Second Sol Finals set for July 20

 

Second Sol Quals Close

The Second Sol Qualifying Races finished on Saturday, June 22. Twenty teams signed up to compete in the regatta, and each contributed $L5,000 to Sail4Life and the American Cancer Society as an Entry Donation. In return, each team received a free copy of the Patchogue II raceboat, generously provided by Jacqueline Trudeau.

The fleet of twenty contestants was broken into five ‘timeslot groups’  that raced against each other. The five winners then earned the right to compete in an upcoming Finals \Regatta that will be held in North Sea.

The timeslot qualifying rounds consisted of eight race heats for each group of four boats. The results were scored using the Standard Low Point System, using four discards. In other words, only a team’s best four races counted.

There are several advantages to using such a large number of discards in a SL sailboat race. Those benefits were clear in past multi-race events, including the J-Classic and ONE World competitions. On the other hand, four discards increased the risk of a potential tie between boats competing in any particular Second Sol timeslot group. Actually, as the races played out this past week, that never happened. In each group there turned out to be one team that clearly distingushed itself as the ‘best of the best‘ in a very skilled peer group.

Here are the scores for each team identified by contact person and sail number. Please remember that this was a boat race, not a skipper race. The person named below as the “Helm Name” was the contact person responsible for the team, but that person did not necessarily skipper the boat in every (or perhaps any) race. That’s a good thing; in most cases the race team members took turns at the tiller in different races; it was a cooperative venture. 🙂

If you take a few minutes and look at the table above, you will see that in each timeslot group there was one team that amassed a “perfect score” of 4.0, meaning that they sailed at least four First Place races. You can’t do better than 4.0 in this Regatta, but in all five groups there was one team that slam-dunked the races so skillfully they ended up with a perfect score.

That perfect quintet are:

02- Diamond Marchant- NYC1
05- Ariel Gallais- Moontear’s Lovecats
09- Ronin Zane- Grumpy Old Men Yacht Club
04- SerenityAeon Resident- Blue Marlins
15- Alain Gloster- Eureka

These five will now advance to the Finals Round, where a series of four fleet races will determine the overall champion for this year’s Second Sol competition.

Moontears Lovecats

NYC1

Grumpy Old Men

Blue Marlins

Eureka

(photos courtesy of Dil Spitz)

Round Two Takes Off!

(photo courtesy of Dil Spitz)

WildWind Launches Open 60

This week Corry Kamichi’s much-anticipated WildWind Open 60 hit the water. It’s available now through WildWind’s store on the dock at Far East Yacht Club in Borden sim. You can read all about the Open 60 here, but you’ll probably have more fun if you go to Borden and take a test drive!

 

Second Sol Round Two Lineup

The Second Sol Regatta Round Two takes off this weekend, with five timeslot races on June 21-22. Here’s a list of the timeslot teams and the race venues.

RACE TEAMS AND ROUND TWO RACE LOCATIONS

FRI 12:30 – SLCC/ Farragut raceline
013 Pazzo Pestana — FIYC 1
012 Pensive Mission — DYC Mowmows
002 Diamond Marchant — NYC1
008 EmmanuelMara Resident — MSRSC TeamDM

SAT 09:00 – Tradewinds YC/ Siracusa raceline
003 lesbo charisma — Team Arimto
006 ariel gallais — Moon’s love cats
020 Us Vemo — Kingfisher
018 Mami Charmann — WYC1

SAT 12:00 – Starboards YC/ Pacific raceline
007 Allie Tomsen — Seafarers
011 Anstett Brandenburg — Sea Lions
019 Bear Silvershade — Shadow Seekers
009 Ronin Zane — Grumpy Old Men Yacht Club

SAT 15:00 – FIYC/ Plum Gut raceline 
021 KalEl Tryce — Bistro on Blake
014 Aquarius Paravane– Echo Beach Bums
004 SerenityAeon Resident — Blue Marlins
005 Victor Cruiser — Wind on face

SAT 18:00 – Three Pines Sail Center/ Sulu raceline
015 Alain Gloster — Eureka
010 Chaos Mandelbrot — Penguin Racing Team
017 SachBee Resident — WYC2
001 Arrekusu Muramichi — Kazenojin Seiringu

I’ll update the list of skippers and teams prior to raceday. If any team has a scheduling problem and would like to switch groups, please contact Jane Fossett in Second Life and we’ll swap things around. 🙂

Here are the charts for Round Two. Please be sure to check the Discussion Thread for chart updates over the next few days.

JUN 21 1230 – FARRAGUT

JUN 22 0900 – SIRACUSA

JUN 22 1200 – PACIFIC

JUN 22 1500 – PLUM GUT

JUN 22 1800 – SULU

Second Sol FINALS Race

At the end of Round Two, we’ll tally up the point scores and determine the winners of each of the timeslot groups. Those five teams will then compete in a Finals Regatta hosted by North Sea that will decide the Second Sol Champions. 🙂

The Finals event was originally scheduled for June 23. However, several sailors pointed out that date was too inflexible. There would be no practice time, and sailors on the Final Five teams might well have RL obligations that day.

