SAIL4LIFE 12M Regatta Last Race

The last race of the S4L Twelve Meter Regatta was quite remarkable. There were four sail race teams on the water, and all had already proven their skill and endurance by surviving a series of no-nonsense qualifying events. The sailors who came to race on July 11 were indeed ‘the best of the best.’ 🙂

Unfortunately, James Munson had to drop out due to equipment problems. (this happens a lot in RL racing too). Please note that James was way out front in Race #1, on his way to a First Place when his boat crashed. He certainly deserved to be in this group, and hopefully he’ll be back next time.

That left only three boats on the water: TEAM WYC-1, TEAM WYC-2, and TEAM PENGZILLA. They were remarkably evenly matched, with each boat winning one of the first three races.

Race Four was the ultimate decider, the final competition that would determine the team challenge winners for 2015. If you were a spectator that morning, you knew nothing could ever be better than this! One ultimate, winner-takes-all shootout. 🙂

The race that played out after the start gun sounded was absolutely fascinating; it was chock full of tactical decisions and daring moves. I’ll talk about the details soon,  but in my last post I promised you a video of Race #4.

Here it is. This is a ‘racer’s cut’ version, with the clips in sequence and attention to the race marks so you can follow the boats as they sail the course shown above. You can also watch a higher rez version of the video on Vimeo. 🙂

White on Blake

(JFos, Feb 10 — On February 9, MarkTwain White posted a lengthy opinion on several Blake Sea sailing issues in Second Life. I thought it was worth reposting his comments here on MetaverseSailing as well, for discussion and future reference.)

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IMPORTANT BLAKE SEA INFO

by MarkTwain White, February 9 2014

What is the Blake Sea and Who is Responsible for Administering it?

The Blake Sea is a body of water that was created by Linden Lab as part of the deal they made with the owners of the United Sailing Sims.

It exists because the LL offered to create it if owners of the USS sims agreed to administer the Blake Sea for the enjoyment of all. There is a group called the Blake Sea Group. It is made up of Lindens and some forty SL residents drawn from the USS yacht clubs to administer racing and boating in the Blake Sea. There are three SL residents that LL has made their primary administrative liaisons with LL and lead administrators in the relationship between LL, the USS, and SL residents. Sudane Erato is the lead administrator between the nine USS owners and LL. MarkTwain White and Nber Medici are the lead administrators of the Blake Sea (our titles in that combined group are “Blake Sea Captain”). Therefore part of the payback to the USS leaders and yacht clubs was and is the existence of the Blake Sea next to their sims which connected the whole operation to the Mainland. To read a more detailed history of how the Blake Sea came to be check out the History of the Blake Sea on the Blake Sea Journal blog (links below).

Why Clubs That Organize Races in the Blake Sea Should Use the Blake Sea Combined Calendar

The Blake Sea grows in popularity every month. When individual boaters follow accepted maritime protocols there is rarely a problem. And for a long time the Clubs of the USS had little problems racing together since we each tended to use the Blake Sea startlines set up close to each club. We have had the Blake Sea combined Calendar (BSCC) for a long time that helped the USS clubs get their various programs scheduled.

However times are changing. Clubs outside the USS are wanting to schedule events in the Blake Sea. This is seen most keenly in the two Interclub Racing programs that have just gotten started over the past month or so. (I will have more to say on Interclub racing later). So it is even more important that these clubs refer to the BSCC and follow the procedures to post race events there as they work in tandem with USS clubs. Last night I sent some protocols that I have asked Gemma Vuckovic add to the BSCC so all clubs can see how to get involved in the BSCC and schedule events that do not compete for time and space in the Blake Sea. I will also post those protocols on the Blake Sea Journal today.

For the sake of easy reading I include those protocols here.

Steps to Post to a Calendar that Appears on the Blake Sea Combined Calendar (BSCC).

