Back at it

 Fizzin, - just fizzin...

What a feeling...

Yeah! It's still a great boat.

Unwinding and more

Ahoy! I'll admit it's been a while. First life is keeping me busy with loads of delicious sailing, and that's all good and sweet. However, today I received an email from a dear old friend in Second Life, and I tumbled down the rabbit hole, - or rather memory lane...

Morning yoga

Obviously, first life comes first, but I still have friends, fond memories - and unfinished projects - in Second Life, so my heart started beating a bit faster.

I logged in to check if SL is still there, and sure enough. It's there. Tradewinds YC, the red boatshack, the round table, the lighthouse... everything. Give or take. So I launched my favorite cruise, the Ushuaia, and started the day with a bit of sunrise yoga. That's the kinda thing I'd do in RL too.

Scrubbing Unwind

Boats never like being abandoned. Green stuff grows everywhere. Perhaps not so much in Second Life but still, I felt like giving her a good scrub after all this time. After a few hours of scrubbing plus a coffee break - Unwind has an espresso machine onboard, she was her good old shiny self.

Unwinding

Time to take her for a spin. It was sweet. Not that I had forgotten, but still... I was a bit surprised just how much it felt like sailing. It's actually pretty good. You need to constantly steer and trim, or she'll come to a halt. There are still things to do, in order to make the SL sailing experience better, but that's a subject for another post.

The sun sets behind the Tradewinds Lighthouse

I sailed around Tradewinds waters till sunset, - feeling bad for neglecting my virtual boats and friends in here. Had great fun mooring using sails only. It's a bit more challenging, but I don't much like all that motoring about; It's much easier to predict how a sailboat will move with sails up. Besides, that stinch of diesel is... yuck. Yeah well, - in SL it's a bit better :-D

Sunset thoughts?

Anyway, here's me and Unwind moored at Tradewinds thinking about that email. The subject being? The Flying Fizz! Still my absolute favourite racing boat in Second Life. In case you wonder, what it is, it's moored right behind my lovely cruiser on the picture above. Thanx for writing, Liv. I'll get back to you about that.

PS: Turns out my little blog here needed a scrubbing as well. Several comments were - ahem - rather unboatly; I sprayed them with barnacle remover and gave them a good scrubbing, - et voila.

Fizzing around

Just went to TYC to have a look around... Had a nice chat with Ana, said hi to Dutch and decided to go fizzing with Liv... After some fiddling with the Fizz we figured out there was another windsetter nearby - messing up our wind. Who need 25 knots for a relaxed afternoon sail?

Sailing south

Eventually we figured out how to "override" it, and we sat a course for Blake. Sails up and away we went... Turns out Ana was right: The Fizz works quite well, now that the SL platform has caught up with it in terms of computing power.

Smooth sailing

We kinda raced though neither of us said so; Probably we were equally rusty on the delicate details of Fizz-trimming. Here it says 4.7knots, but it maxxed at 5.4. Sometimes it stayed at 5.3 for a while. It takes precision steering to find the sweet spot, which is a bit hard to do while taking pictures.

Crash and burn

Not everything is perfect, so my boat crashed while I was taking pictures and at the same time crossing a sim border. Bang! I sat at the seafloor - still hiking. So I had to TP out of there and get me a new boat. Chose a slightly older version - for stability... different paintjob too.

Race rock in sight

Liv was already rounding the race rock when I had it in sight, so we yelled hi as we passed... Me round the rock and back up north trying to catch Liv. She's not that easy to catch as she probably spent way more time in the Fizz...

There it is

The race rock looked like it's good ole self. Some things never change. However the wind did, so I had to beat upwind to get back home. Eeew.

Hiking up north to get back to TYC

Eventually I gave in and TPed to Liv; She was just south of TYC, so I flew back home and took a landing shot.

Mind the pier

And here she is... landing at the pier at Tradewinds Yacht Club after a nice sail; In the same boat all the way. Such a nice ride round the Blake, and yes... the Fizz isn't easy, but it is still worth a try or two. Amazing since it's from 2007. Not entirely sure when I discovered it, but here's my first post with the Fizz... back in 2010. That post is my second post ever. I think the Fizz 3 came into existence in 2009. Or thereabouts...

