I remember five years ago when they first went live, I was to cover the last Whitbread round the world yacht race for the Volvo trophy.Up until then if you lived outside of Great Britain or didn’t have a boat representing your country in the race, if you followed the race it was through few and far between news reports on local TV and the occasional article in the newspapers sports section usually written by an Associated press reporter or UPI. I counted myself lucky because I was able to get weekly reports off the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) with a short wave radio. While it wasn’t up to the minute you could at least follow the race. Then this thing called the Internet came along and with came Quokka.com. They changed everything! For the first time in a Whitbread Race one could get daily news about the race. Not only could you find out how your favorite boat was fairing twenty four/ seven. One could test their knowledge and skill against the competitors competing in the actual race in the virtual race. Not to mention read those daily emails from the boats. And then there was the talk back where the fans that visited the site could email their thoughts and comments or just plain mouth off about the stories of the day. There was always plenty of opinions and spirited debate about everything from jury rulings to the crew’s tactics in sailing and everything in between. Each time I logged on I learned that there was always at least six sides to each issue that was discussed on talk back.

Quokka sailing took us on a virtual grand and glorious ride to places where most us had never been before. Never resting on past achievements they steadily improved as they covered the Around Alone Race and the America’s Cup without loosing that immediacy and intimacy that we all came to know, love and respect. In short by logging on we were no longer spectators we virtually became a part of the various races.