I’ve therefore agreed to postpone the Finals. Once we have the Five Finalist teams late on Saturday, we’ll work to pick a new date and time over the subsequent two weeks that is acceptable to all the competing boats. It’s their race, after all; we can’t sail a Finals unless all the boats make it to the Startline, full of hot air and ready to roar. 🙂

Second Sol Round One

Kudos to everyone who sailed, hosted, and helped staff the five timeslot events and twenty race heats of Second Sol Round One. Next weekend we’ll do Round Two, and then combine the scores to pick the Finalists who will sail for the Second Sol Championship on June 23.

Here’s a summary of the point totals so far, using Standard, Low-Point Scoring under Appendix A of the Race Rules.

Click to enlarge

Remember, the boats will race again on June 21-22, and the final scoring will only count each team’s top four races.  In case of a tie, we’ll use Appendix A 8.1 and 8.2 to break the tie to get five Finalist boats to compete for the championship in North Sea on June 23.

image courtesy of Dil Spitz!

Three Second Sol “Rules” for Virtual Sailing.

The Second Sol Regatta begins June 14. Twenty teams are ready to compete in a total of 84 fleet races.

Before the start gun goes off however, I wanted to bring up three specific racing issues for the Patchogue II fleet.

Skipper/Crew Side-Switching Downwind

This issue primarily affects boats with a solo skipper. When sailing on a far broad reach or a run, the wind forces come from behind a boat and generate very little “heel.” A Patchogue II with a solo skipper will heel to the side where the skipper is seated.

However, Patchogue II likes to sail flat, with no heel. Often the only way a solo skipper can flatten the boat on a run is to first sit on the windward side until the boat heels too far in that direction, then move to the leeward side to bring the boat back past zero heel. The skipper then repeats the process, usually every 10-15 seconds. That maneuver can reliably produce a 5-8% speed boost by keeping the boat ‘balanced.’ However, this gain is so small that a skipper will probably only think to use it during a race.

Flat gives the best Boatspeed

There are several ISAF rules that prohibit non-wind methods of boat propulsion, including versions of tiller-waggling, sail back-winding, and crew weight-shifting.

However, I think a good argument can be made that skipper side-shifting in the Patch II is intended to enhance wind effects; side-switching downwind is therefore not an abnormal means of boat propulsion. Sailors who use this in Second Sol should not be penalized.

Rapid Reefing

Ronin Zane reports a similar effect with reefing upwind or on a reach. If a solo skipper or small number of crew sail a beam reach in a stiff breeze, they may often find that they have excess heel if they don’t reef. However, they may also find they lose too much speed when they add a reef point.

What’s the fix? Well, they can put all of the crew on windward rail, wait till heel is ‘too much,’ and then reef. That will right the boat back into the ‘go‘ zone. At the point the boat has a good heel angle, the the skipper can then free the reef again. That will cause the boat to accelerate and start to heel once more…

Ronin was concerned that repeated reefing might be illegal in a race, under the RRS Rules and guidelines against non-wind propulsion.

Ronin’s point is well taken. A real-life skipper would never change reef several times each minute. However, within the physical constraints of virtual sailing, in my opinion a sailor who tries to gain a small advantage by rapid-reefing is within his/her rights to do so. Reefing is a wind management tool, hence a racing technique. It’s not an exploit.

Equally important, recent Trudeau boats have a built-in reefing penalty. A boat will lose momentum for a few seconds with each reef change. That means any gain from ‘Rapid-Reefing’ is guaranteed to be small.

Having said that, let me again comment that although any rapid-reef benefit is small, in my opinion it’s legal.

Crew Alts

Ok ok, your crew doenn’t show up for the big match; what do you do? Well, it’s simple to rez a few of your favorite Alt-avatars, and use them to crew for you, Right?

Well Wrong. From every vantage I can think of, sailing with an Alt differs extremely from sailing with ‘human’ crew. I could write several pages on this topic, but I think I’d bore everyone to tears and put myself to sleep in the process. This is an obvious issue.

Bottom line, I think sailing with one’s own ALT in a race is illegal. (It’s probably also an abomination against man, god, and nature). Any skipper who deceptively races with their ALT in Second Sol should, by vote of the Judges, be DSQ for that race.

The above comments are just my opinions and apply only to Second Sol. I’m happy to hear other angles on these issues, and I’ll likely change my own view if someone makes a truly cogent argument over any of the ‘rules’ points raised above. 🙂

Second Sol 2013 begins June 14

The Second Sol Regatta begins Friday June 14. Twenty teams of sailors will compete in two rounds of qualifying races, broken into five different time slots to accommodate the large size of the entry fleet. Round One is June 14 – 15, and Round Two is June 21 – 22. The winners of the timeslot races will then meet for a Final regatta shootout in North Sea on June 23.