Sizzling Fizzes

There was a training session last nigth. Sizzling hot Fizzes all over the Fizzcup course including me. However, my sizzling stopped several times, as I was caught more than once in gusts I couldn't handle. In a Fizz that means getting in the drink. End of sizzle. I didn't have time to take pictures of me swimming, but luckily I wasn't the only thirsty sailor. Here's Bea climbing onboard again...

Bea in the drink

It is a lovely course with loads of local variations in wind, currents and waves, but yesterday I hated it. First of all I hate those waves. I still find it rather difficult to sail in - or is it on - virtual waves. I am pretty fast on flat water, but I haven't cracked the virtual waves in SL. Where I should be doing 6.5 knots upwind, half the time those idiotic waves pushed me off course, and since the wind was pretty strong that meant healing too much, which in turn made me loose speed.

The Fizzcup 2014 course

To makes things worse it has gusts and local variations. On the left side of the course there are strong winds. I saw that on the first beat, so I went there on the downwind... gennaker up and me and my Fizz made 12+ knots, wooohooo. But then came a gust, and as I tried to gybe I went swimming. Twice. Dunno how they did it, but some of the others seemed to be able to handle it. Maybe they waited a bit longer before they gybed. I probably gybed right under the red arrow. Don't. Unless you are really thirsty.

A much needed break

After a race like that a short break is needed. Loads of boat talk flying across. Just like RL. Love that. Also a few "excuse me's" were passed on. I for one decided to tack right after the start, but my tack was far from perfect so I rammed into a SB boat. Eeeks how embarrassing. Better keep a better lookout to windward next time.

Silber in perfect balance

Back on track. Here's Silber in perfect balance just a few minutes after a start. It seems Silber is always fast not matter what the conditions. Kinda like in RL. There are those who are known to fly in low winds. There are those who always win in waves and strong winds. Then there are those locals that read the currents better or know just the right track with better wind angles. Silber, she is just always up there. Gosh, I need more training time. Burt was fast too. He's in the blue boat right behind Silber.

Those gybing experts in action

On this next shot Silber has been overtaken. Happens a lot in these races. In one of the races last night we saw some very impressing close racing. The first upwind and the two next legs had three top contenders sailing within just a few boatlengths all the way. Now that's not just about trim and balance. When it is that close it is also about keeping your cool and knowing the rules of close combat. I don't have shots of that, because I was struggling with the aforementioned waves.

Close race

Here's a finishing photo from race 1 in which I didn't sail. That's how close it is most of the time. Last night we were just around 10 boats on the course. Next saturday there will be 16. Whooohooo. It's gonna be a busy time on the RD boat. Very busy. I can hardly wait... It's gonna be some Fizz Cup. This course here calls for expert sailing. I may have hated the course yesterday, but truth is I love it because it is so difficult.

Expert Fizzin

What a day for some Fizz cruising... Despite the palms this is somewhere in the North Sea. We're trying out the Fizz with most of the quirky details. Started in novice mode, stepped up a few times and here we're in expert mode, and we're doing great.

Rev and me in the North Sea

It usually takes a bit of practice sailing like this. Two people balancing the boat, trimming a sail each by watching the telltails, - and adjusting the power. The jib has sheets and traveller, whereas the main has sheet and outhaul. Some find it challenging and can't get enough. Others find it to way too complicated.

I like

If you are so lucky as to have someone on board that "gets it", it's the funride of the month. Sailing the Fizz in expert mode requires teamwork or you'll be in the drink before you can spell coordination. This ride was so much fun, and we only got dipped once. Thanx Rev. I enjoyed every minute of it.

What is a Flying Fizz anyway?

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a boat! And the hull is a rather important part of a boat. Here's three different ones. They look alike, but they're really quite different. One is sculpted, two are meshed, so they weigh in differently.

