Becca Moulliez: An Interview by Liv Leigh

Becca Moulliez: “I dont think the Tako will ever end..”

by Liv Leigh

The America’s Cup in SL had just ended a week before, the real life America’s Cup was won and lost yesterday. It was time for smaller boats, for something that we ordinary people could actually have fun with. Monday February 17th 2010 was a perfect day to present a new sailing engine for aspiring boat builders. Liv Leigh set out to interview it’s proud maker: Becca Mouliez. A talk with a Second Life workaholic who spends most of her time with her ‘baby’.

Liv Leigh: Becca, you are one of the newer boat builders in SL. And as such I may say, one of the rising stars. How would you regard yourself? A Sailboat builder or a scripter?
Becca Moulliez: I regard myself as a scripter. I’m not that good as a builder.

Liv Leigh: I remember when I first met you, you were rebuilding a tako from scratch, is that the kind of thing I should consider a sign of your ambition as scripter in the sailing community?

Becca Moulliez: Well… to tell the mere truth I was curious about exploring SL using a boat. I built a small powerboat first and then a Sailboat… but I could not find any good sailboat script around.Then I found those Tako 2.1 scripts in SL Wiki and found it logical to clone a boat similar to the Tako.

Liv Leigh: So you just wanted to make your own boat, to use it..

Becca Moulliez: Thats right. I had tremendous Lag problems at the time, since my laptop had poor graphics. I got a Tetra that was really beautiful… but could not afford sailing it well…
Too much load due to the attachment.
Liv Leigh: When did you first start to think about scripting your own sailing engine?
Becca Moulliez: As soon as I realized I could not sail a Tetra.
I knew the Tetra was a Tako.
Liv Leigh: And I guess you figured out pretty soon that the tako scripts were getting a bit old..
Becca Moulliez: Well I realized that they had a few bugs and I wasn’t satisfied with the load on SL. Plus most boats arounds had many more features
So I bought a Fizz 2.
And realized that there were many more features available… But once again due to my poor configuration even the Fizz was laggy.

Liv Leigh: I understand. The Fizz 2.0 used to be one of my all-time favourite boats, it could get quite heavy though, also for me.Your first boat, that you actually brought to the public, was Becky’s Baby Sloop, a small boat that got very popular within no-time. What were the ideas that brough you to creating this boat and why did you decide to release it for free?
Becca Moulliez: Well the boat I would like to release at the time was the Laser actually… but I wasn’t ready due to the tight Boat Show schedule.
So that Sloop was ready
I released it for free because I want the sailing community to have a working platform for builders.
I could not find something comparable when I started scripting.
Liv Leigh: You think there used to be a big gap between the proprietary sailing engines of the big builders and the free scripts, like the Tako 2.1?
Becca Moulliez: Absolutely YES.
Best builders have many features we still miss.
But most of them have been working on their scripts for long… Hopefully we will reach a close-to level soon…

Liv Leigh: At some point in 2009 Mothgirl Dibou’s boat building kit, based on the Fizz scripts, was released. Have you considered to use that as a base?
Becca Moulliez: I did… and I used it ! I was really excited for a number of reasons. First Mothgirl used to build close to me at Adriatic. So, while she wasnt talking much i could see in person the Kit progressing under my eyes.

Liv Leigh: I see..
Becca Moulliez: Second: the Fizz is probably the best engine around, so I was really excited about having the opportunity to use and maybe adapt it to my own needs…
Unfortunately the Fizz Kit wasn’t an open code resource… and this came as a little desillusion actually.

Liv Leigh: I understand.. So this is how you slowly got into scripting BWind, the engine you present this monday.
Can you tell me something about BWind.?
Becca Moulliez: Well Bwind is a sailing engine meant to be as low-lag as possible. Comes from months of scripting for my own use. I stripped the Tako 2.1 scripts a lot to reduce lag.

Liv Leigh: This explains why your boats became an instant hit with the touring community…
Becca Moulliez: Well, the Sloop came as a direct request from Manul Rotaru and Tory Micheline at Mowry Bay Crusing Club. They wanted to have a low-lag cruising boat.

Liv Leigh: Great. I understand that the Schiffsratten Yacht Club has already organised a race series in one of your boats. How do you see the development of BWind when it comes to racing classes?
Becca Moulliez: Well, to race effectively we need a rewrite of current WWC Receiver… I’m not satisfied about the current one. At this point probably the BWind boats could be comparable to a Tako 3 for racing.