Here’s the list of team leaders and team names with their sail numbers and their Round One group assignments.

RACE TEAMS AND ROUND ONE RACE LOCATIONS

FRI 12:30 NYC/ Atlantic
013 JoyofRLC Acker — FIYC 1
012 Pensive Mission — DYC Mowmows
002 Diamond Marchant — NYC1
008 EmmanuelMara Resident — MSRSC TeamDM

SAT 09:00 North Sea/ Breadnut
003 lesbo charisma — Team Arimto
006 ariel gallais — Moon’s love cats
020 Us Vemo — Kingfisher
018 Mami Charmann — WYC1

SAT12:00 TrYC/Farragut
007 Allie Tomsen — Seafarers
011 Sara Solo — Sea Lions
019 Bear Silvershade — Shadow Seekers
009 Ronin Zane — Grumpy Old Men Yacht Club

SAT 15:00 DYC/ Queequeg
021 KalEl Tryce — Bistro on Blake
014 Aquarius Paravane– Echo Beach Bums
004 SerenityAeon Resident — Blue Marlins
005 Victor Cruiser — Wind on face

SAT 18:00 FIYC/ Plum Gut
015 Alain Gloster — Eureka
010 Chaos Mandelbrot — Penguin Racing Team
017 SachBee Resident — WYC2
001 Arrekusu Muramichi — Kazenojin Seiringu

Here are charts for each of the five timeslots in Round One. (Note: North Sea has two additional charts that may be used at the RD’s option).

JUN 22 1500 – PLUM GUT

On June 21-22 the fleet will sail the second half of the qualifying series. I’ll post the details for Round Two on Monday!

Second Sol 2013: Patchogue II Practice Boat Vendors

The S4L Second Sol Regatta is just two weeks away!

As most sailors already know, Second Sol 2013 is a Sail4Life fundraiser regatta that will hit the water June 14-23.  Over two weekends, teams of 1-4 sailors will race in new Trudeau Patchogue II sailboats, graciously donated by Jacqueline Trudeau.

So far there are sixteen teams signed up to compete (that’s a lot!), but at sailors’ request I’ve added a new timeslot to accommodate the tardy teams that forgot to register. 🙂 There are still a few race slots available!

If you want join this fun event, here’s the signup page:

SECOND SOL SIGNUP

When you register:

— you’ll get a free Patchogue II sailboat,
— you’ll be part of one of the largest, most fun sail events of 2013,
— everyone on your team will get a goody bag full of wondrous stuff (I picked it out myself 🙂 ) and…
— through Relay For Life you’ll support the largest independent cancer research initiative on planet Earth.

So come sail Second Sol with us; for a few hours you can match wits with your friends world-wide, and at the same time support a global initiative to cure cancer in our generation. You have something better to do? 🙂

Practice Boats

The race boats have already gone out to the team leaders for the first sixteen boats. For all their crew who want to practice on their own, we’ve set up two Patchogue II Demo Dispensers. One is at the Trudeau Yacht Yard, and the other is on the dock at Danshire Yacht Club in Knaptrackicon.

More Info

If you decide to race, crew, or just come and watch the Second Sol Regatta, please also join the S4L 2013 Regatta group in-world for more details. You’ll need to use that tag to get a practice boat too.

Also, the race teams should now start following the SEC SOL 2013 REGATTA THREAD on SLSailing.net. In the next few days I’ll post all the timeslot teams and additional race info.

Woodstock 2013 Draws Huge Crowd

Kudos to Bennythe Boozehound, Runa McMillan, Charlz Price and Fiona Haworth for the wonderful Woodstock event on June 1 to support Sail4Life. Woodstock was a fantastic day-long concert and party that recreated the 1969 Woodstock Festival, featuring an incredible soundtrack mixed by Benny.

Charlz and Fiona staged the event on a separate region (Yasgurs Farm)  rented for the occasion. They put in a huge effort to make the concert area and surrounding sim a suitable flashback setting for the sixties music.

The result was pretty amazing. The original Woodstock Festival in 1969 became legendary when 450,000 young people descended on Yasgur’s farm for the event. That number was nearly ten times what the event planners and local townspeople were expecting. 🙂

Well, yesterday it happened again in Second Life! Beginning Friday night, people started to flood into the sim, ‘camping over’ until the concert started on Saturday. That turned out to be a pretty smart move, since the moment Benny stepped up to the mike to get the show underway, the sim hit max capacity. 🙂

For the next twelve hours there were 80-90 avatars down on Yangur’s Farm, and it was nearly impossible to get in! (kudos go to Kal for piping the audio feed into Blake Bistro, to keep the restless crowd from storming the gate). 🙂

After a day of trying, I finally did wedge my way into the sim and caught the last two hours of the show.  It was totally groovy. 🙂

Great job Benny, Runa, Charlz and Fi!