Front view

From this angle they appear to be very identical. There are slight differences in the smoothness of the hull. The boat on the right seems to need a bit of fairing. Boat two has some kind of difference on the edge... it is as if the overhang is smaller or missing even...

Top view

The top view shows almost identical shapes, length, beam and sidedeck. The middle boat seem to have a more slender bowsprit. Oh, and there is a windex at the mast top. Woohooo. Visible wind. It appears that boat number two is missing that "traction-tape" on the side where you sit.

Side view

Let's check the mast rake with a side view; Hmm. Rather identical. Whatever happened to that weird island in the back I dunno. Again, boat number three seems to need some fairing. Maybe the shrouds are a bit too fat on boat three too. Detail, details, details...

Fizzin...

I haven't been online much these past many months, but a few days ago I heard about a Fizz race this saturday. Since winter is nearing I thought I'd go and have a look. Wasn't really planning on racing; Too rusty for that. This is what it looked like:

Checking out the competition

I couldn't sit still. Seven boats at the line; Really nice up/down course with a few islands thrown in here and there. Local windshifts and a bit of current too. (Thanx Jere). The top three competitors had quite a bit of close race including several rule 20 situations. I think I watched two races and then I couldn't resist anymore.

Start

I rezzed my trusty old Blue Shark Fizz and joined the fun. At that time several other Fizzers arrived, so we ended up being nine boats at the line. Wooohoo. This felt like boat racing. The RD yelled "RDY" and started the countdown. I grabbed a coffee and checked the windsock at the startingline for advantages. Not a good thing. I lost the start, and it bothered me that I couldn't figure out what really happened.

Top mark rounding

After the race I asked about the windsock, and sure enough: It was out of order. Whatever windshift I thought I saw there, - it wasn't real. Next time I'll check the wind with the built-in compass. And there will be a next time, because omg, omg, OMG! This was fun. So many things to think about. There seemed to be less wind on port side of the track, and I totally forgot the polar for downwind. Had to experiment a bit there before I nailed it.

Downwind is fun too

There was also a hefty meeting at the top mark where a port tack boat crossed in between two starboard boats that were both fetching the mark. A risky maneuver, but it was done with so much finesse and elegance - noone even yelled anything. (Nice one Joro). Actually, I think I was holding my breath. Despite the far from good start, I managed to hang on, pass a few boats on the upwind leg and another on the downwind, so I came in as boat nummer three. Woohoooo. I better find my race gear and do this more often.

PS: No, my boat isn't on the pics. I was way too busy sailing. The pics are from the first two races or so. Before I joined. Here's what the Blue Shark looks like.

PPS: The results are in the forum. Thanx (again) Jere; I see the second place was just 1 second away. Bear with me, but I am gonna have to do one more wooohooo :-D

A quantum leap

These pictures were taken just a few days - if not one day - after the first sailing session with Rich in the Baby Sloop II. Talk about a leap forward...

Bad trim, bad balance

Here we are, - not perfectly balanced and those telltails aren't excactly indicating supertrim, but it's work in progress. We're in novice mode, which means steering and sheet trimming by the helmsman. 

Next mode adds balancing: Both sailors can move about and influence the heeling.

Good trim, bad balance

We didn't get to the next mode aka Competition Mode. Instead here's a shot where the telltails look really good. The balance is not perfect, but hey... We're in novice mode, so we're not responsible for the balance, remember :-D

Bad trim, good balance

In this picture we've got the balance right, but now the trim is less than optimal. The windward telltail says too tight or sumthing... hard to tell from this angle. Anyway, it was fun sailing, and it is always nice to see the smile grow wider everytime something new about sailing is discovered, understood and put to work.

Here's more on the Flying Fizz telltails, and here's more on the Flying Fizz.

What's that?

I just saw these "spy-shots" a few days ago, and my immediate thought was: OMG! Is that a real live Flying Fizz??

Real?

So let's quiz... What do you think? Is it a real live Flying Fizz?

Fake?

Is it just a couple of photoshopped pictures?