Liv Leigh: Few people know that you have a prototype ready with a number of other functions in it, one that I happen to posess now How would you describe that one.. Or is it classified?
Becca Moulliez: I have a work in progress prototype including independent sails, a spinnaker and a wing/jib function. Plus I’m testing boat dynamics to have a more realistic feeling… And no, it’s not classified Only in alpha stage
Liv Leigh: I think there are quite some people around who see the potential of the BWind engine. There is talk about Trudeau Classic Yachts testing a BWind-powered boat, I have heard about others who contacted you for scripting boats for OSGrid. How do you see this yourself? Will we see a whole legion of new sailboat builders? Will this be ‘the end of the tako’, as some people have proclaimed before about new sailing engines? What do you think the future will look like?
Becca Moulliez: I dont think the Tako will ever end actually… the Tako is a nice simple boat and a lot of fun to race. I dont think any Boat or Builder will end actually…
Probably some will be using BWind as an alternative to their current releases. And probably we will see many new builders around… to what extent and quality level we will see…

Liv Leigh: That’s nice. I think we now know something about your work in SL. So how about play? What other things do you like in Second Life?
Becca Moulliez: Oh well Apart from spending as much time as possible with my baby, I don’t have much time left to do many things I would like to. When I have time I still love exploring the seas of SL
On a BWind obviously

Liv Leigh: Hehe, do I hear the SL-Workaholic here?
Becca Moulliez: hahaha

Liv Leigh: Do you sail in RL?
Becca Moulliez: I have been sailing in RL for a while on small boats… Optimist when a girl and the Lasers and 470.

Liv Leigh: Did you sail competitively? Or as recreation?
Becca Moulliez: Just recreation mostly… I had some sailing experiences on bigger boats (more or less like a Tetra) and I know a number of good RL sailors. One of them won 2 AC and 2 Louis Vuitton Cups

Liv Leigh: That’s impressive.
Becca Moulliez: (he’s lost yesterday… he’s not happy )

Liv Leigh: You mentioned exploring, is there a specific place you found that you like a lot?
Becca Moulliez: Windlass in Blake Sea But they are more places. Once there were some wonderful sims called Nanogunk where you could sail. And there are also those Pirates Sims I like so much.

Liv Leigh: Ok, thanks for the interview. I will simply end with my usual question now: what would you advice sailors in SL? (and for you an additional one: and sailboat builders?)
Becca Moulliez: Sail Light ! drop your AO’s and scripts first and your own glamorous flexies ! I know someone who raced at 54 knots and won, wearing a cool greenish outfit !
Liv Leigh: That sounds strange, who would that have been…

One Thousand Sims, an SL Rally proposal

Hi! Over the past month, I’ve been chatting with lots of sailors about a new kind of long-distance sailing event. I think it might be fun, accessible to just about everybody, and maybe… just perhaps… it could help to build Sailing in Second Life.
I gleefully admit I’m ’stealing ideas’ here from many people, including Naeve, Tig, Becky, Carmen, Manul, Tory, Axle, Francois, Orca, Isis, Elbag, Taku, Chaos, MTW, and many, many others. The idea is not well thought-out yet though and it might not even work, but I’m posting the proposal here to start a discussion and consider what to do with it based on everyone’s feedback.

OKOK; With that truly tortuous preface, here is what I’m thinking:

“The Second Life Sail Rally”

The Rally idea (aka “The SL Global Challenge“) would be a single long distance sailing event that traverses approximately 1,000 sims, broken into a series of stages that go from one marina to the next over a few weeks. The event will be open to all sailboats and any SL user at any skill level. It can be sailed solo or by a team, it will be largely self-paced, and the ‘rules’ should be very simple. I’m considering a pretty absurd logo and motto: “One Thousand Sims, One Thousand Sailors.“

(Cough… I know what you’re thinking: “Jane’s gone off the deep end, again“).
Well, maybe that’s true; I actually dunno yet. I need some advice and input from SL sailors.

The Rally isn’t actually a race; and it’s not just a long cruise, either. It’s well… an adventure.

Sailors would ‘compete’ in any kind of boat, and the registered Rally boats could be sailed by either individuals or by ‘teams’ that worked together and substituted for each other. That way it’s flexible enough so anyone can participate.

Nonetheless, one thousand Sims is a very long distance. To make it reasonable and fun, the Rally would be broken up into a series of  short “legs.” Each leg will start from a designated raceline or waypoint on the route and take less than one hour to complete. The sailing time for each segment would be recorded and displayed in a spreadsheet online.

After each leg is finished, at their convenience the competing boats would  set sail again, using the previous finish line as the new start line for the next leg.

