Hi Liese, I am also a VSK5 veteran.
Penalties are automatic only, and no cancellation is allowed, even in private races, and I don't think it is possible to save replays for postrace debriefing as it was in VSK. Additionally, there are no collisions - boats "ghost" through each other. In my opinion, this encourages penalty-hunting behavior.
VSK was notorious for calling Rule 15 too often. In this game, it's the opposite - Rules 15 and 16 are rarely called, and competitors will often use a very quick luff or jibe to starboard to penalize opponents. Because collisions are not modeled there is very little boatspeed penalty for doing this. If you attempt to make a close pass downwind, you had best have very quick reactions.
VR also has a issue with correctly calling Rule 18 at leeward marks on opposite jibes. It will almost always rule in favor of the boat on starboard, even if the boat on port was inside overlapped.
I played a little bit in VSK5 the other day after spending most of the last month in VR. I like how easy it is to organize races with friends and the amount of competition here, but I miss a lot of the features in VSK5. Still, I've been having fun on VR. It's fun to see online sailing so popular!