Something else?

Or is it something entirely different that just happens to look a lot like a Flying Fizz?

What's' it gonna be?
1) A real Fizz
2) A fake picture
3) Something else

If you are unsure what a Flying Fizz is, then click the category Flying Fizz below here or see this post.

Let's go for a Fizz

Well Baby, this is it!

The fastest Fizzers

The results of the Fizz Cup Finals already well known. So just for completeness and for reference: The fastest Fizzers are: Ralf80 Titanium, Ronin Zane, Ayahoshi, Jeremia Spotter, Yumiko Sideways and Iteke - in that order. Woots! The full results are available on the Fizz Cup site. Interesting to see the Master Fizz Magician Jeremia beaten by his apprentice.

Just sailing

Sadly, I was not able to watch the finals, but Orca covered the finals with a really nice post with loads of great pictures. It looks like a great day on the water, and that's what I hear too. The sailors did great, and lets not forget the RD and all her officials; They did a fantastic job making this event run so smooth. So here's a "Woots" for the RD and her team.

Fizz Cup Finals

Don't miss the Fizz Cup Finals. They're about to happen this very weekend. Silver-final on friday. Gold final on saturday. The precise schedule is available on the official Fizz Cup website. Here's a link. If you don't know what a Flying Fizz is, then look at the picture:

A Flying Fizz

Not enough for you, then check some of the features of the Flying Fizz here, here and here. The Flying Fizz is not the easiest boat to sail, nor is it easy to sail fast. However, it has unmatched sailing characteristics and trimming options. That's probably why it stays popular among keen sailors and racers.

Fizz Cup Qualifications

There was some serious fizzin going on in the Blake Sea this last weekend. The Fizz Cup 2013 Qualifications was held, and from what I saw and heard, it was a pretty good sailing weekend. Regretfully, I was only able to watch group 1, but the results of all three groups are available on the official Fizz Cup 2013 site. (Link at the bottom).

Ralf crosses first

The shot above shows what we saw most of the time in group 1. Ralf80 Titanium was just faster. He had one race with a crash, but other than that, his results are pretty convincing: Four firsts and a DNF. From the spectator platform it looked pretty simple. Ralf80 pinched better and he had better boatspeed. That's hard to beat.

The spectator platform

Here's one of the spectator platforms. This one is located behind the startline. There was another one to the south (right on the picture), and there was yet another one up at the top mark. The spectator platforms were very nice. Dicely decorated with flags, giant charts of the two qual courses and ofcourse the Fizz Cup 2013 trophies. The only thing missing was a beer dispenser in the corner; To set the mood...

Action

Here's a shot right after the start. Ralf80 wasn't always the first to cross the line, but if you have a boatspeed advantage that's really not important. In a fleet this small you can always find clean air and simply outspeed the others.

The courses were not straight up/downs. They both had a little twist, but they were pretty straight forward to sail. No need for a navigator. That would be fun though. Perhaps that's a future thing to do: Set up a course that's so complicated you need a navigator. The courses used in the qualifications are avaible at official site, and if you chech the results page, you will see lap and course times;

Obstacles

The SL coastguard was in place with numerous helicopters and surface ship,. Dunno if they have subs. I never saw a SLCG sub. Anyway, there were few problems with "moving obstacles" on the course, but I did snap this picture in the first round. This guy crossed the course at full speed and cut the fleet in halfs. Not a pretty sight. Sadly he was moving so fast I couldn't catch his name.

Ralf in the fast lane

Something else was moving fast. Here's another shot right after the start. Again, Ralf80 is in the fast lane. Slightly ahead and in a very good position. Iteke up there to windward will have a hard time hanging on. Not only is there the psych-factor, but she absolutely needs to keep pinching. The Fizz has windbend like a real boat, so if she sails just a little bit lower for a few seconds she will be in trouble.

Bottom mark

That's probably what happened. She fell down into the windbend and it was game over. Here's a shot of the bottom mark rounding. Iteke rounds second, but Ralf80 is already far ahead, sailing his own race at his own pace, completely free to choose whichever path he finds optimal.