During the Rally, a web database might display each boat’s geographic position and document their ‘lap’ time in addition to their cumulative time scores across all the completed legs.

Any boat that successfully finishes the entire Rally will complete a thousand-sim course and deserve major bragging rights for that accomplishment. The entire 1,000 sim event will be scheduled so that it is convenient for sailors, but competitors should finish all legs within a time-limited frame of perhaps two-three weeks.

In my opinion, anyone who finishes this Rally is a sailing superstar. This is a rally endurance challenge, not really a boat race. Nonetheless, in the true sailing spirit of challenges met and obstacles overcome, prizes and publicity would go to multiple ‘winners’ in different categories, to be decided.

That’s basically the idea: A Mega-Rally with a huge group of sailors forging across 1,000 sims that interconnect a dozen marina locations, all laughing along the way with minimal pressure, heading to a common finish point that celebrates Sailing in Second Life.

As I said, maybe this sounds totally over ambitious, and essentially “nuts.”  I’m sure some think it totally undo-able.
I should know better, right?

So why am I proposing this?

Well… it’s simple.

1. The event combines interests of nearly all Second Life users;
2. It would showcase many clubs and marinas that some sailors rarely visit;
3. It would build cooperation and communication across sailing groups;
4. It helps merge the SL “racers” and “cruisers” in into a fun event that combines both racing and cruising features;
5. The winning boats in some categories might easily be new builds. That would give the yacht yards free, well-deserved publicity.
6. the Rally symbolizes another step in the expansion of sailing across the continents of Second Life.
7. The Rally builds the “distance race” idea (sailing from one point to a far-off raceline over the horizon).
8. The open, “Rally” format makes rules less important, and emphasizes a big fleet, lots of cooperation, and minimal stress with a fairly wide-open timeframe.
9. The Rally is a single event that can go on ‘behind the scenes’ for a few weeks. It will not interfere with any other regatta or Cup.

OK, Now… what’s Jane Fossett’s hidden agenda proposing this event? (Grin. Thanks for asking.)
Simply stated:
 

Along with many others, I want open waterways in Second Life.
If this Rally is popular and successful, it could be a platform that allows sailors to petition Linden Lab to keep the navigable waterways open.
Unless navigation waterways are a priority, unless they are open and sacrosanct, our community cannot grow.

That’s my agenda here: I want 1,000 sailable sims from Gaeta to Spoondrift (and all similar intercontinental waterways) to be a priority. .
We are a community of individual sailors who have discrete and personal goals, but I believe we share some common ideas.
I think one of the most basic beliefs we hold in common is that sailing channels around Linden continents should remain open, free, and accessible to all.
I actually believe Linden Lab thinks that too… but they need our encouragement to define their priorities.

So… if you also agree we need open waters,
or if you just want a fun cruising adventure with no hassle and meet many sailors…
or you want to join a huge Rally competition full of laughs and discovery…
Well, this might be your event.

Let me know what you think, and help plan it! I’ll start threads to discuss the next steps on slsailing.org and metaversesailing.com.

Oh… and what boats are good for this event?

Hmmm…
In the Rally, I’ll be sailing a Trudeau Twenty…
errrrr… or maybe a Nemo…
Wait, wait!… a Wally…
cough… or any boat made by Juli Gothly or Corry Kamachi…
nono, a Dutch Barge!
sigh.
(where the hell is my “Becca’s Baby Sloop?”)
Manul, can your raft do this?

I admit I have no idea what boat wins this kind of 1,000 sim adventure!
That’s part of the fun!

_____________________

 

Waypoint Hits the Water (reprise)

Waypoint Hits the Water

(This article was originally posted on  December 6th, 2007;
I’m reposting it in honor of Waypoints Second Birthday. WOOTS! )

Let me give another shout-out for the new Waypont Yacht Club.

As most sailors already know, Taku Raymaker has worked pretty tirelessly over the past many months to expand SL Racing for Japanese sailors. Sailors in the United Sailing Sims were therefore delighted when Taku’s fleet decided to drop anchor in Santa Cruz and make Waypoint Yacht Club their home port. Waypoint will join with Starboards and Nantucket Yacht Clubs to coordinate a full schedule of races and sailing events for all the interconnected waterways of USS.

And with that introduction, let me tell you: based on what I saw today, the WYC Race Fleet certainly didn’t waste any time getting up and running!

This morning I grabbed some coffee and went over to catch WYC’s first official race from the Starboards line in Hollywood.  It was pretty impressive. A large fleet of truly wonderful sailors converged by the dock, raised sail, and then took off full-throttle past the SYC clubhouse on close haul. They didn’t miss a step, lapping the Olympic Course with style and confidence. Gee, they made it look… easy.

