One World Regatta, finals

We had four beautiful races at the One World Regatta finals. Pure sailing with few crashes, and few protests. Here's a few shots from the race. First one shows our team in pursuit; We have the black sails. These helicopter shots are really great for seeing windshifts on the course, btw.

Momomos in pursuit...

Bunnie (in the red boat) went off like that twice... winning the start is important, no matter if you race in SL or in RL, and Bunnie clearly demonstrated that. Below you see Bunnie - again in the lead. Quite comfortably.

Momomos still in pursuit.

Spin up and go get. Unfortunately, in the third race our boat had technical difficulties, and that meant four points; Not a total disaster with one throwaway, but I am speculating this pushed Momomos outta balance;

Last race.

I cheered the best I could in the last race, but we ended up on fourth place any way. That gave us a total of 2-2-4-4 = 8p (One discard). Not too bad really, but the other teams were better on this day. Congrats to Bunnie (5p), Armano (6p) and Alain (6p), and again... woots to everybody involved in making the whole One World regatta a reality.

One World Cup Finals

The One World Cup is coming to and end. The finals are today - in less a half hour. At 1700 CET. Be there or be square. I am on team SVC-472, and we're sailing today.

Last minute peptalk.

We are five on the team. Liv, Momomos, Bunta, Nobuko and myself. Today Momomos and Bunta represent us. Above, we are in Momomos boat going over the last details before the finals. 

The four courses used in the final.

Four races will be sailed. Each with a different course; They are shown here. If you need them in more detail, then go to metaverse sailing; Link in the link-list.

Result of the One World quals.

The results of the qualification rounds are amazing. Four teams made it through the quals with perfect score. It is going to be very exciting to see who comes out on top. Woots to Jane and everybody else involved in making all this happen.

Appeal vacated !!?

Unruly, but back on track. The One World Cup is running again. We had great races in round five, and even greater races in round six. Round six was held by Tradewinds Yacht Club. Naturally we wanted our team to do well here, - in our own back yard. We finished in 44 minutes almost 7 minutes ahead of number two. Now, that felt good. I was not able to take pictures whilst sailing, so these pictures are from round 6, the 12 noon SLT heat, where I cojudged. It almost looks like real sailing, huh.

One World at Tradewinds.

Well, the boats are actually closing in on realism. Sitting in a boat you can't feel the heel of course, but you can steer, trim, hike and look around the course from your sitting position to make laylines and stuff like that. It's pretty good. Some boatbuilders claim to use real polars, and a few boats actually behave like it. So it is fun to sail downwind too. The TYC commodore, Liv Leigh, made sure we had fun by requesting lotsa shifts and gusts on the course.

All five of them going downwind.

We protested our heat in round four, because we thought it was not really a boat race but more a race of reboot, relogin and re-anything unsailorish. The process was very strange. There was no protest hearing. Six socalled experienced sailors gathered in some sort of council. Half of these were not in the jury. They were the Cup Organiser, the RD and one more. (EDIT: The RD tells me she was not voting on the dismissal. The cup organizer clearly states the opposite in the appeal.) Anyway, they dismissed the protest - no grounds given, and they immediately offered us the option of appeal. Now, not having a hearing seems a little odd. Not giving grounds for dismissal is strange. Having a council of six sailors including the RD vote, when there are really only three judges assigned to the race... thats weird. Naturally we appealed.

Beating back up.

First the appealing authority choose to focus on fair racing, granting us redress, thus canceling the heat. After a few days I was blackmailed to withdraw the appeal. I said no way; Can't negociate that. Talk to the skipper. Then the appealing authority vacated parts of the ruling. Another team then threatened to pull out, unless the entire appeal was vacated. After a day more, the entire ruling was vacated. The only explanation given was, that the protest should have been dismissed, because we did not protest under the right rule. Strange idea. Rule 61.2 clearly states, what must be in a valid protest, and that does not include a rule. We are allowed to protest, and then not provide a rule until the hearing; Only there was no hearing. Such a  laugh.

Appeal won

We won the appeal. The appealing authority chose to focus on good and fair racing, and so the race is cancelled, and we are all awarded average points. It might not be a perfect solution, but it sure is better than accepting anything as a race. Besides that, this ruling sets the scene for an important discussion on how to regard racing in SL in the future. Should crashes and computer skills determine the outcome, or should racing skills determine who wins. I sure know what I want.

Me relaxing after a crazy week with the protest.

