Metaverse Sailing

This week Commodore Gemma Vuckovic of  Nantuckett Yacht Club-SL announced plans for NYC’s annual Francois Jacques Trophy event. Here’s her initial Notice of Race:

THE FRANCOIS JACQUES MEMORIAL TROPHY 2018
NOTICE OF RACE
Friday 2nd November 2018 3:00pm SLT

Francois, our dear departed NYC Commodore, was adamant that racing was “for all”. Her motto was “Ladies & Gentlemen, Have you sailed today?”

On Friday 2nd November we will race in her memory and for the Francois Jacques Memorial Trophy, an annual event.

THE EVENT
Please register early to make our planning easier, and depending on the number of entries we will use one of two Plans.

Plan A – up to 10 entrants.
There will be three preliminary races.
A low point scoring system based on finishing position will be used. One discard race will be allowed, and the combined points of the other two races will be calculated.
The top 8 racers overall will be the finalists for one last race, and the winner will receive the FJ Trophy and his or her name added to the perpetual Honours Board.

~~ OR – (depending on the number of entries) ~~

Plan B – over 10 entrants.
Racers will be split into 2 groups, and each group will have two races.
The top 8 racers overall, based on time, will be the finalists for one last race. The winner of that race will receive the FJ Trophy and his or her name will be added to the perpetual Honours Board.

THE YACHT
This year we will race the Shields v2.0 by Burt Artis. We chose this boat for several reasons:
1. It is FREE.
2. It is easily obtained.
3. It’s easy to sail, yet competitive to race.
4. It’s a popular boat with SL sailors.

THE COURSE
CHARTS, the WIND & USB-programmed waypoints will be released 2 weeks prior to race day.
A course has been specially designed for the race.  It’s one that should bring out all the best qualities of competing skippers, yet also easy enough to be fun.

THE WIND
As we want as many competitors as possible to enter, we will be using a wind with no hidden surprises.

THE TROPHY(s) & Prize(s)
The overall winner will be awarded the Francois Jacques Memorial Trophy, and have their name placed on the perpetual Honours Board. The two runners up will also receive a trophy.
Hughes Enterprises have graciously donated $L6000 for the First prize. Other sponsors are welcome to contribute additional prizes.

CRASHES
We have created the two plans above to cover the eventuality of some people crashing. One crash does not mean an end to your chance of winning.

RESULTS
Results of the heats will be announced promptly to enable the final to be held.

ENTRIES
We need your entries as soon as possible please, by notecard to either Gemma Vuckovic or Justin Blade in Second Life.

Gemma Vuckovic
Commodore, Nantucket Yacht Club-SL
Justin Blade
Head Race Director, Nantucket Yacht Club-SL

Yikes. It’s been nearly two years since I’ve posted Handicap Hotlaps results, and that’s way too long! Since those 2013 performance numbers came out, a dumpster full of new ships were launched in SL, and it’s time for a Hotlaps update!

Linkous Hotlaps Posters

Some sailors (anyway, at least six of you) may remember Hotlaps.  It’s a format that lets skippers do solo practice runs and then then upload their lap scores to a simple online spreadsheet.

The data lets skippers compare their personal lap times with those of other sailors. The combined lap times can also be used to set a ‘relative performance index‘ for the different boat classes in SL (at least under the ‘trial lap’ wind conditions).

You can can read about the history of Hotlaps here  and you can get the practical details about sailing a 2015 lap by clicking here. 🙂 At the moment, there are five different raceline locations where you can run a Hotlap, and each one has its own course: BREADNUT, KNAPTRACKICON, LINKOUS, SULU, and HEPURN. All you need to do is click the poster at the raceline to get details.

Adding it up

The current round of Hotlaps began in 2013; since then, a total of 98 skippers have logged 632 laps, sailing 49 different boat categories. Kudos to the following skippers who uploaded their laptimes:

2525, A89, AC88, ak Topsail, Andi Merryman, Andi01, Andrea Curtis, Armano Xaris, Arya89 Resident, B112, B117, B12, BM12, Brett Kjeller, Bunnie, burt Artis, Chaos Mandelbrot, Charlz Price, CharliePakk, charliepakk, Dekka, Destiny Wescott, don Berthios, Emelia Azemus, Fearless Freenote, Glorfindel Arrow, gnupf gufler, Hannelore Ballinger, HansMarx, Hay Ah, IDBSDF61, idTHEA, Irreverent Emoto, James Munson, JazzyDaze, Jeanemery, JFos, Joel Rahul, Joy Acker, Justin Blade, Kain Xenobuilder, Kentrock Mesmer, Kris Hollysharp, Lance Corrimal, laured Cabassoun, Lesbo Charisma, Little Vixen, LucyInTheSky Afarensis, Maiko Taurog, michiya Yoshikawa, Nikif, notohama, nozomimi karu, Ome Audeburgh, Pan Carfield , pascal kira, Patrice Cournoyer, Pazzo Pestana, Peacy Cortes, Pensive Mission, PHOP, poko Zepp, Popow Horbaczewski, Porter Tracy, Qyv Inshan, Rebbie Resident, Rim Telling, Ronin Zane, S11D, sailman, Samlara Vintner, SkyBlue Earthboy, Shell Wemyss, Slanty, SteveLL resident, Takabou Destiny, Trapez Breen, VictorCR, Wolfhard Resident, Wrye Diabolito, Tori Petlyakov, Vivipezz Resident, Xi Larnia, xpaulx pain, yala74, Yuukie Onmura, Kali, ANDI01, James Munson, Isis Rexie, Zequ Quartz, Jenni Carfield, granthious, Uri Jefferson, EmilyWaugh Resident, Coulton Nitely, Zach Dakun, Tori Petlyakov