Then it struck me: Of course they’re comfortable racing the Olympic course! Waypoint’s now part of the USS home team, and this morning’s WYC skippers were already showing the flair and swagger of athletes playing their home court advantage.

It was great fun to watch, and…  Hey Waypoint? Welcome Home!

J-CLASSIC FINALS III: Rise of the Cetaceans

When we last left off in this tale of the J-CLASSIC Finals, the NYC-Narwhal crew of Nomad Zamani, Chaos Mandelbrot, and Glorfindel Arrow was in a rather sorry state. It was Half-Time; four races were scheduled, and two were on the scoreboard, but those numbers did not look good for Narwhal. In the first two races, Waypoint All-Stars had repeatedly outmaneuvered NYC, and Eureka proved incredibly fast compared to NYC’s whale-boat entry.

However, the absolute worst thing of all for NYC was that their Ace Starting Pitcher, Nomad Zamani, had crashed-out twice in the last race. Narwhal had used-up it’s only discard in the  crash, so NYC was up now against the wall; Team NYC knew that one more bang-up  like that would be lethal, and surely mean an early end to their hubristic playoff hopes. Although back in the locker room, Nomad was still having connection problems and limping badly when Race Director Hay Ah sounded the horn to field a team for the third contest…

Nomad weighed the odds and made the call. During half-time he huddled and laid out the facts. 

Nomad said it was too risky for him to skipper the next race, given his tenuous link with Second Reality; he would just crash again. Nonetheless, he exhorted his NYC crew not to give up, but to fight on… “and win one for the Gipper!”

Narwhal Skipper Chaos Mandelbrot

Sometimes fate moves in strange ways. Amidst the din of wind and wave and the clang of rigging all about them, the members of Team NYC thought Nomad said “Win one with the Flipper.” All eyes fell on Chaos Mandelbrot.

Chaos Mandelbrot looked up, swallowed hard, and uttered the immortal words: “WHAT, ME??”  He protested it was too early to race in his timezone and he hadn’t brushed his teeth, but Chaos was game-to-go. He put down the beer he was drinking, tightened his PFD, and waddled over to take the helm as Narwhal’s Relief Skipper.

The last two races used a new chart that took better  advantage of the extensive sailing water throughout the sailors Cove Estate. It began with an upwind beat to the orange mark in Sugar Reef, then switched to a three-sim long reach to Race Rock Light. From there the course ran through Hay Harbor channel down to the open waters of Schooner Run. The return trip from there to Plum Gut next involved a tricky, narrow squeeze through Anchor Cove, followed by a short detour south around the small island in Quoddy Head. The course was nothing too complicated, and the competition skippers had certainly sailed similar charts many times before. Nonetheless it would take a good deal of skill, and probably some good luck to take first place sailing against this fleet.

When the gun went off, Waypoint was ready, however!

Massy Johin was once again at the helm, and his WYC All-Stars crew started in the lead with the best time of the day: 00:02. NYC was considerably further windward but started a full ten seconds later, followed by Eureka and then Second Chance.

The next picture (on the right) shows a view of the fleet from high above the spectator blimp taken after the fleet made its first tack; all the boats were now on port. On the left of the image yu can see Waypoint leading Eureka, and the right side shows Narwhal far in the distance in front of Second Chance.  NYC is the ‘lowest’ of the four boats as they proceed to the mark.

When he did not win the start, Chaos kept a cool head and took a lesson from WYC’s tactics in Race One. Finding himself  hehind, Chaos deliberately tacked early, sailing away from the pack.   

Look what happened next in the picture below. The first image shows Chaos as he reaches the end of his course  and makes a turn; his new course is a starboard right-of-way tack that crosses directly in front of the rest of the fleet.  Chaos timed it perfectly; the middle image shows Narwhal crossing right in front of All-Star’s path. Massy now had no choice; he pulled up short and came about to starboard.

The lower image is a few moments later. It shows all three boats now sailing on starboard with the orange mark in the distance, two tacks away. WYC looks in the lead, but NYC is sailing windward and closer to the mark. Perhaps more important, in that position Narwhal has the “height” to take tactical control.

 

Watch what Narwhal does next.

 As you can see in the first image below, since All-Stars was running parallel and ahead of Narwhal but on a lower course, they ran out of water and had to tack back to port again. The problem is that NYC was blocking them, and NYC was still on Starboard with Right-of-Way. Waypoint had plenty of room, but In order to avoid NYC, All-Stars had to fall off and go astern of Narwhal as shown in the middle image.