1. Create a Google Calendar
2. Contact Gemma Vuckovic to get your calendar added to the BSCC
3. Check the BSCC to make sure there is no other event using the same time and space in the Blake Sea.
4. Arrange use of the line with the yacht clubs nearest the startline to be used so that there is no conflict.
5. Once arrangements are agreed upon to you can post the event in your Google Calendar.
6. Click CREATE
7. Enter name of event in “Untitled Event” window
8.. If ALL DAY box is selected, unselect it.
9. Enter start and end time of event. (Use Pacific Time which equals SL time)
10. In the WHERE window enter the name of the sim with the startline to be used (e.g. Blake Sea – Pacific)
11. In the description window add any additional info that will help people understand the race. (e.g. race start and ends at Arabian line but covers a significant portion of the Blake Sea. SLCG will be providing racecourse security)

Although the BSCC on the surface appears to be just like the SL Sailing Calendar which covered/covers the entire grid, the BSCC is very different. The SL Sailing Calendar sought to inform of sailors across the grid primarily of the TIMES of races. Yes the location was included however almost never was there a need in that calendar to deal with the reservation of SPACE. Nearly every club had at least one race line and some had more than one. There was no need to make sure the line in question would not be used by another club in terms of TIME and SPACE. Obviously both time and space are very important in the BSCC. When Starboards Yacht Club wants to have a race in the Blake Sea the Pacific Line is the natural place to hold the race. You can see that similarity of connection for most USS yacht clubs. Not surprisingly a club will host its races on its “home field” whether that be in the Blake Sea or somewhere out on the Mainland.

In the case of the Blake Sea the USS clubs have had their well established times and places working for some time now. So now that clubs from other places who normally race elsewhere at their established time come into the Blake Sea and wish to make use of the facilities they have the civil responsibility to find a time and place not occupied by a long established race event by clubs for whom the Blake Sea is home. Just because Club D ran their races at Noon on Saturday does not mean they can necessarily run races in the Blake at the same time. They need to come in as fellow clubs who want to fit in in civilized fashion and do some inter club action. This is covered in the above mentioned protocols.

It is true that until the beginning of the this year Starboards Yacht Club had been inactive for about two years. After we got the Fanci Deep project started late last year (which helped end the WWII fighting in the Blake Sea) we turned our attention to reviving SYC. We updated the Blake Sea Combined Calendar to reflect the new programs that we have been working on launching in our traditional time periods. Note that no club came in to use the startline at Blake Sea – Pacific during our traditional times. Waypoint Yacht Club uses the Pacific line from time to time but only during their traditional times and they worked with us to get that time and space reserved.

Why is Starboards Yacht Club Hosting Powerboat Races in the Blake Sea?

If you read the Blake Sea Code of Conduct (see at the SYC web site or the Blake Sea Journal, links are below) you will see that while sailing was and is the backbone of the Blake Sea concept, the Blake Sea was created “for the enjoyment of all”. This has always been a difficult role for those of us that administer the Blake Sea. Sailors often read the “sailing first” part of that role but what they hear in their minds is “sailing only”. On the other hand for a long time we had the WWII people come in and disrupt boating in the Blake Sea by conducting warfare and making the case that the Blake Sea was “for the enjoyment of all” while ignoring the “sailing first” part of the Blake Sea mission

Now we have a new group that is making its presence felt in the Blake Sea, the powerboaters. We at SYC quickly saw that this development would likely grow significantly over the months ahead. However the potential problems were easy to see. First there would very likely be a proliferation of unrealistically fast powerboats that would not do well given SL poor performance with sim crossings. The specter of a group of rocket-fast powerboats plowing thru a sailboat race because they traveled so fast they never saw the sailboats rezz was a real fear on our part. Unless steps were taken to change the lay of the land regarding the scripting we were in for some very unhappy times. And LL would not have stepped in to stop this rapid growth. Second there were a sizable number of these newly empowered power boaters that ould have no clue that in both RL and SL SAILBOATS HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY OVER POWERBOATS.

We could have stood by and done nothing knowing that the “for the enjoyment of all” clause in the Blake Sea Code of Conduct gave them the right to be in the Blake Sea OR we could try to face reality and try to work with it instead of just sitting on the sidelines and complain about changes we could not stop.

