The ship is controlled with the arrow keys on your keyboard. (Also the wasd keys if you are used to that). The left and right arrows are pretty intuitive, but many people are confused by the forward and back arrows. Pressing the forward key does not make the boat go forward! It just allows the sail to swing forward if the wind allows that. This may make the boat go faster if the wind is with you, or it may cause the sail to flap and you will loose speed. Here are the basic control keys on the keyboard:
LEFT-ARROW | Turns the boat slowly to the left | |
SHIFT LEFT-ARROW | Turns the boat rapidly to the left | |
RIGHT-ARROW | Turns the boat slowly to the right | |
SHIFT RIGHT_ARROW | Turns the boat rapidly to the right | |
FOREWARD-ARROW | Releases the sheet, the sail swings away from you | BACK-ARROW | Pull in the sheet, the sail swings closer to you. You can also change the set of the sails with a slider in the HUD. |
PAGE-UP | Each press and release of this button increases motor speed by 1, to a max of 10. | |
PAGE-DOWN | Each press and release decreases motor speed. The motor can go into reverse to a maximum of 5 astern. Pressing both of the PAGE buttons at the same time stops the motor. |
On motorboats where there is no sail, the FWD and BACK keys also control the motor speed.