That extra few seconds and change in course heading proved disastrous for Narwhal’s competition. Remember, Eureka and Second Chance Were on the same heading and only moments behind the lead boats. In response to NYC’s blocking maneuver, All-Stars lost momentum and turned into the path of the oncoming boats, as shown in the middle image. I can imagine Alain and Trapez shouting  a few unrepeatable words as they desperately tried to execute last minute hockey-stop turns. A collision was inevitable however; the WYC, Eureka, and Second Chance teams all broadsided each other and awkwardly sat in place for more than a few moments  as they sorted out locked rigging and disengaged their scraped hulls. 

While all that was going on, Narwhal was out ahead with clean air and an unobstructed racecourse, moving in record time.

The image below shows the NYC team Roaring through Anchor Cove Channel on their way to the final leg of the course. Unfortunately the other three boats continued in close quarters after their pile-up. They stayed overlapped and squabbling  for nearly the entire remainder of the race, losing time in the process.

The lower image below shows them traveling three abreast in Anchor Cove. That must be a tribute to wonderful sailing; I didn’t think it was actually possible to fit three J-Class In that channel overlapped…

The final figure below shows Narwhal working the last leg back to the Raceline, while the other three boats have just raised spinnaker and are still heading to the last waypoint. Narwhal went on to take Race Three’s First Place in record time, finishing a full two minutes ahead of WYC All-Stars, the Runner-Up.

Nice work for a substitute skipper du jour, Chaos!

 

J-CLASSIC FINALS II: EUREKA!!

Last time I told you about the first race of the J-CLASSIC Finals. Waypoint had all the moves, and out-sailed the rest of the fleet to an impressive victory, crossing the line a full minute ahead of NYC-Narwhal, the closest competition.

The Finals certainly didn’t end there, however. There were three more races to go!

The Second Race used the same chart as before, and once again all four boats began on starboard tack.

 As you can see in the images above, at the start Eureka jumped out front and cut the line in the middle to grab a five second lead over NYC-Narwhal. Waypoint All-Stars was right there on Narwhal’s heels, and Second Chance brought up the rear.

Repeating his tactic from Race One, Toraba Magic shifted early from starboard  to a port tack as the boats began to zig-zag their way through Flat Hammock.

The images above show the advantage this gave WYC when the four boats met up again near the yellow buoy. At that point All-Stars had already gybed and was on starboard when the rest of the fleet was still on port. as in the first race, Narwhal was forced to yield to WYC, losing position.

Toraba Magic played this pretty flawlessly, and All-Stars was able to block Narwhal a second time just a minute later as the boats tacked in Sugar Reef.

The first image above shows the position of the four boats as they reached the first mark (Indicated by ”  * ” ). Eureka maintained its lead position And took the turn well ahead of the fleet, followed by WYC. NYC-Narwhal lost considerable momentum dueling with All-Stars, however, and Second Chance had an opportunity to catch up and move inside at the mark. As the four boats began the reach leg, NYC fell into last place.

The above image tells the story at the midpoint of the race; Eureka took advantage of the clean air and open water to build  an impressive lead; Alain had already rounded race rock by the time All-Stars entered the sim. NYC crashed during the reach leg, and withdrew from the race, leaving Trapez and Toraba to follow Eureka’s tail back to The Finish.

The final images above show Eureka taking the turn in Sugar Reef, then falling into a three-sim Run down to Quoddy Head. WYC and Second Chance Can be seen in the far distance; they never got any closer. This race was Alain’s and he held the front position each and every step of the way. What a great job!

So, with two races down and only two remaining, WYC and Eureka each had first place wins; both teams looked pretty good. Second Chance had 3rd and 4th place finishes and would need strong sailing, luck, and probably some black coffee to catch the leaders.

 NYC-Narwhal was also in real trouble at this point, with only a 2nd place finish on the scoreboard, and they had just used up their only “discard” for the regatta… The story of how they came back in Races Three and Four to decisively win the Cup will need to wait till tomorrow!  

J-CLASSIC FINALS: Toraba, Terrific!

OK OK OK, I know I haven’t written very much here recently, but don’t expect any apologies, since I’ve been up to my neck in details with the J-Classic races!  After ten weeks, 120 sailors, 15 teams,  and races that traversed 800 sims… Wow!  Do I have a lot to write about. If you were there for any of J-CLASSIC, you know what I mean.  

