The Louis Vuitton Cup winner has been decided all eyes have turned to the main event, a challenge by Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron against America's Cup defender Alinghi and the Société Nautique de Genève. On June 23rd the fun begins and it's sure to be a tough match up.

It's easy to understand the national pride and desire to win the cup. On the other hand it's fairly difficult to understand the rules and tactics of modern yacht racing. Luckily there is hope for the aspiring skipper.

Launched in conjunction with the 23rd America's Cup challenge is a game called Virtual Skipper (5). Aside from the flashy graphics this game features all the realism you could expect from a seafaring race game. You'll need to run through the tutorials so you can familiarize yourself with the boat and the rules of the race. Afterwards you can try two short races against a computer-controlled challenger. If you've learned your lessons well you'll be rewarded with victory, but it's not a simple task.

The playable demo is available through the Virtual Skipper website. The game requires the latest version of Direct X 9, which can be downloaded from Microsoft. Aside from this dependency the game installs and runs flawlessly.

What really makes this game fun is that it gives you an up close and personal introduction to yacht racing. I never really understood the basic rules but this game taught me. It also teaches you that while the margin of victory is very small the potential for screwing up is quite large. It's really a very challenging simulation. Perhaps not worth the $44.99 but the free demo is definitely worth the download.