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!
_____________________
Metaverse Sailing 
If you PHRF it, that will be a Sojourner 😉
I’m considering placing a side-bet on that… 🙂
This sounds like a wonderful proposal! It would solve the problem, that I meet so often: either there are no races, when I am typically online, or the boat type doesn’t match with mine. Also visiting in unknown Marinas would be exciting. 🙂
Haha yes; exactly the point! And it also makes little difference if you’re a die-hard expert racer or someone brand-new to SL Sailing. The Rally is more an ‘adventure,’ an exploration of new sims and places along the way. Organizing it a bit and tracking sailor’s times should add to the fun, because it means that there will always be several sailors traveling on the course with you whenever you decide to set sail on your next leg.
However, I admit there are many details to figure out. For example, we may not want to use racelines, since each sailor would ‘lock’ the line when sailing in networked mode.
Chaos Mandelbrot suggested a simple kiosk at each waypoint instead that the skipper would click to signal they had started or finished each leg. That might be a good alternative, and also let cruisers know we’re serious to avoid having this event turn into a “cut-throat” race. The use of waypoint kiosks would also avoid tying up busy racelines; the Rally fleet would be a minimal inconvenience to other scheduled regattas.
Probably the biggest issue will turn out to be the Rally course. I worry the Northeast corner of Nautilus is presently not-passable (it was clear six months ago!)
We need to come up with a good course, a list of friendly marinas to stop at, and a very short list of simple ‘rules’ that make it fun. I think we can all do that together over the next few weeks.
I also know this idea may not work out, and might be more complicated and messy than I imagine. I think we could all make that decision together too, and hopefully have some fun and learn a few new things in the process.
Sounds interesting, and I would be glad to help
I personally would run my ACA, as my J-class and I seem to do alot of “crashing”
Probably have to do results the way I do the SYC Open. just a thought. If their is going to be diff vessels.
Sounds like a great plan to me. Way to go Jane. 🙂
Axle, Lynn?
One of the most fun parts of doing this is to work it out as a group, and problem-solve the details. Let’s all do it together! And yes, I added Axle to the people I was ‘stealing ideas’ from… I was thinking we could discuss using his SYC Open system, and in fact come up with several ways to report the results of the fleet sail… [after all, that’s what computers are for, isn’t it?]. Woots!
such a wonderful idea 🙂
Maybe the fleet or single sailors like to sail the second thousand sims in the Atoll-continent. 😉
Somewhere /me found the first part of an older logbook someone mde ( http://dilspi.ning.com/profile/3t135gjmv51aw ).
Its old and may not readable or correct in all points anymore and the second part isn’t found right now.
So beware just to speed-sail it. Its not a course, its just a fragment of a logbook.
But Your followers will sure be happy if You – Yes You – would have discussed the water-ban-line-theme with the parcel-owners or the water-deep/bridge-high with LL just before crossing.
Dil… grin.
Excuse me while I fall off my chair.
I absolutely love it!
Let me read through it all!
WOOTS!
someone call SL911
she’s fallen and can’t get up
of thread – had to do it
ooooh looks 1st leg of the rally ends in my tiny neck of the ocean, i lock my sharks in soo y’all can sail safely.
Cough.
Beej? You were ‘IN’ this from Day One. 🙂
I just can’t decide if you are leg two or leg three…XXX
The more I hear about this idea the more I like it. With SL sailors from all over the world, the simplicity of participation is the key ingredient.
It sounds like fun to get out and see some other marinas and clubs in a relaxed atmosphere.
Also, If Beejees shark’s scratch anyone’s gel coats he buys the beers 🙂
Thank you, Patrick, for so much help and support.
The goal here is to celebrate all SL Sailing… but the finish line will indeed be on your doorstep in Spoondrift, if the Rats down there agree to it.
I promise we won’t make too much noise.
(I lie sometimes, though)
Count me in !!! when do we start? (=
We will start sooner than I anticipated, and after everyone offers their input…
I’m also double checking the schedules so no other regatta gets infringed.
So far, the three weeks at the end of February and beginning of March look like a GO!
sounds like a great idea.
I’m thinking Tahiti Ketch II just becase 🙂
(although if we can row, a Columbia Tender is awfully tempting)
I still admit I have zero idea what to sail…
and god knows, I doubt I could outsail the Eureka team!
I will say, however, I’ve been having fun exploring the waterways in a Nemo… 🙂
I think Nomad’s going to slow that little boat down, however!
/me found the west passage around nautilus
but there is still one meter of land we may need to pull the boats over. So better choose a small nutshell 😉
Also the course is dangerous due so many security-orbs and only something like sailable with low depth boats.
But even if the eastern-passage around nautilus isn’t shipable anymore, we should ask the parcel Owners and LL politely for our right of way.
Dil… I’m speechless. I love your charts and ideas. Let’s do it!
I will add your “Problem Sim” form as a button here. Let’s grow sailing!
Jane,
This is a Quantum Leap! for sure! Bravo!
However, you needn’t limit the voyage/rally to a continuous chart. At Mowry Bay Cruising Club we often hire large Cargo Planes to move the fleet to a new location during a layover, whether it be for better wind, climate or simply a change of scene. Then the sailors simply fly out, rerig and provision and we are on our way.
