Flying Shadow launched

So the Flying Shadow was launched. If you dunno what it is, it's a two-seater foiling cat; The virtual edition of the RL Flying Phantom. Here's a few shots from the launch. This first one is just people waiting for Dutch to start his speach ;-)

The wait

Quite a crowd showed up. In fact there were so many of us that I lost count. Time and opportunity for interesting boat talks. Anyway, when Dutch finally began speaking he didn't say much. It almost sounded like he was tired of boatbuilding; That's understandable. The Flying Shadow is a remarkable boat in several ways. It must have been hard work.

The speach

After a few crude sentences from the builder, there was announcments of a Flying Shadow club, regular races, a possible clubhouse and probably merchandise too, but I crashed out; I guess the sim overloaded or something. Didn't hear the whole thing, and to be honest I'd much rather hear the builder talk about the building process and all the inherent frustrations in building such a boat.

Flying

So what's so friggin special about this boat? Since the builder didn't bother to tell us, I'll give you my few cents on the subject. It's not the first cat in this virtual world. It's not the first foiling boat either. It isn't even the first foiling cat; We all saw those crazy boats in the Americas Cup. So what's the deal here... Is the Flying Shadow any different from a Nacra 17? Yes, the Nacra flies too... it just doesn't in our little virtual pond.

Details, details, details

Well, the graphics are superb. Nothing less. It's just so precise and delicious. It started with the Laser or was it the VO70?? Somehow I get the feeling that Dutch has taken the graphics to a new level here. There are sheets and trimlines all over, and the hulls and the sails look very nice; But we're getting used to that quality from the Mesh Shop. This time the real snacks are in the small details such as the working carbon  jib traveller, the super nice mainsheet traveller, the user interface and it's options.

Perfect balance

The boat must be balanced to go at it's fastest. Both sailors take part in that. There are main and jib/genakker to trim. Both sailors can do that, simultanously. Plus you need to handle those daggerboards, keep a lookout and steer precisely. Especially the lookout is important; Going 25 knots makes things approach kinda fast. Things as in other boats and islands. And it's fun. It's like a sailboat on steroids blasting it's way down south and across the Blake Sea in only a couple of minutes. I am pretty sure the polar implementation is good enough to make downwind sailing interesting too, but that remains to be seen.

The sail engine itself is a BOSS 3.0; It is yet another step up from the BWind 2.5. I'd call it a supercharged next-gen BWind of sorts.  It's been morphed from 2.0 into 2.5 and then into something much more advanced than the original BWind. The BOSS 3.0 is a very fast, very capable and very responsive sail engine. It handles sim crossings extremely smooth. Even at crazy 25 knots it seems to blast past those dreaded sim borders without taking much notice. That is truly amazing.

Checkout from the launch party

So there... in reality the Flying Shadow is just a modded Nacra. However, in our virtual waters it is
one of a kind. It sails great, it looks great and it is great fun; It is kinda easy to sail, but I am sure it will turn out to be difficult to sail well. Plus the graphics details are superdelicious. Did I mention it's super fun to sail? I didn't? Ok, here goes: It's super fun to sail... Sounds like the perfect weekend project: Figure out the Flying Shadow... I'm in. Cheers...

Is it a bird, a plane or a rocket?

None of the above... It's tomorrow! This is the latest, greatest, fastest and the most advanced yet from Dutch. It's the Flying Shadow...

When tomorrow comes...

OMG it's fast! I almost wet my pants sailing this... See the real thing here. See it inworld tomorrow. Launch at 2pm SLT, Dutch Harbour. (That's 2300CEST)

Foiling in the AC62

It seems today everybody is sailing the AC62. The virtual one that is. I am not really sure what the fuzz is all about. We've seen a thirty-something for tests, the AC45er is there, and obviously we've seen the 72 footer too. The 62 footer should really just be a shrunken 72er, no?

BobbieLin and me checking out the AC62

It's a good looking cat. It's a beta, but not just any beta. Supposedly it is the final beta. Me, I think there's too many problems with the shrouds for a final beta, but I am not really into mesh. Perhaps it's a super-easy fix. Dunno. While still moored the shrouds are nicely aligned with the mast anyway.

