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.

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.

A beauty at sea

I took the Trudeau One for a spin in the Caribbean yesterday, and what a lovely day it was. The Trudeau One is, like its RL counterpart the IOD, not only an extremely well designed and built boat; She sails well too. Perhaps sim crossings aren't her favourite, but the sailing itself... Whoa! Take a look:

Me and my One in the Carribean.

It is not just the hull and the mast that are NVR, Near Virtual Reality. The sails curve like real sails, and they luff, if you are being sloppy on the sheet. The boat heels as expected, and to retain good speed you must compensate by moving you and your crew around. There is also a nice spinnaker; When it is up , it looks really nice. When it is down, you can relax on the spinnaker-bag in the front. Just add a cold beer, and it really doesn't get any better.

A flyby in the Trudeau One.

Even the hud is designed to match the boat. No ugly numbers there, only analog displays and a few buttons to adjust the sailing; Now, one might argue that a hud isn't realistic. While that is true, the concept of a hud enables mouselook sailing. I therefore suspect the One is ready for primetime racing too, but perhaps the racers prefer more modern boats. What a pity.

The beautiful Trudeau One.

The Caribbeans was fun to sail, but it doesn't seem to be made for sailing. I had difficulties finding a harbour and a rez spot. Many places the water is so narrow - between two islands - that you gotta steer continuously in order to keep from running aground. Two boats won't fit in at once. On top of that, there are "no entry" zones reaching into the water around several islands. The scenery is nice, as you can probably see. With little variation, though, so if you hate coconut islands, go sail somewhere else.