Iteke wins the start

However, Iteke did make a couple of really good starts, and if she finds just a little bit more speed, she will be a factor in the finals. Here's a great shot of Iteke starting first. Not that you can see the others. They must have lost their nerve. They're simply not there.

The others try to catch up

Here are the other boats crossing seconds later. Most of them. The last boat was further away from the line. So, not only did Iteke win the start. With a positioned like that she should be in total control of he race and in particular of Ralf80. He is sailing the red boat slightly behind and to leeward. A few starts like that and a bit more boat speed, and those final races will be very exciting to watch.

The other two groups? I didn't watch them, but from the results it seems they also had one dominating boat. I guess someone will be out looking for speed these next few weeks. This is regular sailboat racing; Great sailing and suer duperly organized by Silber and her crew. The only thing missing is the seaspray.

Link to the official Fizz Cup 2013 site.

Fizz Cup Teaser II

Fizz Cup teaser

Here's a couple of never  before published pictures from the Fizz Cup 2012; As a teaser for the Fizz Cup 2013. Here we are in the back of the picture between those two islands. The RC boat and a handfull of eager Fizz Fanatics waiting to get started.

Fizz Cup 2012 seen from a Loonetta

These pics are from the finals. Can't remember what day it was, but that's not important. The important things are the mood, the pulse, - the Fizz spirit... Virtual boat racing at its best.

Ready?

Here's me and Liv ready to start the action. As you can see, it was a really nice day for a boat race. That boat out there will have to hurry back to the starting area, because Liv will start the timer in a minute or so.

Now, we're ready!

It's just like real racing... if the sailors think the RD will wait for everyone to be at the startline before starting the countdown, then they'll never ever be at the startline at the same time. There is only one thing to do: Fire the gun and start the timer no matter what. They'll simply have to learn to stay close to the RC boat.

Boom - as in bang

Here's the fleet right after the gun. The gun shot - right at the start - is the one I posted a almost a year ago in the post with the results. It is right here: Fizz Cup 2012, Finals. That shot is an indication of what was about to happen. Of what we would see over the next few races.

Silber fighting for first place

Silber Sands was having a really good day at sea. She won the cup with an impressive series of 1-2-1-1-3. The image above shows that there was actually a fight for the first place. However, she did come around that buoy in a better way than Ronin.

Still fighting

Here we are at the next mark. There's still a fight for the first place. Ronin may be shaken but he is not (yet) beaten. The racing was quite intense, but Silber was faster.

Any protests?

After each race there's a short (bio) break, and we also ask if there are any protests that we need to deal with. In this case there were no protests, so we were ready for the next race.

Prestart

The clock is ticking. There's less than 30 seconds to the start, and here's me and Liv looking at the prestart action. Silber is not in "pole position", but she is accelerating. Just check the angle at which she is sailing up there to windward. Question is: Will there be enough space for her at the pin or will she be locked out.

Silber got away

I dunno precisely what happened here, but it seems Silber got away. This shot is just 45 seconds after the start, and Silber is already on top of the fleet. I cannot remember if there was a cross line current that  day, but that could have created the necessary space between the pin and the fleet for her to get a good start.

Ralf on the hunt

Again, there was a good fight. Here's the fleet pretty much together rounding a mark in the Blake Sea. Silber is in front, but the pack is close behind. Well, most of the pack. One boat has fallen behind. Ralf Titanium was faster on the last few legs of the course, so he took the first place in this race.

Silber starting first again

In the next race Silber was really in the mood. Check this start! Apparently Silber was the only one who saw the windshift right before the start. The picture shows a textbook example of a port side start. Very nice. Noone could catch her in this race.

The Champ on top of the fleet

I could go one, but this post is already rather lengthy. This last picture says it all. The champ comfortably on top of the fleet. That's what we saw on this lovely racing day. Congrats to Silber Sands. Brilliant sailing out there. Don't miss the Fizz Cup 2013. It's gonna be awesome.