Top view

While the AC62 is smaller than the AC72 it is still pretty tall as can be seen on the above picture. There are two dots on the ground. BobbieLin on land and me in the cockpit. Hardly visible. Nuff talk. Lets fly...

Cats do fly...

If there is a manual I didn't read it, so it took me a couple of minutes to figure it out. It started out sailing on SL wind. It's been a while since I tried that. Somehow I managed to set the wind to east and the windspeed to 30. Dunno if that's knots, but I hope it isn't meters per sec. The sheets can be adjusted quite alot, so the wing easily ends up outside the usable angles of attack, i.e. windangle. So beware... there's not alotta speed in this thingy if the wing is 90 degrees to the sailing direction.

...and they can fly both ways!

If winged correctly these boats are fast. The high speed generates so much relative wind that the wing is operated within a pretty narrow range of (apparent) wind angles; Somewhere between close hauled and beam reach. The foiling comes easy. We almost foiled instantly, once I got the wing trimmed, and we stayed up there. In fact it is surprisingly easy to get her foiling; Tacking and gybing while staying up is a challenge.

Speeding is allowed

Speeds are incredible. Unreal actually. We made 50 knots easily. I didn't check cause I was busy steering and trimming, but BobbieLin kept yelling "50 knots is unreal". I absolutely to agree. I mean, we were not sailing in a storm, and most of the time the jib wasn't even unfolded.

Super duper speedy flying critters all over

Sadly the grid was very bad today. Numerous sims were offline, so we could just take off, get foiling and withing 30 seconds... boom - we'd hit the border of an offline sim. Rather annoying. After a couple of hits I even heard myself shouting foul words. The few simborders we did manage to cross - they seemed to work out pretty good.

Tradewinds to the lee

The overall performance seems good. The boat reacts swiftly to rudder changes and a bit less swiftly to wing trim, but I suppose that's to be expected with a wing this size. Balancing - we were able to move around - that seemed to have minor influence on the sailing. The only real problem seems to be the speed. As with the 45er and the 72er - the virtual oceans simply aren't big enough. In a split second you'd have crossed our biggest ocean in here. Also, even on a very fast computer and line we'd hit stuff that we couldn't see. The system simply could not rez it (put it on screen) before we hit it. Loads of clear water ahead, then boom... stuck in the middle of an applefarm with no warning what so ever. What fun...

see ya laterz

That's not the builders fault. It's a good boat. It is supereasy to get it foiling, and I hope we can find the space to sail it. While we can afford it and probably sail in our little virtual world, I am more curious how much cheaper the 62 footer will be compared to the 72 footer. Will there be a significant difference? Cutting just over 10 percent of the costs will probably not give us lots more teams in the next round of the AC Circus, will it?

Flying Catfish

A few weeks back I was at NYC. Don't really remember why, but it's a beautiful place. Reason enough I guess. Anyway, I walked around a bit, and in the shop I saw yet another cat for sale. It was positioned like todays bargain, right in my face, and since there was a test version, I took it for a spin.

The Flying Catfish 33

So here it is. Doesn't look too bad, right? The sign didn't say anything about the age, but once rezzed it was pretty obvious that this old cat was in bad need of a makeover. It's from 2007 or so. In SL a couple of years is a long time. Look again and note the strange keels on the hulls. Also there is a pretty weird finn between the keel and the rudder blade.

Details

There's a lot of good details though; Check the image above. Lines, winches and furling genoa. The mast however, it appears to be a little too massive for a cat. It's more like a mast from a 30 foot keeler buildt in the sixties or sum ding. All in all it looked a little too heavy for me to handle, so I called Orca. Luckily she was glad to help out.

It sails

So we took off. Sailed around the Blake Sea for a few minutes. Mostly in silence. Then we looked at each other with disbelief. Really not worth sailing. I mean, it sails. It's trimmable, there's a wake, there's a genn and that's about it. There's flat sails, no sounds, no waves and current. Not very exciting compared to the Hepcat and the Nacra17

To the untrained eye

So the sailing isn't really up to date. The looks aren't either. This is one of those elderly boats that look great, provided you look at it from just the right angles, but when you change the angle only a little bit, weird details pop up. On top of that the positions in which we can sit are... Let's just say some of them look kinda unnatural.