The uploaded lap data for each raceline is entered into a spreadsheet with separate columns for different boats. The scores are then used to determine the “average lap time” for each boat class. Here’s an example of one spreadsheet:

To make comparisons easy, the spreadsheet results are then expressed relative to an Index Boat, the Quest Melges-24 using a simple ratio:

(Hotlaps Performance Factor) = (Test Boat Laptime)/(M-24 Index Laptime)

The M-24 lap time is defined as a performance score of 1.00. A boat that’s twice as fast will get a performance score of 2.00, and a boat that’s only half as fast will score 0.50.

Here’s the current list of Hotlaps Performance Factors for five different racelines:

In general, there’s good lap-time correlation across multiple skippers sailing on any single racecourse. There’s also a strong “Performance Factor” correlation across all the different Hotlaps racelines.

These findings support the idea that hotlaps scores can be a useful parameter that predicts sailing performance for different boat classes (and sailors) on any race course in Second Life.

The figure shown to the right is a summary that lists the average Performance Factors for each boat class sailed on all five race lines.

The results aren’t too surprising. They show that the M-24 (PF=1.00) is a pretty speedy racer with lap times comparable to much larger boats, including the ACA33, Mesh Shop VO-70, WW OP-60, and even the Nacra-17.

A series of more traditional, classic racers and cruisers are slightly slower. These include most of the Trudeau boats (Trudeau 12m PF=0.88) and Bandits (Bandit IF=0.69), as well as boats by Rene Marine and Craig Ktaba. Of course, fastest isn’t always best. One of the most popular cruisers in SL turns out also to be the slowest in this bunch. Motor Loon‘s great Loonetta 31 earns a rather tardy PF=0.66. 🙂

At the other end of the spectrum, it’s perhaps no surprise that a number of high performance ocean racers walk away with top awards as speed sleds on SL waters. As a class, they rank a good 15-20% ahead of the (already very fast) Melges-24. These big, super-speed machines include the Wildwind Wildcat-45 and OP-60, the Mesh Shop OD-65 and Cafe 75, and the RCJ-44.

Hotter Laps

All these numbers and comparisons raise more questions than they answer. It will take more test laps and varying conditions to see how reliable these ratings are, and how generally they apply. I’m therefore pretty thrilled to see that Petra Paname and Bridget Beresford have each started their own versions of Hotlaps trials. It will be fun to compare the results with more boats, more sailors, more laps, and more race conditions!

Go SL Sailing!

This month musicians and DJs are blitzing SL with a rapidfire series of concerts to support Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C). Inara Pey has posted all the details of the mega-multisite series here.

While you’re reading about the event, don’t forget to bookmark Inara’s fantastic modemworld blog for all the critical need-to-know info she posts. 🙂

Speaking of critical info, I just learned from NYCharlie Vyper that his New England Community at Breakers will host the SU2C concert for September 17. Ten acts will play on their stage from 3:30pm to 8:30pm SLT!

The calendar for the full September series is located here.

So hey, this will be a great concert for a fantastic cause. Besides, let’s be practical: it’s Thursday, a slump day, and what else do you have to do?

I mean, eight years ago you could at least go to an SL casino and lose $L400,000,000 on a single hand of blackjack… but then the Linden vice squad got involved, and that’s a whole different story. 🙂

This month you can have much more fun at the SU2C series of concerts and you will support cancer research too! (And hey, that million dollar donation is optional.) 🙂

Stand Up To Cancer Benefit

September 17
3:30pm-8:30pm SLT

Breakers (45, 139, 26)

See you there!

It may seem a bit early for Halloween, but who cares!

Admiral Chaos Mandelbrot is planning a Gilligan’s Island themed cruise for his LCC excursion on Tuesday, September 1 at 5:00SLT !! This should be fun!!

So go grab your boatshoes and pick a good cruise boat; the fleet takes off from Sailors Rest in Blake Sea at 5PM sharp! (and no one’s left on the dock!).

Here’s the rest of the course:

If that’s confusing, no worries, mate! The Apres Cruise party is here. 🙂

Come as you are…
Come crew if you have no boat!
Come as Ginger, MaryAnne, or Thurston Howell if you must!

See you at Sailors Rest at 5PM SLT!

Yesterday North Sea hosted the FINALS for the S4L TWELVE METER REGATTA, sponsored by SAIL4LIFE.

