Vendee: December

[Russell]

Well, farewell Virtual Vendée. I'm out of it.

Hmm, you did chance course to avoid that island (the one I hit and sat on for a few days), having trouble quitting?

[Judith]

Well, farewell Virtual Vendée. I'm out of it.

Hmm, you did chance course to avoid that island (the one I hit and sat on for a few days), having trouble quitting?

You read my mind, Russell

[wingreen]

There isn't a square with 30.2 knots of wind for hundreds of miles around. Meanwhile, they're both doing 6 or 7 knots more than me and presumably getting credit for it.

I also noticed this, John. Perhaps paying customers get an extra 10 knots of wind in their sails?

I never had a chance from the time I joined, but I am having some fun. I have wondered how realistic is the modeling for the interplay between sail choice, bearing, and wind direction. If it's pretty accurate, this game could be a pretty valuable simulation for real sailing.

[wingreen]

John, I feel your pain. Fortunately being in England the changes occur at 10am and 10pm. However, there has just been a major wind shift at 9am here, 4am EST. Wingreen is dead in the water as I write. Looks to me like it is the shift that should have happened last night. Is anyone else keeping track of miles made good in 24 hours? Managed 386 yesterday which was 40 up on the previous day. Not sure if I can keep going for another 48 days though

Yeah, I got stuck while I slept. I set a course before I went to bed that should have been good if the wind predictions were accurate, but they weren't, and I woke up in irons. I was paying attention to the time stamps on the wind predictions, and they were pretty misleading.

[wingreen]

This is patently incorrect. Last night, as we were all approaching the ice gate from the south, I was 9 miles away from Brichou in the rankings. Ten minutes later, on the automatic update, I was 50 miles away from her. An hour later, it was back to a 9-mile difference. I actually measured my distance behind her with dividers on the screen. Each minute of latitude is one nautical mile, of course, and the white line across the ice gate is exactly 12 miles wide. And by this reckoning I was actually 9 miles behind, not 50.

BTW, did anyone else notice that destremau, although he's quite a ways behind a member of the CD regatta, is still ranked several hundred placed higher?

[Neil Gordon]

I have wondered how realistic is the modeling for the interplay between sail choice, bearing, and wind direction. If it's pretty accurate, this game could be a pretty valuable simulation for real sailing.

Parts of the software make sense and parts don't. Aspects are fed by different databases, apparently, so it doesn't always tie together, especially at wind change times.

I have found that once things stabilize, relative boat speeds as shown seem to hold true. Ranking and gains and losses seem weird at times and I have no idea how they measure how far you have to go.

As for value, the game does have me thinking ahead and planning. I've also had occasion to take out the maneuvering board, parallel rule, dividers and pencil, which together make for an analog computer that will solve for whether going straight more slowly or going faster the wrong way is a better choice.

Aside from all that, there has been lots of assistance and comradery among the Cape Dory competitors and we do seem to be sailing as a fleet against a common enemy. (I meant the other boats, not the software!)

[Russell]

BTW, did anyone else notice that destremau, although he's quite a ways behind a member of the CD regatta, is still ranked several hundred placed higher?

Who is in front of him? I show WanderBird slightly behind him, but no one in front. Am I missing a CDer on my friend list?

[wingreen]

on the subject of the game's value as a simulator, I noticed that the different sails have different "sweet spots" relative to the true wind. It's not something I ever spent much time thinking about since I've never owned a real racing boat, but it has me thinking about the sails on my Ty (#1 & #2).

[wingreen]

BTW, did anyone else notice that destremau, although he's quite a ways behind a member of the CD regatta, is still ranked several hundred placed higher?

Who is in front of him? I show WanderBird slightly behind him, but no one in front. Am I missing a CDer on my friend list?

Well, Wander Bird was ahead of him last night, but now I think it's just another one of those software glitches.

[BillNH]

Yeah, I thought I passed him last night, but when things settled out he was still ahead. At the time his boat icon was DIW but when I moused over it showed him still making 20+ kts.

I think Neil is correct, that several databases are feeding into the game and they do not all update simultaneously. I've found that I can trust my boat data but sometimes what competitors are doing for speed doesn't seem to match the wind they appear to be in...

I do find that despite its shortcomings, the game replicates well the strategic decision making (with regard to weather routing and tactics) that is made on an offshore passage every time you listen to the updated weather forecast.

The game is also realistic in that as in life, those with the $$ can buy an advantage. Am I straying to close to politics when I say that the game would be more fun if everyone had the same gadgets?

However, to paraphrase the late mountaineer Alex Lowe,
The best <sailor> in the world is the one who's having the most fun!

[John Vigor]

Well, farewell Virtual Vendée. I'm out of it.

Hmm, you did chance course to avoid that island (the one I hit and sat on for a few days), having trouble quitting?

You read my mind, Russell

Yeah, Judith, you and Russell are right. I just couldn't let poor old Rogiv run on the rocks. And yes, this game is strongly addictive. I'm still in the recovery stage.

If anyone would like to take over my boat and complete the "race," unfair as it is at the moment, I'd gladly supply my password.

Cheers,

John V.

http://www.johnvigor.com/blog.html

[Oswego John]

It was just yesterday that I received the revelation of who the Captain of Team Russia really is

Captain Ivan Rogiv, spelled backwards is Niatpac Navi --- well, go figure the rest out for yourself.

Very clever, Navi. You had me going for a while.

O J

[John Vigor]

Dear Ivan Oswegovich, as the Master of the Patrynomic, you should have known better. I told you I was backwards. But it doesn't matter now, I'm outta here.

Cheers,

Hnoj Rogiv

[Duncan]

Well, after a week, I'm up 50,000 places.
With 17,000 miles to go, I'm still about 5,000 miles behind the main Cape Dory fleet, though.

It seems like more fun now that I'm in the Southern Ocean. Things happen more quickly at 24 knots!

I've just discovered Samantha Davies' blog - what a delightful person, brings a smile to my face. Her character and spirit remind me a bit of Robin Knox-Johnston (and she's way better-looking!).

Anyway, time for one more check on my wind-square, then log out. Hope none of you folks ahead of me breaks a leg

ps. Nick/Wingreen - I started keeping a log, great idea!
I've done 300 miles in the past 24 hours (and that included slogging along at 11-12 knots all last night, until the wind picked up this morning)

[nprice]

Having lost contact since about 10.30 race time I finally thought I'd try logging on in French and voila!