Yay for Anne-Marie!

 She did it!

Anne-Marie Rindom wins Olympic Gold

It wasn't easy, but she did it. Best danish female sailor ever! Congrats!!

Paul is gone

Sad times. Paul Elvstrøm has left us for good, and he is now cruising elsewhere. Can't believe it's true. Ever since I was a little kid splashing around in my Opti, Paul Elvstrøm was the master of the sport, the legend of all times, the super-sailor every kid wanted to meet...

Paul as most of us remember him

Despite his busy schedule Paul took time to teach us kids about trim and tactics. We might not have picked it all up; I mean, how much tactics and theory can a 10 year old brain absorb? What I do remember though is his preaching of keen awareness in everything you do. Leave nothing to chance...

Paul won four Olympic golds in succession from 1948 to 1960 plus 13 world championships in 8 different boat classes. The list goes on and on... as he was in the Olympics eight times. The most recent one was in 1988, aged 60, when he sailed the Tornado with his daughter, Trine.

A much younger Paul

Paul took sailboat racing to a whole new level in so many ways. He trained hard - physically - even during winter. He invented the bailer, and he was the first to put hiking straps in his boat enabling him to keep the boat levelled and sail faster in stronger winds. Apart from that he was also able to keep his head out of the boat, - meaning... finding the fastest path around the course.

A true legend has left us, but legends never really die... R.I.P. and see you on the other side, eventually.

Silverrudder, live

Today is Silverrudder day... 400 boats, singlehand racing around the island of Fyn. Probably the worlds largest singlehand race - in my back yard.

Read all about it on the Silverrudder website. Here's a link to the livestream. It's also tracked on tractrac.

Send in the buoys

Soft, big, bouncy and very visible ones. I am talking about buoys here. Race buoys! Buoys that won't bring you to a complete and abrupt stop if you hit them. Buoys that will be pushed aside if you hit them, - as if they were really anchored. Oh, and they should be visible from a big distance.

What'¨s that there?

Here's one I've been playing with. It's nowhere near finished or anything, but it is big, visible and it will slowly seek back to it's position if pushed away from there. 

Takes a bit of balance to do this

What else? Ahh, yes... it should talk to the weather system and display the current as a trail in the water. Just like a real buoy. Maybe even make a huge sound when someone hits it. Anything else? Maybe glow at night?

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

Waiting to start

A few days back I finally found time to race again; Feeling kinda rusty or the virtual racing, now that the Fizz Cup 2013 is coming up. Nevertheless, we had two lovely Laser heats right south of Tradewinds Yacht Club. Nine people showed up at the startline, so the pulse was up. The heat was definately on. Here we are waiting for the countdown to start.

Pulse up

The racing was pretty intense and it was obvious that the Laser is perhaps easy to sail but not that easy to sail fast. I had the misfortune of crashing at least once per race. Quite puzzling. The Laser never ever did that before. However, it caused a bit of a problem. The thing is, once the RD has left the starting area, the racewind is no longer available for a new boat to acquire. I probably need to read the manuals.

Count down

Incidentally I sailed a new version of the Laser with working telltails. Woohoooo. More on that in a future post, but it was nice. Very nice. The Laser itself is a pleasure to sail with or without telltails anyway. Thanx to Iteke for hosting and thanx to the RD; His name has escaped my memory. Great fun on the water.

PS: There's no pics from the races themselves. I was so busy handling my boat, so no time for that. If you want closeups of the boat, then click "laser" right under here, or try this link.

Laser action

Enough talking... Let's see some action. Here's me and Dutch racing a bit; Me pinching, trying to cover...

Pinching

Here's me, fully concentrated on getting max speed out of this thingy. The Laser is extremely lively, so it is imperative to steer and stay focused all the time...

Full speed

... Dutch is doing pretty good too. Stay focused... stay absolutely focused. No looking at the scenery. No looking back. I can hear his bow wake... is he coming closer? Stop thinking and start sailing...