Four outstanding teams had each earned the right to compete by winning their Qualification Rounds on June 20. The Final Foursome included:
TEAM WYC-1
TEAM PENGZILLA
FLORIDA SAILS, and
TEAM WYC-2.

Yesterday they raced a carefully thought out, no-frills Olympic course designed by Ldewell Hawker; Hawk also served as uber Race Director for the Finals event.

Silber Sands and Joro Aya were the principal judges, ably assisted by Iteke and Rolf80 Titanium, and Taku Raymaker and Jane Fossett served as Appeal Judges.

The race conditions were overall excellent, thanks largely to Elbag Gable’s careful attention to sim performance issues for the event. Sadly however, FLORIDA SAILS had to withdraw from the competion when skipper James Munson developed computer problems that resulted in repeated crashes. This was particularly unfortunate, since FLORIDA SAILS was leading the pack in Race #1 just before James crashed out. 😦

The remaining three teams were remarkably well matched. In the initial heats, WYC-1, WYC-2, and PENGZILLA had each earned a first place win. At that point the whole regatta was still a toss-up, anyone could win! It all came down to Race #4.

I’ll have a great deal more to say about the FINALS, but let me now comment that heat #4 turned out to be the most exciting, best-sailed race I’ve ever seen in a decade of SLSailing. When the teams finally roared over the Finish line, I wanted to jump up from my computer display and applaud! They were all winners! 🙂

Of course, things don’t really work out that way. The whole idea of a regatta is to pick winners and losers and to shine a bright light on those sailors with stand-out skill and technical prowess that can bring them to victory against the best sailors in Second Life.

In that Fourth critical race, each boat flashed evidence of unique sailing skill and champion style. My heart stopped a dozen times as I watched the fleet make hairpin turns around marks and execute tacks that forced boats within pixels of major collision.

The Finish turned out to be extremely close, but as the salt spray cleared at the end of race #4, the judges were unanimous: Team Waypoint – 1  was the regatta champion (skippers: Bunnie Mills, nozomimi Karu). In an amazing demonstration of WYC’s ability, the Regatta Second-Place Award went to their sister WYC boat: Team Waypoint – 2 (skipper: io LittleBoots).

You might ask: There were three boats! How close was that last race? How epic was the competition?
Well kids, here’s ‘how’ 🙂 : Team Pengzilla (skipper: Chaos Mandelbrot) made a series of smart tactical moves during the race that allowed him to break ahead, and PENGZILLA actually crossed the Finish line in front of the Waypoint boats. Unfortunately (at least for you Penguin fans out there), it turned out Chaos made a serious, split-second error when timing one critical tack. The judges witnessed the event, and all agreed to DSQ the Mandelbrot-Boozehound Duck Dynasty Team from that heat. 🙂 This was an important decision that determined the outcome, so Jane, Taku, and Hawk all chimed-in too, agreeing 100%  with the Judges’ decision.

Chaos and Benny took their loss with typical grace, charm, and lots of laughter. They were happy with their performance, and were the very first to loudly congratulate the two incredible Waypoint winning teams!!

!!!GO WAYPOINT!!!

Here are the numbers as they played out:

Race#1
1: Bunnie Mills IDWYC1 — 00:19:28
2: io LittleBoots ID444 — 00:21:42
3: Chaos Mandelbrot IDPZ09 — 00:22:09
4: James Munson IDJM58 — not Finished
Race#2
1: io LittleBoots ID444 — 00:19:25
2: Bunnie Mills IDWYC1 — 00:20:46
3: Chaos Mandelbrot IDPZ09 — 00:27:58
4: James Munson IDJM58 — not Finished
Race#3
1: Chaos Mandelbrot IDPZ09 — 00:20:57
2: nozomimi Karu IDWYC1 — 00:21:42
3: io LittleBoots ID444 — not Finished
Race#4
1: nozomimi Karu IDWYC1 — 00:20:53
2: io LittleBoots ID444 — 00:21:27
Chaos Mandelbrot IDPZ09 — 00:20:39 (DSQ)

And here’s the analysis from SailWave:

As I said, I have much more to tell you about these wonderful races. Give me a couple days to edit the video, and then let’s talk about it!!!

WOOT!!! GO WAYPOINT!!!

The S4L 12M Qualifying Races on June 20 were a real thrill, with 16 seasoned SL teams battling it out to earn a spot in the annual Sail4Life Regatta FINALS. After 12 hours of competition only four teams remained afloat. This quintessential quartet will now go on to race in a FINALS event on July 11 in North Sea.
The FOUR FABULOUS FINALISTS are: (drumroll please!!!)

1. TEAM WYC1 — Bunnie Mills, 彡NOZOMI彡 (Nozomimi Karu), いんちゃん™ (Infrared Razor), 寅次郎 (Torajiro Whitfield), あやちゃ (Ayahoshi), Кαηα (Rairu370)
2. TEAM PENGZILLA — Chaos Mandelbrot, Bennythe Boozehound
3. FLORIDA SAILS —  James Munson
4. TEAM WYC2 — いお (Io Littleboots),  Sachbee Resident

Here are the numbers as the Qualifying Heats played out:

The next stop will be the FINALS shootout in North SEA!!