So what is all the fuzz about? First up, we made history. This was the first appeal ever to take place in the history of SL sailing. Secondly, the appeal went directly against the old salts in the protest jury. They were not amused. I have heard things, I will not repeat here. Suffice it to say, I was chocked by the reaction to the result of the appeal. After a few days of hyperventilating the RD and the RCs of the OW started to think rationally again, and they carried on.

Going for a cup of tea.

More importantly the debate is on. How do we define racing. How much computer trouble can cause a cancellation. A few simple tricks from RL can make it all easier. Add a per race sailtime limit; Add a max restarts limit. Add a no starting later than - limit. Counting boatcrashes during race may also work. If all boats have the same amount of crashes, it might be a valid race, but winning the race as the only boat not having a crash... then ur not winning by sailing skills.

Ooops, there's my ride back home to Tradewinds.

There are several schools of sailing in SL. Some people seem to enjoy arcade style sailing, and they even find the fight with computers to be fun. Others seem to prefer a type of racing, where the sailing skill defines the winner. I am not saying either is right or wrong, but we need to establish a common understanding of "foul weather". If we put a sort of definition of good racing in the NOR, plus the time limits mentioned above, then I believe the future will see less protests on bad weather. Those who like reboot-races can do so. Those who like sailboat racing can do so. Let the NOR indicate the type of race.

One World in bad weather

The One World 2011 round four was hit by bad weather. Really bad. Not only did we have numerous restarts caused by system failures, we also saw myriads of in race crashes moving the boats up and down the fleet in random. On top of that, some racers where ghosted, and we also saw boatscripts somehow being unable to run, leaving the boat barely afloat. That type of race should really be cancelled, and it is made possible by rule 32.1.

Waiting for the last boat; My team with Liv in green.

Objections! The conditions are always the same for every team. That may be true, but if the rule of good luck breaks down, the event is no longer a race. It is a lottery, and it is time to call it off. Wasting time like that is no fun, and it clearly hasn't got anything to do with racing. In RL we never crash like that. However, we do have gear breakdowns, and we may have conditions so bad, that fair racing is not possible. Then the race is cancelled.

Finally! After hours of extra time; All finished.

There is no point, no fun, no honour in winning a race sailed under unfair conditions. Not in RL, not in SL.  Anyway, I know Liv protested the race for being unfair. The RC dismissed the protest as being invalid. So Liv filed for an appeal. That's gonna be interesting. Especially since there was no hearing, establishing facts. Besides that, it is probably the first appeal in SL sailing, ever. The issue is quite a killer: Is the sailing in SL to be taken serious? For details on the race, see MetaverseSailing. I will post details of the appeal here.

Oh, about the rule of good luck: Most racers reach a point when they ask themselves "Why does that dude always go faster". The answer is ofcourse, that good racers simply have more luck. Realising that luck comes with training is an important step to take for any serious racer.

Hard Work with a virtual IOD

In a weak moment, I joined the TYC team for the One Regatta. Not that I regret it. Not at all. Its just that - uhm - I have very little experience racing the One, and my boat isn't really optimized for racing. Usually I take my T-One for a relaxing spin. So I decided to do something about it. First up was scraping off all the blue paint. Then came the sanding and the repainting in seven layers. Finally, fine grained (800) sanding, - and she is ready for primetime racing.

Completely refurbished hull.

In a real world scenario, this would have taken several weeks; In a virtual world, it takes about five minutes. I chose the wooden look; It so nice. So realistic in a virtual world, - so unrealistic in a real world, hehe. Now, on with the training. Where's that course Hawk sent me? Ahh... nice one. Looks like 40 minutes of sailing or so. Also looks like some navigation is needed. Hmm. I won't be able to enjoy the view, when I have my eyes on the charts. Here's a view from above to give you an idea...

Workout in the One; Somewhere in Fruit Islands.

Huh! Looks like hard work, right? That sandy beach sure looks nice, except there is no coffee shop or coke machine. In a few days many more T-Ones will pass by, so maybe I should call the owner about a sandwich stand. Anyways, on with it. I had the spin flying for a while. Very nice. It collapses visibly and with sound, if you aren't paying attention. Uhm, at least that's what I read in the manual, hihi.

Nice curvy sails, - though rather flat...

Yesterday I went to Isla Jackinda to get a Leetle Cat II. The entire place was plastered with signs saying "No more flat sails". I like that. In fact, I like it a lot. Realism, ahhh :-D So here's a view up the main on the T-One. A rather nice view, if you ask me. Oh, and note the lovely windvane at the top. This boat can be sailed completely without a hud, but telltales would be nice for precision steering on the race course. And a compass.

Here's more on the Virtual IOD.