Focus

Eeeek. He's got a little lift there, and maybe - just maybe - I was thinking too much instead of sailing. Hey! Ahoy there!! This here is just about close enough.

That's close enough pal

Ok, so he got away. After all he built this baby, so he should know it better. Not an excuse. Just an explanation, teehee. Nah, I kinda lost focus in sheer excitement over this boat.

Hey! That's far enough pal...

However, there's no reason to give up. Never. never give up. There is always an option to win it back. Something will happen. A lift, a shift, he will make a mistake, a huge bird will land on his boat and drag it down - something will happen... just wait for it.

Working hard, hiking hard

My turn to get a lift. See... The gab is closing; Just a few more minutes of hard hiking and...

Weeeee!

Yes, - I am back on top. This is an absolutely amazing boat... and it isn't even done yet. I am not sure I can possibly imagine how great this will be once finished. This will raise the barre. Virtual sailing in SL will never be the same again.

Still a few details are missing. We already covered the continous sheet loop and the missing traveller in the comments here. I covered the non-carbon blocks in this post. It is not the centerboard, because it is already working. Well, it is sorta working, but only when it wants to. What's left? I wonder if anyone can spot it...

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.

Fizz Cup 2012

Real soon now: Coming to a screen near you! Read all about it on the official site here: Fizz Cup 2012 or check out Liv's blog here: Liv Leigh.

Advanced virtual sailing 

Here's one of the courses. Be there or be square...

The M24 rocket in action

It has always been a great tactic to start first and then continuously increase the gap. It is so much easier to win, when you can freely pick your own optimal route to the next mark. However, this time it was just a little different.

The M24 pocket rocket

I had the experience of sailing with Ronin in the beautiful Melges 24 from Qyv. A truly unreal experience. Don't get me wrong. The skipper was nice and in a good mood. The boat was (is) nice too, but the setup somehow just didn't work for me. It was one of these popular strong wind races...

30 knots in the Blake

Dunno why strong wind sailing is so popular. Gusts approaching thirty knots really should keep people inside with a hot chocolate and a hot date in front of the fireplace. Few average Joes would race in 25 knots of wind; Maybe it is just me... I've had my share of strong wind sailing. Dinghies and keelers. Gear break down. People get hurt. Not pretty. Just imagine a hand pulled through a Harken ratchet block. Twenty knots  of wind on a 40 footer and people begin to get hurt.

Looks like 5 m/sec from east on a summer afternoon

The virtual sailing experience breaks down under extreme conditions. There is no seaspray, no waves, no excessive heeling, no broaching, no capsize, no luffing main, no indication - what so ever - that the boat is totally over powered. It is unreal. Two people keeping the M24 upright in 25 knots gusts? Duh! Logging 23 knots downwind can be done in a Melges 24, but 15 knots upwind? That's way over hull speed. Not gonna happen. We even outran a handfull of ACAs. As if in another world. In strong winds the virtual Melges 24 is an overly speedy boat. It simply fails to produce a boatly reaction  to the strong wind. It was not designed to do so.

Another World 

Sailing at high speeds fits badly in the virtual world. It is not just the fact that sim crossings get worse at high speeds. At 23 knots you've crossed the virtual ocean in like two minutes. Tactics and windshifts? Forget those. You can sail on any tack in around 25 seconds and you are out of bounds. Windshifts can barely be read or used. The scenery has problems updating at that speed. Other boats appear on the horizon and within seconds they are in the rear mirror. Nah, - the experience is something else. It does not remind me much of sailing.