Orcs takes pics

There's also the usual suspects: No compass, no windvane, no telltales. Not that they are present on  those modern cats. Conclusion? Don't spend you money and time on this one. It's a experience of a lifetime, but it's a bad one. Not worth repeating. While this boat might have been good in it's day, it's really a mystery why NYC choose to still place it as a premium product in the shop.

Here's Orcas' few notes on the experience...

Virtual Nacra 17 Racing

Here's a handfull of cool thoughts and hot shots from the first Tradewinds race with the fantastic virtual Nacra 17 from Dutch Kain. Tadah. This took place yesterday at 2pm SLT at Tradewinds, and I was there as part of my on going cat therapy.

Waiting for  the clock to start ticking

Here we are, beautiful boat, beautiful sailing day, right south of Tradewinds, waiting for the clock to start ticking. None of us felt very confident sailing the Nacra, and one even capsized before we got started. Ofcourse Dutch was smiling from ear to ear. He's had way more hours in this boat than any of us.

Windcheck

The wind was 15 knots from a northly direction, and that usually means nice, flat water south of Tradewinds. The wind had a tendency to favour a port side start. I couldn't feel it because my hairdryer driver failed to work on 64bits windows, but pointing the cat told me 12 degrees.

Measuring wind angles

I sailed around the starting area and took notes of the angles on port and starboard upwinds. This is not a WWC boat; There's no shadowing, no current and no wave simulation, but it does come with some sort of global wind variations.

Racing

So off we went. For some reason Dutch had chosen a five minute starting sequence, so I was struggling with my watch. It was preset to three minutes. That's what we usually use in SL, or at least that's what I had used last. Timing the start is pretty important here, since the boat picks up speed like a rocket. If you're not at the line when the gun goes off, then you'll never catch the leaders.

Landed

Now! There are certain rules to take into account. For instance, you always let the designer win the first race in a new boat. That didn't make Dutch smile any less, when he came first. I came second, and I swiftly switched to relaxation mode, so that the third boat could "see just how long we had waited. Like 20 seconds, teehee. You can see the clock there, saying 09:27 for third place.

Different BWinds

That's when Becca sailed by in her BWind 2.0 Baby Sloop. In the back, to the right. The Baby Sloop is the  basis for many virtual boats in SL, - including the Nacra 17. The BWind must have been tweaked quite a bit by Dutch to make it work in a cat with two people on board.

Tasha and me

We sailed another race, and Dutch won again. This time he was just plain lucky. Ok, so maybe he knows in details at what angles the boat can carry the genn and I don't. So maybe he was just a bit faster at hoisting that genn. Still, I got off to a better start, but this boat is so fast the virtual world has trouble appearing in due time. I saw nothing but water and boom! I was in the middle of a building. Talk about a set back. I needed help, so Tasha hopped on board.

Last race

We did good, and here we are, - landing in a little over seven minutes. Not too bad, but Dutch did better with Ana on bord; Probably because she is so skinny. As you can see above, - Tasha and I could easily lift one of the hulls out of the water, but it was the wrong hull, the lee hull. Duh! The daggerboards work much better, when lifting the windward hull, so no more icecream for me...

Finally, on top of Dutch

As you can see, there's lots to work with; Genn, trim, balance, timing, steering, and the crew can help trimming via the hud. This calls for coordination. More than once both Tasha and I typed genn almost simultaneously resulting in the genn flipping up and down, hehe. We had huge fun. Don't miss out when the gun goes off on friday for another few rounds of Nacra action. More Nacra 17 racing tips...

My cat therapy? I just stopped sneezing whenever I see a cat.

Wildcat therapy

I never really cared much for cats. Somehow they don't fit into the category of real boats. However, this whole AC craze is putting giant cats on my radar like never before. Like it or not, those cats are now everywhere. Jane Fosset once wrote: Weird plastic critters skittering across the water. Gotta love that description.

A weird plastic bug...

However, windsurfers don't fit in the real boat category either, and windsurfing is huge fun. Sadly, virtual windsurfing is far from being an interesting simulation. It's a very physical thing, and the physical aspects are hard to replicate into a virtual world. Besides, the waves in SL are - uhm - wavesurfing isn't really there. Not a problem for cats though. They prefer flat waters...