FYI, we have sailed the North Shore of Gaeta three times now and that cruise is REALLY difficult. We lose more sailors on that trip! jeez. Of course if they can sail that… they can sail almost anything! lol
I’m in! [I just need to retire from my RL job] ROFL
With no false humility, let me again say that this idea stems from the wonderful work that you and Manul have done over so many months with MBCC.
A few weeks ago on a nothing-special casual cruise from the Danshire docks on a Sunday afternoon… a pretty incredible fifty-five MBCC skippers showed up and launched boats.
I almost fell off the dock (again). for me it was a pretty astonishing demonstration of sailors’ commitment to a sense of community, and being together.
It’s not just about racing… it’s about sailing, and who we are.
Thank you Tory and Manul… this “Rally” is for you.
Ok seriously – let’s get down to nuts and bolts,
Jane, please contact me inworld, or Via e-mail, so we can get this party started 😛
Fair winds and smooth Seas
Axle
Mr_goodwrench@bellsouth.net
Hahaha!
You are right, Axle, and I apologize to everyone for my semi-intentional delay here…
I’ve been working behind the scenes and on ORG to hammer out some of the details, and I wanted to give people a few days to post their ideas here without me butting in the way.
Having said that, let me also comment that the response to this simple idea has been huge… Thank you so much to everyone.
The sail rally is truly a reflection of our entire community, I think. It’s a fun adventure, and one that hopefully reasserts who we are and what we all stand for.
As I say all the time… On a world that is two thirds water, we are the sailors.
We are together.
That is a very good thing.
As Blondin Linden suggested a bottlenecks-list (http://slsailing.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=19179#19179 ) i did a form to allow us logging in-world the annoying configured parcels!
WTB – Water Trouble Base is the name i gave it.
Beside the form ( http://bit.ly/WTB-form ) there is also a list view ( http://bit.ly/WTB-list ) to see all alredy posted troubles.
Please feel free to IM me if You like to comment this WTB.
Maybe You like or dislike it, however i would like to hear it!
Ciao
Dil 🙂
Thumbs up, Jane! Wonderful! I love this idea for several reasons. As ye all know, I’m not much into racing. So all those daily regattas sometimes really bore me. But this thousand-sims-thing seems to become the perfect mixture of race, cruise, adventure and also sightseeing (lol). Finally something really (!) interesting that got my attention.
A good thing for the community also. Many of us haven’s seen eachother since months, haven’t met or done anything together because (my excuse) there’s always the same going on, day after day, week after week.
And – as you already said – we need and want open waters! This, in my eyes, is the importantest point. And what more could attract the Linden’s attention (and reaction, so I hope) than a global …lemme call it ‘event’ like this?!
I already love it, Jane. And if I come along with the time windows, I also will raise the purple sails of my ‘Loreley II’ on this rallye…or should I take the ‘Legoland’?
And I offer the BERDAV marina on Kinrara (south of Corsica) as waypoint with at least 300 free prims, no autoreturn and cold beverages to rezz, rest and whatever.
I am sure, this rallye will be a cool and successful thing. It already is.
Ahoi
Grin… I admit I am simply amazed and thrilled with the amount of support and excitement over the Rally idea…
This event looks like a major “GO.”
It also looks like we might target the entire month of March for the event, so everyone has a chance to get involved according to their personal schedule.
I admit I’ve been dragging my feet a bit the last two weeks on this project, since many in SL needed to focus on Haiti fundraising. I also wanted to give Quirky and Naeve “Center Stage” for their ACA33 Cup.
Beginning this weekend, however, let’s kick off the Rally Planning, and have a goal to put all the nuts and bolts in place by March 1.
I’ve got an outline and and a general vision for this event, but hey, half the fun here is conspiring together to do some remarkable things; so everything is open to discussion and your opinions and help are very welcome at any level. In fact, that’s the whole point, isn’t it?
Please come along, let’s all do this together!
I’ll post an outline of the general plan, some timelines needed to get it all done, and start discussion threads on issues to stimulate people’s input so we can quickly flesh it all out. WOOTS! This is exciting!!!
LET’S RALLY!
Jane, It might be nice to form a group. Then folks could communicate from on the water. “Hey nice beach @ slurl.com/zipitydooda /70/50” Also send note cards of events. I would think sailors would start from any place on the course but a clockwise or counter clockwise direction would be known. I wouldn’t want to be sailing AFK and run someone down head on. hehe. Charts would be nifty but would be a luxury. An access for all group members photo album. Well, I want everything, ROFL
Love the idea of circumvention of SL
Hi Jane!
I love your plan!
And I wish so heard to join this race.
I made a map”Nautilus East Rout”.
There are only four barriers to go thru.
I’m gonna try to talk with the land owners of these points.
I’m in…. Late, (as usual) but in.
If there’s anything I may do for this project, let me know
Please tell me I didn’t miss this!
Jane, just a thought to mull on: Perhaps there isn’t really a need for organization, “scoring”, “winners” or a clear and organized SAFE route mapped ahead of time.
Simply have a starting point, and a possible ending location. With a SL group formed, group members could post notecards as they sail around, with a bit of commentary and some pics, sharing their experiences with the group. Some would follow using these notecards as maps to the unknown. A collaborative sail would result, rather than a competitive sail.