Vendee Globe

[Sea Owl]

Neil;

Neat idea about the charity!


Russ

[Judith]

Who says!!!

I don't know if I can get any trophy $$$ out of the CDSOA budget for this one so I'll offer up a different suggestion...

A small wager, whatever amount you feel appropriate ... losers donate the the winner's favorite charity. Count me in.

After due consideration--and an interlude of terror at the notion of "Put up or shut up"--I like it! I'm in, too

[Neil Gordon]

And is down to three digits in ranking (966 last I looked) which is fast sailing when the field is over 100,000 boats!

[Judith]

n/m

[Neil Gordon]

Morning update;

Tantalus is ranked 620 of more than 110,000!!!
LIQUIDITY - 3333

Excepting the two late starters (who are working their way up), every boat in the Cape Dory fleet is within the top 15%.

[wingreen]

Morning update;

Tantalus is ranked 620 of more than 110,000!!!
LIQUIDITY - 3333

Excepting the two late starters (who are working their way up), every boat in the Cape Dory fleet is within the top 15%.

I'm in 67,000th place now, and for the first time since I started the race, I have failed to pass more than 1,000 boats while I slept. Now it's a war of attrition, I think, and I'll mostly move in the rankings when other skippers start to lose interest.

[Sea Owl]

I notice John (Tantalus!) has been quiet, I am sure in humility. John, you are doing great, keep it up!

It is amazing and yet not, that those who love classic sailboats seem to be doing ok so far.

Key words are 'so far'!

The 'host' is now running due east at about 15 knots, and I think will make great strides in ranking as he roars east. Meanwhile, we face a low in the next 24 hours that some of us (John!) may duck through...this is the kind of thing that can add or detract quickly from standings...

...all that said, I personally am having fun doing this, win, lose or draw, especially in such good company as Team CD!


Russ

[John Ring]

Thanks all!

Don't worry about the wind-less hole on the horizon - I brought enough cyberpaddles for everyone.

Maybe if we build up enough speed we can coast right through the calm spot? Do cyberboats carry much momentum?

Cheers,
John
Open 60 Tantalus

[wingreen]

It looks like Destremau knows his stuff. He sailed far to the west, and now while everybody else is stuck in the doldrums, he's screaming east on a direct course for the first gate at ~17 kt. I think he's flanked us all.

[Neil Gordon]

It looks like Destremau knows his stuff. He sailed far to the west, and now while everybody else is stuck in the doldrums, he's screaming east on a direct course for the first gate at ~17 kt. I think he's flanked us all.

Maybe. He also has twice the distance to the first gate.

[wingreen]

It looks like Destremau knows his stuff. He sailed far to the west, and now while everybody else is stuck in the doldrums, he's screaming east on a direct course for the first gate at ~17 kt. I think he's flanked us all.

Maybe. He also has twice the distance to the first gate.

Perhaps not so much - since he's a lot further south, the map scale is quite a bit smaller than for someone around the tropics. He travels less distance on the face of the [virtual] globe for the same distance on the computer screen.

[Neil Gordon]

... since he's a lot further south, the map scale is quite a bit smaller than for someone around the tropics.

Oh... the Mercator projection thing. I get it.

[wingreen]

... since he's a lot further south, the map scale is quite a bit smaller than for someone around the tropics.

Oh... the Mercator projection thing. I get it.

There's also the problem that for both the race leaders and the CD regatta the straightest distance to the gate (on the computer screen) is a south-sloping curve. This is also true for destremau, but his scale is still smaller than everyone else's.

[BillNH]

We'll see boats appearing to move faster in an E-W direction as they get further south. While a degree of longitude is 60nm at the equator, it's only 42nm at 45 South and only 30 nm at 60 South... Where Destremeau is now he'll be knocking off a box in the E-W direction every couple hours!

The closer one gets to the poles though, the more a constant compass course will curve on a globe. For this reason, a constant compass course (straight on a mercator chart) also becomes progressively longer than the great circle route (straight on the globe) as one gets further south. The shortest route for Destremeau is to drop below the gate and then curve back up, which also is the best tactically as it gets him down into the strongest winds!

[wingreen]

In the extreme, if you were 10 feet from the pole, you could circumnavigate 360 degrees of longitude in about 15 seconds by walking in a circle around the pole, which would still look like a straight line across the whole bottom of the virtual regatta map.