 Most sailors already know there were eight major distance races that served as the qualifying events for the J-Classic. Fifteen incredible teams participated, and by the scores and my personal estimation, every single one of those teams proved a champion.  Nonetheless, when the dust settled after eight events, only four teams remained standing. That group of four then advanced to the Final Round in Sailor’s Cove on November 7.

Today let me take a few minutes to share just one of the races from that day; the very first one. However, I promise to keep going over the next few weeks, and cover the whole event (I hope!).

 The Final Four J-Classic Teams (and their final sailing crews) were:

•  Nantucket Yacht Club — Narwhal:
  Chaos Mandelbrot, Nomad Zamani, Glorfindel Arrow 
• Waypoint Yacht Club — All-Stars:
  Massy Johin, Toraba Magic, Mikoto Daxter, Steyr Darwin
•   Eureka:
  Alain Gloster, Suzi Siemens:  
• Triumphal Yacht Club — Second Chance:
  Trapez Breen, Fiona Haworth 

The Finals consisted of four races that all began in Plum Gut.

The First two races followed a course familiar to many sailors, based on Epicurus Emmon’s old FIYC Hotlaps Chart. Using a wind from due North, the fleet progressed on a beat to the orange mark in Sugar Reef, then fell on a reach to Race Rock. The return path reversed this route, but then continued South to circle a small island in Quoddy Head that allowed an upwind final leg to the Finish.

 Nothing too tricky, you might think, but often the most simple courses like this one end up the most difficult; they provide a true test of fundamental sailing skill and tactics.

Waypoint All-Stars drove this point home in the first race.

The images below show the start of Race One; Narwhal, Eureka, and Second Chance all began on a Starboard close haul tack in single file. With Nomad Zamani at the helm, Narwhal boldly jumped out in front of the pack and set the pace, crossing the tape near the windward end of the race line at 00:00:03. WYC All-Stars, led by Toraba Magic, chose a riskier pre-start tactic; they came at the line on an unobstructed reach from Anchor Cove channel. Luckily, All Stars had plenty of room to do this without barging, and they fell in behind the leader Narwhal with a starting time of 00:00:13. Eureka was next to cross with 00:00:27, and Second Chance brought up the rear at 00:00:42.

   

So far this looked like a pretty standard race, with a textbook Starboard Start  leading to a upwind beat to the first mark. Conventional sailing dogma says the fastest boat would be the one that now made a series of long tacks with the fewest number of gybes to that first orange mark in Sugar Reef. Narwhal was following the playbook. NYC was in front with a 10 second lead, and given its windward dominant position, there was an excellent chance Narwhal would continue to pull away from the fleet unless it made a mistake. Nomad Zamani was at the helm, however, and everyone watching knew Nomad made precious few mistakes in eight prior J-CLASSIC performances.

 As I watched the race begin, I thought that Narwhal might already have this first race in the bag, right there in Plum Gut…

But I was wrong.

I didn’t know what Toraba Magic had planned! Toraba knew how this race was going to unfold unless he switched tactics and took control.  He wasn’t going to just play Nomad’s follow-the-leader game and settle for the #2 spot in this race.

Toraba defied the usual conventions: he  swung over the helm shortly after crossing the line and took off on a port tack sailing away from the rest of the fleet; All-Stars was laying a trap!

  

If you look at the picture above, you can see the positions of the four boats a minute later as they continue to tack upwind through Flat Hammock. Narwhal, Eureka and Second Chance are now all on port tack, and Nomad is in control with a clearly dominant windward position relative to the other two boats. If either try to pass NYC, all Nomad has to do is fall a bit off the wind to gain speed and then use the shadow from those huge J-Classic sails to hold the competition in check.

But look again at that top picture above. Toraba isn’t playing that game. Remember All-Stars  tacked early, so although WYC is still  technically behind and lower than Narwhal, they have already gybed. Toraba has Starboard Right-Of-Way and NYC is in his crosshairs. Nomad could see the set up also; he was forced to gybe Narwhal early and yield position to All-Stars.

Look at the second picture above, after NYC and Eureka both came about. With Toraba’s one maneuver and in a very short amount of time, the WYC team snatched the lead away. Woots! Nice sailing, ALL-STARS!!!

Once Toraba was in the driver’s seat, he played it to advantage and continued to eat Narwhal’s lunch. As you can see in the top frame below, Nomad was skillfully fighting back as the fleet of four tacked across the southern half of Sugar Reef. Narwhal gained at least two boat lengths in that short distance, coming into overlap with the WYC boat, but Toraba successfully fended Nomad off with windshadow. As shown in the second picture below, all three lead boats ran out of water on that tack before Narwhal had any hope of challenging WYC’s juggernaut.

