This Valentine’s Day the Volvo Ocean Race Game has reached the 150.000 players mark. Since it’s start on october 11th 2008 the game has become the largest online sailing community in the world.

The huge success of the game is due to the fact it allows gamers to put themselves in the shoes and the mindset of the Volvo Open 70 crew members. Gamers compete on the same race track and receive the same weather information as the crews in the 2008-09 race.

As an added incentive for the next five legs, the Volvo Ocean Race and UnitedGames have combined to offer new prizes. Starting from Leg 5, the leg winner will receive a trip to see the real Volvo Open 70s racing against each other.

The winner and a guest of their choice, will be flown to the following stopover, first being Boston, to enjoy the drama and excitement of the In Port Race series. The prize includes flight, accommodation for three nights. The winner will also be taken out on the water to watch the In Port Race live.

Among the army of hardened armchair experts playing the game are a number of former Whitbread/Volvo sailors and current shore crew members. One of those competitors is Whitbread/Volvo veteran Mark Christensen.

New Zealander Christensen should know a thing or two about what it takes to win this race. He has chalked up three victories starting with the successful 1997-98 Whitbread campaign on EF Language, the 2001-02 Volvo on illbruck and aboard ABN AMRO ONE in the 2005-06 event.

”With the virtual game, obviously the more you play, the better your position. The difficulty is that the weather arrives about 2am (NZ time) so that means I’d have to be getting up in the middle of the night to make a sail change or course change.

”We’ve got five people in the office playing it so it provides a hot topic of conversation. A water cooler moment I guess you’d call it. The game is great for people to test themselves against the guys out there doing it for real. It’s certainly a lot warmer and lot drier than I remember.”

Join the game and become a virtual ocean racer at www.volvooceanracegame.org