🚧 In development: Sailing with real wind

Note: this mode is still in development. The basics work — but we're still tweaking the controls and adding more step by step. What you play now is an early version; expect improvements in the coming weeks.

In the Sailing mode you sail a boat along the Dutch coast and the IJsselmeer, from harbour to harbour — with real wind physics. That makes it very different from flying: you don't brake with a button, but by easing your sail. Straight into the wind you barely move, so — just like a real skipper — you learn to tack: zigzagging to still get where you want. The wind vane at the top right always shows where the wind is blowing.

What we'll still add:

• Wind that shifts and grows stronger/weaker, so you really have to watch the weather.
• Hoisting and lowering the sail itself to speed up or slow down — the arrows then become purely for steering.
• More harbours and sea routes that unlock gradually, plus buoys and obstacles.
• A sailing race against classmates over the same course.

Why this is educational: kids practise the location of the Dutch harbours and waters (coastal topography), while at the same time learning to read wind direction and compass and to think in cause and effect ("how am I positioned relative to the wind, and what happens then?"). That's spatial insight plus a first, playful taste of physics.

Tip for home: let your child explore the nearby harbours first. The play area grows by itself as they master more harbours, so it never gets too big all at once.