It is these two challenges that we at Starboards Yacht Club wanted to and are addressing in ways that can help reduce the issues of unrealistic speed and lack of understanding of boating protocol and maritime rules. Towards that end we have developed at SYC a series of test and rules for power boat designers to follow in order to create safe and sane powerboats that perform and realistic and controllable speeds and the education of their customers about the RL and SL rules on right of way on the water. It is those realistically scaled speed boats we race at SYC. And along side using boats that have realistic speeds we preach the gospel at every meeting, in every document and from the roof tops that SL SAILBOATS HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY OVER POWERBOATS.

Powerboats are here to stay. No one can change that. We did not make it happen. We ARE trying to administer the Blake Sea in such a way that the downside of this change can be modified to reduce the level of negative impact. We are doing all we can to try to protect the Blake Sea as much as we can for its core purpose “sailing first”. One rather silly comment I hear going around is that MTW is supporting powerboating for the money. Anyone with a calculator and a grade school understanding of math can go over to SYC and see that the income SYC gets from powerboat slip rentals is about the same as from ONE luxury yacht mooring.

More on Interclub Racing

I was totally taken by surprise with the way that this Interclub racing conflict came about. I was working closely with our new sail commodore Maiti Yenni planning for our opening day of sailing on February 16 when I learned that Orca was working up an Interclub racing event and since Orca and Maiti are good friends they were developing this together on the side. Unfortunately exuberance took over and Orca moved forward without sitting down with myself and Maiti to plan a logical step by step launch of the idea. I was happy that for the first time since God asked Adam “who told you that you are naked” that Orca was saying nice things about SYC and had this great idea for our two clubs to work together. However as it turned out Orca pressed forward without planning meetings, and she and her plan ran right into Don and his plan. The outcome of that encounter was predictable On top of that there was at least one regrettable conflict that occurred between Don’s race and our regularly scheduled event. It was minor and life went on. There are always problems when you start a new program.

However last week Don announced that his race for February 9 (today) would go to FIYC which was close to the powerboat course. FIYC told Don that they did not want to race that day NOT because of the proximity of the courses, but because they wanted to wait for the return of their main race director. And I was concerned that we could get yet another incident in the Blake Sea because of Don was continuing to push for the event at FIYC and near the powerboat course. After a number of meetings between Don, David Weatherly (FIYC), and Maiti took place I was told that the course Don proposed would take his boats through further to the south than I thought (with a north wind so the sailboats could pass the powerboat course on a reach and not need to tack). I told David that if that is what he wanted to do we could live with that. I said that the course described sounds reasonable. But David was certain that he did not want to do that. Subsequently Maiti played an important role in the ongoing discussions between what Don and David each wanted. In the end the venue was changed, FIYC co-hosted and all went smoothly..

I am hopeful of meeting with Orca and Maiti to rethink some issues about their Interclub race program. I hope it becomes popular. And I have NO ill wishes for Don’s program at all as long as he “plays well with others” and discusses any events in the Blake Sea with the associated USS club he will be working with and honors times and places on the BSCC. As a matter of fact we have already announced that we plan to support both the Interclub programs. Although the two programs have some similarities they are quite different in other respects and I believe most sailors will find it worthwhile to sail in both programs.

I send this to all of you with the hopes that you can get a better understanding of what is happening in the Blake Sea. There has been a lot of misinformation about the Blake Sea those topics discussed above. I hope this has cleared up some of it.

MarkTwain White
February 9, 2014

Links

History of the Blake Sea:
http://blakesea.blogspot.com/p/history-of-blake-sea.html
The Blake Sea Journal:
http://blakesea.blogspot.com/
The Blake Sea Combined Calendar:
http://gemmavuckovic.wordpress.com/combined-sailing-calender-2014/
Starboards Yacht Club:
http://starboardsyachtclub.blogspot.com/

Committee Upgrade

Drwyndwn Tyne is vice-commodore of Fishers Island Yacht Club. He’s also the builder and clubhouse manager of FIYC’s new home base in Sailors Rest.

