Rhumb line or Greater circle sailing

[varunaya]

Does the sailing in virtual regatta offshore occur on a flat plane or a spherical one? Would sailing the greater circle rather than the rhumb line actually be the shorter distance in the game as it is in real life? Also do the longitudes converge for races where courses are near poles?

[varunaya]

In case anyone is still wondering about this, I received a helpful reply from a sailor here on the forum mentioning that it is indeed spherical. I also confirmed this by simply checking the variation on the distance scale while at the poles and the equator. The distance between longitudes is indeed lowest near the poles and highest at the equator.