The M24 doing 15 knots upwind

The virtual Melges 24 itself is perfectly capable of providing a decent sailing experience. The boat is rather true to the real thing. Beautifully build. Good looking sails and a few other nice details. However, these pictures of hefty wind sailing look just  like a beautiful afternoon lake sailing in 10 knots wind. I look forward to sailing the virtual Melges 24 in a more realistic setup;

Hard work in foul weather

The M24 - somehow - bears resemblance to the beautiful Q2m, and - no big surprise - it also reminds me of the Q2.4mR. The M24 is more fun though. It has a bow spirit and a gennaker. Crewed racing is also more fun, because it has balance. I needed to move my lil self around and do my thing: Fight the pressure of those howling wind and  the roaring waves of the Blake Sea. It sure looks like hard work, right?

Incidentally we won at least one race; We totally outpaced those of ACAs. Like tiny apples beating huge oranges in a discipline neither was built for. Now, I'd love to try the virtual Melges 24 in a 12 knot class boat race, but this racing.experience? To me it was simply uninteresting.

Bending or breaking

Norregaard and Thomsen took silver at the Seiko 49 Europeans. Woot woot. What's more interesting is the on-going debate over their hiking style... Question is, - is this legal? Some have suggested a rule 47.2 infringement. It's the one about "noone can leave the boat while racing". Check the post on Look to windward. I think it is safe to say he is still on board.

Always wear flats when sailing

To me it looks more like a rule 49.1 infringement: "Use only hiking straps and stiffeners to position yourself outboard". Standing on top of another person is definately not allowed, but is it forbidden? Using another persons body to position yourself outboard? Perhaps there is something in the 49er class rules about this?

What do you think? Bending or breaking? Lethal or illegal?

Speeding in a 49er

It seems Danes Norregaard and Thomsen are leading the 49er Europeans. That's great. What's even greater is their special hiking style... It looks absolutely fantastic. It is really the transformation of the sailing circus into Circus Sailing :-D

Circus sailing or sailing circus?

Now, let's not get carried away... What I really wanna know is: Will we be able to do the same hiking  trick in a future version of the Flying Fizz?

Fizz Cup Final

I just thought I'd blog the video-teaser for this weekends mega event. So here it is:

Yup. It's serious. More on that in a little while. If you enjoyed the video, then click here to get more about the Fizz Cup 2011.

If you are wondering what makes the Fizz so great, then read this very brief summary of sailing in SL.

Real sailing with shifts

Speaking of windshifts and puffs in the Fizz Cup round three, - here's a link to a nice post by Tillerman. It's all about real sailing in real weather with real winds. Oh, and about a wonderful win. Tillerman sails the laser out there - in the real world. Lovely little toy.

elMegro trying to catch up :-)

I never really found a laser in SL that looks like the real thing. This post here is the closest I got, and it's not really that close. Anyway, what Tillerman writes about, is what we can recreate in SL with the Flying Fizz and the WWC, and that's precisely what makes it so interesting.

Dry training is fun

Dry training isn't sailing without capsizing. It isn't sailing in sunshine either. Nono, - usually dry training sucks. Big time. It is about lifting weights, interval training, running, training balance, and maybe go over a few cases to sharpen up on the rules, when your arms are no longer able to lift anything but a piece of paper anyway.

Grab a favourite boat

That's all changing. Today, virtual sailing is good enough to provide live tactics training. Starting tactics and infight tactics can be trained intensely under specific conditions; Winds, shifts, currents, waves. The excact same conditions can be recreated, which is very usefull for training a specific maneuvre. Everchanging conditions can be created too, to create realistic conditions reading a course.

Laylines drawn  on the water

That's not all. Hawk has been doing some fantastic work with "painted" starting lines. It's just like the ones they use in the AC races. Only we had them first, and ours are better. Our lines can be seen not only by the spectators but also by the sailors.  That way we can choose to have lines on the "court". Just as they do in tennis. Have a look at the image above, where I am rushing towards the starboard pin - on the layline.

Just tacked...

And I know for sure, that I am on that layline. Not a shred of doubt in my mind, I can lay that mark. In fleet race, those lines are usefull for planning a good start; In match race, they are critical. Countless evening classes are held every day explaining new match racers about those lines. Be here at a certain time, don't go there, get over here, chase him out there, do the dial up in this section et.c. et.c.

