Now that we’re all addicted from our experience in the Southern Ocean, can I suggest that we get properly organised for the next leg which starts on April 11. We shall all be starting level out of Rio. Can we get a full list of R/C Sailing particpants so we can have a proper race within the race?
We could also organise ourselves into teams (of three?) to give a bit more edge to it. How about a Footy team, or teams, seeking to thrash a team of IOM skippers?
We have 10 days to get ourselves sorted. Let me know what you think.
I am nows the time (no apostrophe, the VORG doesn’t like them), still some way short of Cape Horn, but only staring somewher south of Samoa and logging on to make decisions only at the morning wind change, unless I’m at the computer and happen to think of it. For leg 6 I shall have to find a way of keeping myself awake for the evening change as well.
I’m on Hyperspace, Hyperspace II and Hyper3. Hyperspace is my race boat
I’m a member of the 30.4 kt club too. The max speed that anyone has seen.
I am catching up on early morning sleep since my first boat finished, but am starting to concentrate on the other two. Gotta beat the guys around me, heh heh!
I also race the VOR at http://sailonline.org . Two different games, same course and weather. I’m hew565 on that site. It is more like real sailing, but more people are in the VORgame site. You can join and try out one of their weekend races to see how you like it. There will also be an in-port race at sailonline.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/virtual_sailors is a yahoo group for virtual sailors who are also RC sailors. If you join, add your boat to the database and introduce yourself. Lots of Vic and a few IOM sailors there.
“MEDICATION” finished overnight in 21106 th place.
“LITTLEBIT” is still struggling with around 1000 miles to go in currently light winds.
I tend to be a reactionary sailor, just dealing with the conditions as they come, rather than planning too far ahead based on various predictions.
Probably just lazy.
Does anyone here know of “teamspeak”
It is a program that allows groups of gamers to communicate audibly with each other whilst playing their on-line game. (or at any time really as it is not attached to any particular game)
There are a number of servers available around the world hosted by various game groups.
I am currently on three of these, two associated with the VSK game and one hosted by the USA EC12 group specificly for the VOR virtual race.
It may be possible to use one of these servers for a group of radio sailors such as ourselves to have some dialogue with each other each day.
The best way, IMHO, is to have a scheduled time at which we could all gather to exchange greetings and B-S stories.
The most convienant time would be when the weather is updated on the game site. This is 1100 & 2200 +1 GMT or UTC or what ever you call it these days. If you have any interest then tell us here.
Any starters.
Angus, who has his computer beside his bed and has been practically hand steering his boat, has pointed out that one way of improving our performnce in the next leg would be to have two skippers sailing the same boat, one of them in the Antipodes and one in Europe. He and Brett have teamed up to run a boat in the next leg and I am up for this as well. It means sharing a boat name and a log on email address and pass word, but would enable the boat to be monitored 24 hours a day, rather than having a sleep break in our close attention to what our boats are doing. We would also need to agree a clear divison of times ‘on watch’, as you can’t both access the boat at the same time.
If we were to do this, possibly in addition to our existing single skipper boats, it would be a good idea to incorporate ‘footy’ in the boat name, so that when we place high in the finishing order, we can use it to draw attention to the success of a group of sailors of the world’s smalles competitive class and perhaps induce some of the thousands who are playing this game to seek out some real footys and sail a real boat, if only a very small one.
If there are people in NZ who would like to have a go at a joint entry with me, PM me.
The thread title says its “MOVED”. Where to?
I tried to start a tactical and strategic discussion on the C&C Canadian thread, but everybody seemed interested only in his own performance, and didn’t seem particularly interested in giving away any hints to possible rivals (for the Volvo car, I quess).
If the Footy group is seriously interested in such discussions, a co-operative approach to such things as advice about possible courses out of Rio might be possible, but do we WISH to co-operate in this way???
The C&C group seemed mostly interested in ‘jockular’ remarks about throwing inebriated ‘goats’ at each other. I never did spot just why ‘goats’!
To History Man:
Your suggestion about adding ‘Footy’ to the boat names is possible only if we register new boats----but then we would be ineligible for the WIN, as boats MUST complete Leg 5 as well as the remaining legs. (SEE RULES).
I did manage to get the name of one of my boats changed as a ‘special’ favour, on the basis of computer security, as I had accidentally used my own name.
Rod, look for “Xcessieve” on the course, a local C&C owner.
Some of my thoughts, angles are more important than wind speed. You are not going to go faster than 10.3 kts or so upwind. Look for 2 wind squares with the wind at an angle to each other and try to sail the lift on each. You will have to be on the computer when your boat hits the wind change to take advantage
with a tack or jibe!
The fastest you will go is 30.4 kts, no matter the wind speed.
The Code 0 is the fastest sail if you can get the angle right, around 110*-115*
When it is really honking, the storm jib is faster than the small chute at deep angles 130*-140*! And you can carry the light chute in 24.5 kts without blowing out. More and you are at risk!