...skittering across the flat waters of SL

Now, where was I going with this? Ahh! Cat sailing can be fun too. If you've followed my scriblings, I suppose you knew that. I had great fun with the Hepcat; I kinda liked the Wildcat35, and lately the Nacra17 has gotten a lot of attention. In fact, I've received complaints that the Nacra17 gets too much attention.

The Wildcat 45

This here is the Wildcat 45. It's a pretty wild thing. It is big, it is detailed, it is fast and it is fun. It might not have totally realistic sailing engine, but it is much better than the predecessor 35er, which had a somewhat strange interpretation of apparent wind. However, the most interesting thing about it is the trimmable wing and the adjustable flap. That's pretty close to the real thing:

The wing and the flap

If you wanna go wing sailing, the Wildcat 45 is probably one of the best options if not the best available on the virtual sailing scene. It is not just a toy. Work must be done to sail it well. Besides the steering, there's a flap to adjust, and it is also possible to move around to optimize the heeling angle, i.e. lift the windward hull out of the water. 

Steering and trimming...

Here's the virtual sailors: Me trimming and Erasmus deeply fokused on the steering. At least that's what he said :-D 

... to maintain high speed

Looks pretty good, right? There's a lotta detail on this boat. Sheets and lines run everywhere, and the wake is pretty good too. Scroll back a few shots and you see there is also a genakker. The speed sensation is there too, but the steering appeared a littlebit too computergamish to me. It felt like shifting directions in small abrubt moves, - not a smooth linear curve. Perhaps it was just Erasmus being new to the boat, I dunno.

More trimming

One thing I noticed though. It seems the AC45 is relatively slow at turning, almost like a real cat, and that's a nice touch. Again, I really cannot tell if it was Erasmus being new to the boat, but it seemed to be a good and realistic implementation of the turning angle versus sailing speed. For details on the performance, polars and stuff see Janes take on the Wildcat.

Cat-ch a bird?

Overall this is a fun & wild cat and it loves to sail at high speeds. I won't compare it to the Nacra17, because they are very different. However, they're both huge fun to sail. They both require work to sail fast, and they both require the crew to work a bit; Also, they both seem to miss out on WWC features such as currents, windshadows and local variations. That aside, I think it is a fun virtual sailboat. Maybe, just maybe, I could learn to like cats better; I just need more virtual cat therapy...  

Nacra 17, racing tips

It happens on friday the 21st: The very first virtual Nacra 17 race. Virtual sailing for cat nutters. It's in Tschotcke at 2pm SLT, that's around 2300CET, and the sweet and lovely Scubabear (ask for a bear hug) will be your RD. It's gonna be a blast...

Inshore cat on the loose

Loads of boats with untrained crews and a weather forecast that says 21 knots from the south east! Wanna bet how many capsizes we will see? I'd say a handfull. Maybe more. Racing a cat like the Nacra 17 in 21 knots of wind is all about finding that sweet-spot just before the boat is overpowered.

Reaching 

Looking for the sweet spot means continuously powering up until it is just a bit too much, then powering down a bit. Miss that last bit and you are fish food. Forget tactics; Being faster is key. Find that sweet-spot, and you're on your way to the  podium. Don't waste energy looking for windshifts. Find the speed. The Nacra does not support windshifts anyway.

When you've found the speed, be aware that there is a slight lee helm to compensate for. The lee helm makes it difficult to stay on optimum trim and direction. It also makes it much harder to see headers and lifts, so better stay alert there...

Looking for that sweet spot

There's other stuff to learn too. Timing. The Nacra 17 is so much faster than a dinghy. The starting tactics is much different from the usual approach. Timing is crucial in order to hit the line right at the gun. Trust me. With these boats you don't wanna be late for start.

On a downwind leg you'll need to pay close attention to the polar. Genakker sailing will enable planing on one hull. Once you get up there, you can send a smile to the rest of the pack. Via the rear mirror.

Have a break, have a...

Another thing to look out for is the tacking and gybing. Cats are way slower at turning; However, it seems that Dutch (the builder) has cheated a bit here. The Nacra turns pretty much like a monohull. Slam and you're over. Hopefully, there will be an update to fix this. And the lee helm.