Full speed ahead!

That's actually very hard to explain in a live RL situation. When you are out there, and you must steer, trim, balance, track time and position for infight, all this while the wind howls, sails flap and waves are spraying every other second, the other skipper yells starboard and ur jibman just lost the genoa-sheet, it gets pretty intense. Who cares about those lines? Turns out - those who care, they usually come out on top.

The helicopter view

And there's more. The timer is floating over the line, so everybody knows the time. Some boats even have an onboard display, that feeds from the RD's timer. Check the shot above. Helicopter view is great. In SL the coach, the judge and the RD can fly over the course and watch and comment on the action. My dad couldn't do that, when I was in the Opti. Better yet, rounding marks and using rule 18 is easier, because the zone is painted on the water too.

Relaxing after a training session in a nearby marina

So how do you get in on the action? Easy! Create an account in SL. It's free. Go through the SL training courses. Takes an hour or so. Search for Tradewinds and get a free boat, maybe even buy one. The QSM40 I am sailing above is very nice. Check the calendar on slsailing.co for a race, and you are on your way. Those shots here - they were taken in Fruit Islands. Beautiful area for leisure sailing too, - when ur done training and racing. See you there...

Fun Fizzin

The Flying Fizz Cup 2011 is coming up. I won't cover it in it's entirety, but I will show bits and pieces from it, because it is a massive event in a hitherto unparalleled boat, the Flying Fizz. Not only does the Fizz look good. It feels good, and it is hard work to make it fly. Fun, fun, fun...

Waiting for the evening breeze to kick in.

Yesterday we had a little training session south of Tradewinds. Loads of fun. Windshifts, puffs and lulls, currents and waves making it really hard to sail. For my part, the waves kept pushing me off course. Thats something I need to work on. Usually the Fizz is pretty steady on course, but these waves... jeezzz.

Prestart is hectic.

In one race we all kinda met in a huge traffic jam at the top mark. Most of us collided with someone, and some even hit the mark.That didn't spoil the fun; Everybody just said sorry and carried on. It was just a fun race, so no points at stake at this time. I was off to bed after a few races, but I took a couple of shots before I left.

Converging just before the gun.

Mihwa showed up, and joked about the huge waves getting her seasick. Well, I hope it was a joke, hehe. Otherwise, what mess. Don't wanna think that thought to end. Anyway, here's the "gun-shot". Well, - close. Noone was over early.

Bang, and they're off.

Business as usual. Winning the start is half the race, so look at the picture above, and guess who was first at the top mark. While you're guessing, I can just throw in an explanation of those weird blocks above the boats. They are sailnumbers. Don't ask. That's just how it works. By the way, todays course is an up down course. Gate and finish at the bottom.

The first top mark rounding.

You guessed it. Looking good there. So winning the start is good. Finding the path is also good, and trimming. This boat needs constant attention to the trim. That's another part of the Fizz fun; Crewed racing, shared trimming. Fizz Cup 2011 however, is singlehanded. Next shot will show the runner ups, while number one is off flying the kite.

More top mark roundings.

However, that didn't last. A bad gybe just before the bottom mark converted into a capsize. That enabled number two to overtake and stay ahead for the rest of the race. Make no mistake. These sailors know their stuff. One little error, and the others are roaring past you. Trust me, it's intense.

Thanx for all the fun guys...

It's a good thing I was off to bed. The racing could have carried on for hours, and it probably did. Many of these sailors have signed up for the Fizz Cup, and getting to know the local windshifts is key. Anyone who watched the AC race yesterday - Go Artemis - they will now how much it means to find the right path.

What a fun night. Back home to Tradewinds for me, and then off to bed.

The Fizz Cup will be covered on slsailing.co; Official notes, results and changes will be posted on the dedicated Fizz Cup site.