You will know if you log on and there is a big red octagon on top of your boat, and you are going zero kts! Then you have to use another sail to get going again, or use a credit to repair the sail. It will not blow out immediately on entering too much wind, so you do have a couple of refreshes to change down. I think your boat speed is less with the light chute than with the heavy one in over 25, so you should change down for max speed anyway.
I have found it to be flying in real heavy winds. wned to bed, and then forgot about until later the next day… don’t know if it was over 25 or not, but never had any problems… I have been zero knots before, but that happens when you are head to wind or aground…
The VRTool is very useful for some things. You can view the winds over any region, up to the whole world if you wish, and extends out to 72 hours, while the VORG goes only to 36 hours. It also gives you polar diagrams for the wind speed in any wind square. You can plan possible courses, and put markers at any point to record your intended aiming points. The program is free, but not very user friendly, so it takes a while to catch on to all that it can do for you. It doesn’t sail your boat for you, but it does record all of your planning steps, so you don’t forget what it was you intend on doing (which is an advantage with increasing age).
I blew out—“broke”— my light spinnacker overnight when I logged on at a respectable 9 AM when the winds had changed at a God-forsaken hour of 5 AM EST 9 (GMT -5). which was a little too late. Fortunately I was fairly near to Rio and didn’t have a lot of use for the light spinnacker, and was able to use the “ordinary” spinnaker instead for a loss of about half a knot in speed. The notification is in the form of a bright red broken image in place of your nice white LSpi…, and the message that you have “broken” your sail. Bear in mind that “Broke” is probably a translation from French or Spanish.
One point I would stress to anyone deciding to enter is that, on approaching the finishing circle (30 Nm radius around the buoy) that it greatly matters just how you enter the finishing circle. Do so at your best possible speed as you wil be “transported”, (a la Star Trek) those last 30 Nm at your finishing speed. For example, I ‘finished’ in position 46351, but was assigned 46308 as my temporary position, and 46285 as my final position, as I had entered at a higher speed than several boats ‘ahead’ of me. This is not something to complain about–it is part of the minutiae of the game program.
I would also highly recommend the VRTool as a method of reording all of your advance planning. Incidentally, even although no boats are sailing at this time, you ca get a lokk at the present time winds off Rio, and up to 72 hours ahead, which shows the winds you’ll be facing at the start time on Saturday (1800 GMT).
Just all sorts of fun and games!!!
I should add that there are a group of friendly sailmakers in each port who will kindly repair your broken sail for free before the start of the next Leg.
Russell and myself are sharing a new boat called “My Little Footy .”
Being at opposite ends of the earth works out great time wise.
Still can`t guarantee success but we will carry the flag of this forum for you all.
http://sailonline.org is back online! They will start their version of Leg 6 of the VOR on Wed at 18:00 UTC
Yu can use what you have learned from the VORG site for their version. It’s free, and you get all of the tools for free, like constant wind angle, and the delayed course change that actually works! No prizes either. Only one boat per person.
If you want a short race to learn their game, there will be an in-port race this coming weekend of 80nm in the VO70’s. I’m hew565 on that game.
“Womble Inn”
been has high as 30th,currently 150ish.
I am unable to sustain the level of commitment to stay at the front…so will be sliding back through the fleet I would say.
My sons boat is “Shinzo” currently about 500th.
The guys at the front are petty clever,I need to learn a little more about navigation to pose a greater threat,but my “sail it like a dinghy” stratagy is working pretty well so far.
Does anyone have a complete Footy list for the VORG? I know of:
Womble Inn—Brett Shinzo------Brett’s son
Nows the time–History Man Hyperspace, Hyper 3, Xcessieve—Hew 565 IOM 238, 341,811–Marc Smith Crazy 3, Tobasco 2—??? Little Bit, Medication—Ian HB The Black Dog–Angus March Mor 2, Always Top—??? and Glass Petrel, Rohar, Roharl—Rod
Are there any others? I looked for a Footy group but didn’t find one. There are thousands of groups, several hundred with only one member.
Is there any desire at all for a group?
“Womble Inn” rounded the mark in around 90th place,her skipper is very much sleep deprived now,I am sailing without the use of any of the bought options which enable one to get more sleep!
“shinzo” went around in 200th place but lost 200 places as work got in the way of sailing:( so she is now an experiment in a higher course.
I have got fairly comfortable with the VR tool and some routing software. The boats at the front I think maybe actually being sailed by PC without human input,also some skippers appear to have a "bot’ boat sailed by pc on which they judge baseline performance,they then use this info and the human factor to sail better than the “bot” with the “real boat”
I am progressively losing time to the leaders as the fleet continues to sail into greater pressure,luckily the rest of the fleet continues to get further behind because of the same.
Marcsmith is Gator Bait… and currently sucking wind in 34,024 place.
I am using no VRtools or any purchased options. I’m a cheap SOB…
I am heading to raliegh for the tax refund regatta (vics) this afternoon and chances are I won’t have internet acess until sunday.
I shoudl round the mark in about 8 hours… and by the time get logged back in again. I’lll be pointed head to wind right at the equator…bobbing like a cork at 0 knts
