The sailing was tough in North Sea on Saturday, but five great teams donned their foul weather gear and raised sail to fight it out one last time to decide the winner of the Second Sol Regatta.
Here’s a brief rundown on the racing action.
Race 1 Results: Course A
In R1 the Blue Marlins took the lead initially, but then Poseidon Linden reared his ugly head, and all the race boats crashed!
Only one team, Moons Love Cats, Â had the presence of mind to re-rez and officially cross the raceline. The judges initially considered abandoning R1 and re-running the first race. However, as soon as one boat legally crossed the Finish line, that choice was not an option.
R1 Race Results
1: Moontears Vought ID16 — 00:17:24
2: SerenityAeon Resident ID4 — not Finished
3: diamond Marchant ID2 — not Finished
4: Alain Gloster ID15 — not Finished
5: Ronin Zane ID9 — not Finished
Lap Times:
Moontears Vought ID16 — Start: 00:00:09 — Last lap: 00:17:15
SerenityAeon Resident ID4 — Start: 00:00:00 — Last lap: not finished
diamond Marchant ID2 — Start: 00:00:01 — Last lap: not finished
Alain Gloster ID15 — Start: 00:00:05 — Last lap: not finished
Ronin Zane ID9 — Start: 00:00:05 — Last lap: not finished
Race 2 Course B
R2 began with a remarkable start; four boats simultaneously crossed the line with times of +00:01 or +00:02, with NYC just slightly behind at +00:07. It was a pretty great demonstration of the sailing skill of the Finalist Fleet.
Alain Gloster’s Eureka quickly took the lead and held it, shutting down a strong challenge by Blue Marlins, with Moon Cats placing third. Crashes again disrupted the races, but not to an extreme degree.
R2 Race Results
1: Alain Gloster ID15 — 00:12:19
2: SerenityAeon Resident ID4 — 00:16:30
3: Moontears Vought ID16 — 00:17:33
4: Ronin Zane ID9 — not Finished
5: diamond Marchant ID2 — not Finished
Lap Times:
Alain Gloster ID15 — Start: 00:00:02 — Last lap: 00:12:17
SerenityAeon Resident ID4 — Start: 00:00:02 — Last lap: 00:16:28
Moontears Vought ID16 — Start: 00:00:01 — Last lap: 00:17:32
Ronin Zane ID9 — Start: 00:00:01 — Last lap: not finished
diamond Marchant ID2 — Start: 00:00:07 — Last lap: not finished
Race 3 Course C
The third heat on Course C was the best of the Finals set, full of strategy and close tacking. The image below shows how close the fleet was half way through the race, with boats converging from opposing tacks. In fact, Armano led SerenityAeon by only four seconds as they crossed the Finish Line!
R3 Race Results
1: Moontears Vought ID16 — 00:13:48
2: SerenityAeon Resident ID4 — 00:13:52
3: Alain Gloster ID15 — 00:14:23
4: Ronin Zane ID9 — 00:14:42
5: Diamond marchant DSQ – DSQ
Lap Times:Â
diamond Marchant ID2 — Start: 00:00:02 — Last lap: 00:08:15
Moontears Vought ID16 — Start: 00:00:10 — Last lap: 00:13:38
SerenityAeon Resident ID4 — Start: 00:00:02 — Last lap: 00:13:50
Alain Gloster ID15 — Start: 00:00:02 — Last lap: 00:14:21
Ronin Zane ID9 — Start: 00:00:05 — Last lap: 00:14:37
Race 4 Course C
R4 used the same couse as R3, and once again the race was very tight and hard fought. So much so, that coming around Ziziphus Island three boats converged in near-collision (see below)! Woots!
R4 Race Results
1: Moontears Vought ID16 — 00:14:17
2: Alain Gloster ID15 — 00:14:28
3: diamond Marchant ID2 — 00:15:13- DSQ
4: SerenityAeon Resident ID4 — 00:19:38
5: Ronin Zane ID9 — not Finished
Lap Times:Â
Alain Gloster ID15 — Start: 00:00:02 — Last lap: 00:14:21
Ronin Zane ID9 — Start: 00:00:05 — Last lap: 00:14:37
At the conclusion of four heats, the Moon’s Love Cats team emerged as the clear winner, racking up three first place wins out of four heats. Here’s the Results table, calculated with Sailwave. With one discard, Moon’s Love Cats scored a ‘perfect’ 3.0 and won First Place. Eureka came in Second Place with a strong 6.0 showing, and Blue Marlins was right behind with a score of 7.0. The sim conditions had the greatest impact on Ronin Zane and Diamond Marchant. Their Grumpy Men and NYC1 entries sufferred lag and repeated crashes, resulting in Fourth and Fifth position totals.
Scoring Comment
The judges had an extended discussion about how to deal with Race 1, since all the boats crashed in that heat. However, under the ISAF Rules of Sailing the solution was  straightforward. Rule 35 states:
35 TIME LIMIT AND SCORES
… If one boat sails the course as required by rule 28 and finishes within
the time limit, if any, all boats that finish shall be scored according to
their finishing places unless the race is abandoned. If no boat finishes
within the time limit, the race committee shall abandon the race.
In other words, the race committee must abandon and potentially re-run a race when all the competitors fail to Finish. However, in R1 Armano re-rezzed the Moon boat and drove it across the line, legally finishing the course. Once he did that, under Rule 32.1 the race was valid for scoring purposes and the race committee could not simply abandon it. Here’s what Rule 32.1 says:
32 SHORTENING OR ABANDONING AFTER THE START
32.1 After the starting signal, the race committee may…Â abandon the race…Â as appropriate…Â because of foul weather…
However, after one boat has sailed the course and finished within the
time limit, if any, the race committee shall not abandon the race
without considering the consequences for all boats in the race or
series.
Rule 90.3(a) also emphasizes this point:
90.3 Scoring
(a) … A race shall be scored if it is not abandoned and if one boat sails
the course in compliance with rule 28 and finishes within the time limit,
if any, even if she retires after finishing or is disqualified.
The Race Committee might have added a fifth heat to the series in lieu of abandoning R1. I think that would violate the regatta rules (and probably ISAF racing rules too), but I bring it up here to make a point. Even if the fleet raced a fifth heat with Alain finishing First and Armano Last, the Finals Rank would still be the same, as shown below.
Moon’s Love Cats finished the four heat Finals with a decisive record of 1-3-1-1, and they well earned the Second Sol Championship. I’d like to argue their victory was ‘predictable,’ since they also won every single qualifying race they sailed with Armano as team skipper.
Image courtesy of Orca Flotta
However, going back over the records for the past several weeks of Sec Sol races, the truth is that all five teams won their Finalist spots with near-perfect race scores in the Qualifying Rounds. Going into Saturday’s event it was a real toss-up who would emerge this year’s winner.
I think that says something great about the extent of interest, skill and enthusiasm of so many sailors that make up the Sailing Community in Second Life. Thank you to all of you who helped make this year’s S4L race event huge fun.
I’ll have a lot more to say about this as we get closer to the Award Ceremony and Second Sol Regatta Closing Party this Sunday, July 28 @ 13:30 in Eden Estate!!
GO MOON CATS!
The 2013 Second Sol Champions!
Metaverse Sailing 