the boat makes it somewhat interesting.

 

I am not missing the point of the simulator. However, it is useless unless the operator understands how it relates to the final product. I agree it is a design tool. I also think that CADD and simulators make designer lazy because they can get professional looking drawing and charts in very little time. Sketching by hand tends to give, and require, more time to think. I know which boats work for me, because I have sailed on many and found out which do and don't. There is no ideal boat. Each situation and location has a better boat that fits. For example, a canoe is great for rivers and small lakes. A center console powerboat will be better for open water fishing.

 

There are boats for the Flight Gear flight simulator, however I found it easier to create my own speedboat based on the DHC2 float plane. It goes reasonably
well, but does not resemble an actual boat, and the hull design is not correct. The simulator works independently of the 3D model, however. Engine power
was reduced from 400 to 150 hp and there is no reverse. The advantage of using an existing simulator is that the scenery corresponds to real places and high enough quality close- up.