Toraba then skillfully flipped to port tack, threw another blanket on Narwhal (just to be sure), and then turned his eyes on the first mark, just a short jump ahead. All-Stars then never looked back; they plugged into overdrive and thirty seconds later they ‘poof’ disppeared from my screen, out of view range. Narwhal, Eureka, and Second Chance were, however, still closely positioned and approaching that first mark. Eureka ended up overlapped with Narwhal as they came to the turn, as shown below. There was no protest, and I have not discussed it with any of the skippers, but I think it would be an interesting discussion about who had Right-Of-Way and which rules applied in this next sequence.

 As shown below Narwhal was high enough to reach the first mark on port tack by ’pinching’ to windward. If you look behind NYC in the first picture, you can see Trapez Breen sailing TrYC on an optimum port tack - close haul heading; by comparison Narwhal is sheeted too tightly by intention, trying to scrape  past the mark without needing to make an extra time-wasting turn.

There is one problem with this plan … Eureka.

Alain Gloster (Eureka’s  skipper)  had not needed to fight All-Stars, so he was still fresh, focused, and well-rested ( (although I admit it was 3:00AM for Alain).   Eureka was able to make the extra, short turn  it needed to approach the orange mark correctly on a starboard tack. The pictures below suggest Alain ended up “in the zone,” inside NYC  and on Starboard tack, with Narwhal on Port. I only had one vantage point, so I can’t say for certain what the ruling would have been here, but I admit that the judges were watching and had a quick cross-check when this occurred to find out if there were protests or if skippers had calls for room that might not have registered on our chat screens.

There were no such protests, and Narwhal grabbed the opportunity to secure the #2 spot by turning ahead of Eureka .

 

 The image below shows the lineup after the remaining three boats passed the mark and set an outbound reach course towards Race Rock: The order was 2-Narwhal, 3-Eureka, and 4-Second Chance!

 WYC was so far out front  in that image it was no longer in draw range. A few moments later, however, the WYC All-Stars emerged from the mist over the northern Sailor’s Cove waterways as it steamed back full throttle on the return course. 

 

With incredible speed, spinnaker a-fly, and zero competition anywhere within two sims, Waypoint had time to flaunt it; they did a show-off runway strut downwind past the overflow crowds waiting by the Finish Line. As the last image above shows, Toraba then cut the line a full two tacks and one minute ahead of NYC and Eureka. It was a remarkable victory lead for a boat, a team, and a skipper.

Recently I’ve been reading opinion posts by people (generally non-racers) who complain that SL Sailing is an ill-equipped, poorly suited game that can’t possibly match our goals to emulate the challenges of Real-Life sail racing. There are many facets to that question, I know, but after watching this first Finals race, I was pretty comfortable I knew my answer to these nay-sayers.  What I saw  in the above race was the real thing;  full of strategy, intelligence, and down-out plain ‘guts.’ That’s real sailing, and if you don’t think so… 

Go talk to Toraba and TEAM WAYPOINT !!!!!!       

The Finals had three more races, and Eureka, Second Chance, and Narwhal all had moments to strut-their-stuff and show why they deserved a slot in the J-Classic Final Four! Narwhal finally pulled off the untimate victory with an incredible tour de force display of talent and determination…

but it’s late, and if you want to hear how it all turned out, you’ll have to “tune-in next time, kids…” 

Interview with Hay ah

by Liv Leigh

Imagine an avatar with a wild, wild haircut, imagine complex calculations. Imagine someone with a passion for mathematics who tries to solve the big questions of our little virtual universe. There’s a name that goes with this picture and it’s not ‘Albert’… Liv Leigh interviewed Hay Ah, the startline lady. A story about the ongoing battle against lag, about new features to come. A story about beach, Beach Cats and how Bittersweet Lime may have saved the J-Classic’s port-to-port races.

“I never knew about lag before I started scripting the racelines, I was innocent and happy.”

Liv Leigh: Most of us know you as the startline woman… But there must be a way you got into sailing and into scripting for it. How did it start?
Hay Ah: Well, I wanted to start scripting immediately when I was in sl, but it was way too hard for a newbee scripter to start.
Hay Ah: So I ended up partying and shopping for 3 months.
Hay Ah: Later i started with changing little scripts and eventually progressed.
Liv Leigh: I see, do you have a background in RL programming?
Hay Ah: Not really, I liked mathemathics in school, those problems were like puzzles to me.
Hay Ah: I knew how to edit some php scripts and java but that was it.
Hay Ah: I learnt everything from the lsl wiki.
Liv Leigh: That’s pretty impressive, considering the impact your items have made in the community so far. Especially in the relatively short period you’ve been providing them. Why did you choose for sailing as a platform to script for?
Hay Ah: Well, I was present in the sailing community since about summer ‘08. I always liked beach living. I liked the openness of the community and off course I liked learn to sail in SL.

