BOATING SUITE APP

APP OF THE MONTH

BOATING SUITE IS a comprehensive boating app for IOS devices designed by boaties for boaties.

Log your trips, track your fuel, maintenance and expenses on your ipad, iphone or ipod Touch. Boating Suite will even help you remember stuff with its handy To Do and Shopping lists.

Comprising seven apps in one, Boating Suite furnishes detailed reports to allow boat owners to monitor the total cost of boat ownership.

Ideal for owners and skippers, Boating Suite is available from Apple’s App Store, either as the fully featured version for US$4.95, or in a stripped back form for free.

IF YOU THINK Ian Walker has reason to celebrate after beating six other skippers to win the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15, then imagine how Patrick Babin feels – he defeated more than 200,000 rivals to win the official virtual game version of the nine-month marathon.

Like Walker, Patrick dedicated plenty of time from October to June to win first prize: an IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph Ocean Racer timepiece worth $12,500.

The Parisian put himself in pole position to win the Virtual Regatta race after clinching Leg 7, but was not able to relax until the finish line in Gothenburg, just like the real racers at the end of last month.

So what motivated Patrick, a former national dinghy champion, to devote hour after hour to the Game?

“We’ve just virtually sailed around the world. How rare is that? And I really enjoyed the international side of it – that doesn’t exist in French virtual races,” he says.