FIYC

Three weeks ago Drew contacted Analyse Dean to discuss a possible new ‘Committee Boat’ to use at FIYC for races and other regatta functions. He wrote:

“We’d like a committee boat for our race lines. I own one of your 570 Bimini’s, and I think with some modification, it would be perfect. What we would require would be:
• an open cockpit, without the fishing chairs, but with more of a bench seat inside the transom.
• the ability to raise and lower flags and sound a horn as per the Racing Rules of Sailing. This could be from a menu system, but timing might be an issue.
• the ability to have a yacht club burgee and a race committee flag hoisted.
• the ability to turn off or eliminate scripts not required for the function of a committee boat, i.e., I’m pretty sure the sex anims would be superfluous (although, one never knows :-).
The concept here is that the racers can TP to the committee boat to rezz their boats, and return to it after the race, if they wish, then the committee boat would return them to the yacht club for the after party. The flag system would make racing that much more realistic, rather than using chat or gridtalkie, or possibly in combination.

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Analyse agreed with Drew, and they both decided Analyse’s Bandit 580 might be a better starting point. They’ve been working on the idea and soliciting sailors’ opinions since.

Here are Ldewell Hawker’s thoughts on the issue:

A committee boat is needed for formal racing, it as in RL is always anchored so that it is the basically delineated starboard layline. It is never the port end! It serves a series of purposes in RL – close observation point in a ‘barge’ protest i.e, leeward rights – prevents a beam reach to the line. It ALSO represents the mark that the line is judged by TO THE PIN END.

Often a mast or flag pole is on THE BOAT for hosting various flags. In match racing the committee boat becomes part of the pre-start tactics.
NOW most Yacht Clubs even dangle a rubber boat, or dingy which now actually become part of the BOAT/MARK – see new rules 2013-2016 (the real reason is to protect the committee boat from damage)
MOST CLUBS in RL now use an automated system for starts, even touted as being ‘fool proof’ (joke) gives beeps to raise flags etc, and sounds horn at clock start, and other programmed times. 
HOWEVER, in SL if you are out of the SIM you won’t hear any sounds – of course you can see the flags if your draw distance is set for that. I have a pair of binoculars as when I race most of the time there are at least 4 classes competing so that means I am buzzing around for 15-20 min….waiting for a start sequence – my class is usually last to start.
Hay’s START LINES and timer have enhanced SL considerably, because if you start a stop watch to use – and use it to time a run to the line …you can often BE OVER EARLY as it does not LAG with SL! Hay can correct me (sure she will) but the line clock responds by SL clocking. IT also determined is you are over early….
I used Yuu’s flag system with running match races, and still have his lines and gantry for hoisting them. I found that many SL sailors were simply confused by the flags….and it became a dimension of frustration for some.
In RL many clubs are having various starts from the same lines…and each fleet has: (1) course flag (can be same for all fleets or not) (2) A fleet flag which is hoisted at the 5 min warning (3) followed by PREPARATORY flag WITH penalties for over early (I, Z or Black flag)- FINALLY, WITH 1 MIN TO GO… THOSE FLAGS ARE DROPPED, AND AT THE START THE NEXT CLASS FLAG IS RAISED if multi-class races. NOW the flags are needed as you cannot hear, nor do committee boats shout the start sequence…. 
I can assure you…unless you do this all the time…it will be confusing – event then still unclear…….which is why most RL sailors have a ‘cheat sticker’ and a ‘flag sticker’ in their boats – AS WELL AS A radio scanning the RC frequency!
Finally, a Committee boat should not be huge, in RL many lake clubs use pontoon boats, and on the ocean – larger boats BECAUSE they are stuck on it ALL day! It needs some room as many whom do race duty are volunteers for the RC chairperson – or Race Director.
If you do one for SL, it should NOT be a vehicle – keep the boat a free of prims, scripts and avatars hanging out as possible…
NOW what would be cool, would be a Committee boat that turns with wind veer or shifts, as well as responds to the tides and currents…or responds to tides/currents and has a FLAG on it that shifts with the wind….WWC wind…
Smart ocean sailor use the anchored boats, for clues…to tide strength, shifts in wind and a host of other things….(can’t give out all the secrets….)
So bottom line….EVERY RACE LINE should have a committee boat, KEEP Hay’s timer, you can see it a couple of sims away…KEEP the boat small, AND don’t get hung up on the FLAGS – YOU MAY have to spend more time educating than you will racing!
If you must have flags….well… make it automated, and sort of…for ‘atmosphere….’ // Hawk…