... Nacra cat

Still, too many tacks will set you back. If not because of the turning, then because of the balance. Getting the balance right, right after a tack also requires timing. In 21 knots of wind two people need to unhook the trapeze, run or crawl over to the other side, hook up and get out at just the right time, when the wind hits the sails. Better hurry out there and do a few tacks...

Update: Orca posted a handfull of nice shots from the event...

Nacra 17, Olympic Class

Today is Nacra 17 day. Woohoo. There's a virtual Nacra 17 out. Not only is it an Olympic class,  it's also a  absolute beauty, very true to the original and, - it's a total blast to sail. Here it is, me in trapeze, Dutch Kain, the builder, at the stick:

Nacra 17: Perfect for sunset sailing

I've been waiting for this for some time now, and I am so happy it is finally here. It's not that I am a total cat-nutter, but this cat here, - it's truly gorgeous. Besides, under certain conditions cats can be fun to sail. Perhaps it is just too cold for cats where I live my real life. Dunno. In any case, diversity is good.

A cat for dog-lovers

This cat here would make any dog-lover convert. In fact, I'm pretty sure it will make most singlehull sailors go: "Wauw, I simply gotta try that". The best thing though, unlike certain other cats, this one is affordable and sailable for ordinary people with a normal biceps and budget.

Cat sailing is bikini sailing

It comes fully equipped with main, jib and genakker, bow spirit, curved daggerboards, trapez gear and what nuts cat stuff; It is dead-easy to sail and fast: Action guaranteed! Whether it is dead easy to sail optimally is another story; When we get the virtual Nacra 17 racing class going, we will see about that.

Genakker

While we're almost sailing naked, the Nacra 17 has lotsa clothes to put on. So let's see her wearing that big evening dress aka the genakker; Boom! She takes off like a rocket. This is not really an evening dress... if anything it's more of an outfit for speed-dating, hehe. Perhaps the colour could be a little more on the naughty side. Why not smashing pink? These days white sails are mostly for classic beauties, right?

Speeding 

The boat is built with love and great attention to details. There are a few missing things, though. It's the usual suspects: The Windvane, the compass and the telltails. However, the information is available on a hud. Problem solved, - though I don't line sailing by numbers. There is also a refreshingly easy to understand hud for moving, trimming and hoisting sails.

Details, details details

The picture right above here shows the details of the trapez-lines. On the other side of the sail it appears as if the trapez is hooked right onto my bikini top, and it is. That might just be the sailing gear of the future! I've always thought those trapeze harnesses looked silly. I hereby claim copyright on the kevlar enforced bikini top with built in trapeze hook. I call it: The Brateze (c).

Mouselook sailing

Here's a shot of what I see from the trapez. That's why mouselook sailing is important. It makes you feel like you're onboard a real boat. You can look in any direction by moving the mouse. Just as you would in RL. Continuously check to windward for shifts and waves, then check the telltails, the windvane and the compass. 1, 2, 3, 4. That's the easiest recipy for winning. Four simple repeated steps.

Topless sailing requires tropical conditions

Oh, and check your trapeze hook too. It's very important. On the image above, Dutch just unwillingly "left" the boat. Just to annoy him I dropped my top and sailed on. Left him swimming the blue soup for a few minutes before I returned, top back on, to pick him up, teehee. 

A bit of relaxing...

Well, that's about it for todays episode of "Unexpected Fun With Cats". If you're a cat-person, then do check my adventure with the Hepcat. I'd better talk to Dutch about setting up a line of gadgets and accessories for this baby, including my brand new invention, the combined Bra and Trapeze, the Brateze (c). I kinda like that word, hehe.

Brateze (c): Using the bikini top as the trapeze harness

I'll be back with details on the sailing characteristics, if I can find the time. Very briefly: The Nacra 17 has a derived BWind sailing engine of sorts. It is great fun to sail, while it still lacks telltales, vane, currents, waves and shifts; Right now my compass points towards tree, gifts, cleaning, food, Christmas cards. Phew. Busy times ahead. Have a great weekend all you cat-people...

See the real Nacra 17 here.

Update: Jane's posted a few details on the sailing characteristics.