Blue Mars Open Beta

Blue Mars is a new, three-dimensional online world with an ambitious agenda to build a diverse, global community.
The developers tout Blue Mars as a ‘next generation’ 3-D environment, one supposedly unfettered by the legacy limitations of earlier efforts… (presumably meaning Second Life). I’m writing about Blue Mars today because they recently went to “Open Beta,” so you may want to go take a look.

Here’s one of the promo videos:

The sign-up is free, but (cough) the installation package is over 1 GB.  I also had to wait several days before my “application” was approved, and  it was  more than a little irritating  jumping through all the hoops to set up  my beta account.

Having said that, I admit it:  Blue Mars graphics are very pretty… and actually it was easier and quicker getting approved at Blue Mars than it is to SLSailing.org.  On the other hand, I guess, once you are “in” to Blue Mars, it’s pretty obvious this is still an early beta; the  resources and user development tools are largely nonexistent at the moment!

But if you sign up, you’ll find out that Mars DOES indeed have water!
Here is a screenshot from one of the (very few) regions currently open:

I’ve only spent a few hours on Mars today, mostly getting my bearings and looking around. It certainly looks as though there’s a potential to develop a multifaceted sailing community there. It doesn’t look like it’s presently on their agenda, however. If sailing develops there, it’s going to take a rich, cooperative interaction between Blue Mars and the large group of fantastic, creative developers and single users from the sailing community.

2009 J-Classic: ROUND TWO

Sheets to the Wind

by Ed Kegel and Moontears Vought

Greetings all! I’m fresh from Blake Sea, sunburned, wind burned, fed up with crashes (stopped counting after the first dozen) and worn out, but satisfied. I now understand her. No, not my girl friend, my J-Class.  Having just completed something I’ve wanted to do from the day I got her………. Sea Trials. And if you think this is a long note, well… it was a long day!

Sugar Reef

Have you ever wondered how she behaves under different sheet conditions? How close do I need to trim, for best performance? To reef or not reef, that is the question. And does she take after her distant cousin the Tako in regards to the Spinnaker angles, or does she have her own special needs? Just like a woman, she is complex, finicky at times, can be a real bitch,  but in the end – A JOY TO RIDE.

Many thanks to Moontears Vought, who helped me with this endeaver both with sailing back and forth on the Blake Sea add nauseum, and for being a great sounding board. Her thoughts are always sound and worth investigating. I would also like to thank the numerous other people who’s articles contributed to my understand of sailing in SL. Last but not least thank you Jane Fossett and JoyofRLC Acker, for helping to spread the wealth of information available in various forums and sources about this boat and sailing in general in SL.

OK, enough accolades; lets get to the results. I don’t purport to be a nautical expert, nor a marine engineer. But I do know how to conduct an experiment, limit changes to one variable as much as possible here in SL, and read the data. The conclusions I draw, while they may be up for debate by some, like the physicians debated a person’s illness in Moliere’s time. I am satisfied from the emperical, experimental evidence that I am on sound ground with my  conclusions and will sail her based on that understanding.

QUESTION:
1. Moon and I wanted to find out if under a steady wind the boat exhibited any “sweet spots” or preferences in sail angles using the Jib and main sheets.

CONDITIONS:
Venue was the open expanse of Blake Sea. Setting up our own wind at 12m/sec with no variations in speed or angle, we began trying various sail trims. To start we left the main in “Reef 0″ condition. Moon was skippering, and I was aboard on the hatchway, centered and did not correct for heel. We took readings of AWA, sheet angles, and boat speed from the INFO HUD. Boat helm was adjusted via the left/right keyboard arrow keys, and sheet trim was made via chat commands imbedded in gestures linked to F-Keys.

CONCLUSIONS:
A. The Jib and main sheets appear to like the same angle setting at least as far as the sea conditons allowed us to tell. Any mismatch beyond a degree cause a fall off in speed at all angles of wind, sail, and speed we tried.

B. For best speed at whatever heading, the boat wants constant correction of both helm and sail angle. Even with steady wind, to squeeze the last tenths of speed out of her you need to be sailing her every second. And given the variability of race winds, changing direction slightly all the time, its essential to keep adjusting the helm and trimming sails in and out by a degree or two. The AWA is constantly changing.