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Jeremia Spotter commented:

Well said by Mr Hawker, there is nothing to add.
Btw: afaik the original “Yuu-line-set” came not with one of Twoheads vessels , it came with joepie Korobase’s BIGhorn tugboat, which belongs to the historical section of SL boating and sailing. I have used Mannie Madonna’s “Cabin Cruiser” for a long time, also with an eye on the historical side …
So – the boat really doesn’t matter at all. My favourite would be one of this kind:

Hawk’s last words are a good resumee: “If you must have flags….well… make it automated, and sort of…for ‘atmosphere…”

At least : I first can see some mesh-boats … if its too late – and i bump into that boats. I’m using the running SL-viewer and did no changes to the LOD-factor – and would never do when i race. So its important for me, that a committee boat which marks one end of the startline can be seen from a long distance by everyone.

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Jane Fossett’s initial comments:

Here is a picture of Analyse Dean’s draft build of a possible new committee boat, sitting next to the older one by Twohead Janus that came with Yuu Nakamichi’s raceline.

Analyse’s boat has LOD=32 and is not yet scripted. The plan is to (hopefully) incorporate ISAF Race Flag signals and interface with the Hay Ah line for those clubs and regattas that want a committee boat option.
This is a first draft to promote discussion so interested sailors and RDs can give input to Analyse as she puts this together. Please send her your comments. 🙂
Here are my own first thoughts:
1. I understand the new boat will have a smaller LOD than the old Yuu setup. That should help prevent ‘denial of entry’ errors on small raceline parcels.
2. I am not sure if the draft boat is too long to serve as a Starboard raceline end mark. I defer to Jere and Hawk on that point.
3. The Flag signals could be hard to see by racing skippers. I wonder if the Flags could also have a ‘shout’ attached to them so the whole race fleet is notified.
4. The detail on the committee boat is nice but I think most RDs will want the canopy ‘down’ so racing skippers can easily see boats approaching from the other side.

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Armano Xaris said:

I’m pro progress and think it’s a good plan that analyse dean builds a modern committee boat.. I’m against shouting flags haha :-).
You don’t look to flags, but to your slsa timer in sl racing. So i think flags is more of a window dresser for public then usefull for racers…

Please keep everything as slim as possible to create minimal lag, and consider this boat might be used under heavy sim conditions in bigger races also. Every tiny bit can add to a boat crashing when we stretch sim usage to it’s limits again.
I think the size of the boat is in a technical way not relevant when you can adjust the position of the startline buoy next to the committee boat.
Analyse might want to consider a startline buoy next to boat, that is part of the boat and movable on this size…

I have no opinion if this boat is a beauty concerning the size, and the fact that it might stay online for a longer amount of time next to startlines in blake sea for example. I vote neutral and think others have opinions about that :-).
Ok. These are my first thoughts.. I wish all could luck who are busy with this project.

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I put a copy of Analyse’s ‘draft discussion boat’ in the small bay at DYC for anyone who’d like to check it out themselves, and I’ve also put a copy near the dock at Strawberry. 🙂 If there is broad consensus on its merits and features, a new committee boat might be a desirable option for many racelines in SL Sailing. 

Please give Analyse Dean your opinions and ideas on this, or you can post your comments below. 🙂

Second Sol Closing Party is Sunday

All good things must come to an end sometime… 🙂

Image courtesy of Dil Spitz

MoonCats Win Second Sol Crown

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,  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: 
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: 
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… abandon the race… as appropriate… 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!

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)

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!