Telltails

What's the story with those telltails anyway? Put simply, the telltails are the racers primary window into the inner workings of the engine. How so? Telltails don't say anything about the speed. What they do is they give you, the helmsman, and very precise indication of how well the engine is running. The engine being the airflow over the sails. Why is that better than a hud / instruments? Because - at a glance - the helmsman is able to determine if the windangle is right for the current trim. Upwind that translates into speed. The telltails will also - at a glance - indicate what course adjustment is needed to get to the optimum windangle. Looking at a hud, you only get a number. You'll need to compare that number to something else in order to make it usefull.

Jib with telltails and leechtails

Here's a picture of a jib with telltails and leechtails. Note the position and the colour coding. Starboard telltail is higher up to avoid confusing matters when colours can't be seen. Position? Right behind the headstay, so that the helmsman can see them and so that the telltails show the airflow over the front of the sail. Optimum speed is found when the airflow is good, and that means the telltails are horizontal on both sides. If the windward telltail flutters, you are too close to the wind. If the leeward telltail flutters, you are too far away from the wind.

The sail work as a wing. If there is one sail, it is pretty easy to imagine. Air flows over the sail and creates a pressure difference that pulls the boat forward. It's just like the wing on a plane, except the plane is pulled upwards. However, the pressure will not pull the boat forward in the sailing direction. That's where the keel comes into play. More on that in a later post.

Telltails show the airflow coming on to the sail. Leechtails show the air coming off the sail. If there are two sails, they work almost as a single wing. The main being a sort of trimflap for the jib. When there's a jib and a main, the end of the wing is effectively the leech of the main, so that's where the leechtails go;

Main with leechtails

The leech tails are important too, but not for the steering. Leechtails are more of a tool for the trimmer. The leechtails should point aft as if the sail continued some 10 inches in that direction. If they bend to the backside of the sail, the sail is stalling and the leech is too tight. If they flutter, the leech is too loose, and that's pretty much all you need to know in order to trim your sails and sail max speed. When the basic trim is in place, the leechtails take over and become the most important second by second "device" for the trimmer to make sure the boat is well balanced and runs at maximum speed. The helmsman stays with the telltails.

This is ofcourse a very short version of the truth. Of course there are other factors such as the fullness of the sails, the leech tension, the twist, halyard tension, headstay tension and what nuts. These trimfunctions are mostly about adjusting the sailshape to the current windstrength. Now, it should be pretty obvious why telltails are key to a good sail simulator. That's why we love the Flying Fizz. It not only behaves pretty much like a boat, it also has those telltails working almost like real ones.

Thanx to Mikko from WB sails for letting me use these pictures. Go there and read more great articles about saildesign.

Night sailing

Few things are as immersive as night sailing. That goes for sailing in RL, but it also goes for SL sailing. There are differences though. Virtual nightsailing it is not as inherently dangerous; Which is good because the buoys, markers and lighthouses in SL only make sense on rare occasions. At night it is even worse. Most virtual lighthouses just send out a white blink. There's usually (if ever) no zones indicating safe waters or anything. It seems these are called sector lights; We call them zone lights.

Night sailing

The lighthouses and the buoys really deserve a separate post. They are closely linked to the missing charts of the virtual oceans. Luckily the virtual GPS - or rather the virtual electronic chart if you like - works great and just like you'd expect. Here's me and Dutch sailing the Cafe Del Mar in the beautiful virtual moonlight. I was in the passenger seat, so I am not quite sure, where we are, but it is somewhere south of Tradewinds.

Coastal

The wind was medium strong, but we were inshore so the waves were not too bad. The wave simulation is not described in the manual, so I cannot comment upon it. It's nice, but I dunno what to expect as BWind boats have no concept of wave simulation. Let's stay with nice. The boat tosses around and you get the impression that there are waves. In any case the Cafe Del Mar seemed to like inshore sailing. I was getting kinda sleepy from all those small rolls and the lovely sounds from the bow wake.

Dutch at the helm

Here's Dutch at the helm of his latest toy. Note that Dutch is so cool he has to wear shades even at night. Anyway. I suspect this is the one boat he likes the most; While I absolutely love the VO65, I gotta admit the Cafe Del Mar is a very nice cruiser. First of all it sails very nicely. It feels like a racer, not like a cruiser. The accelleration is good, and the rudder is very responsive. In fact it feels almost as the VO65, which is no coincidence, since it is sort of a touring version of a VO65.

Relaxation

Ok, it doesn't look much like a VO65, and I'll admit that at first I hated that boathouse he put on top of the deck. However, once you come to terms with the rooftop design, the hull itself has very nice and modern lines. And is it complicated to sail? No, it's supereasy and intuitive. As already mentioned, this boat is easy on the rudder and very lively. Almost like a dinghy. No need for huds and numbercrunching. Sail by feel. I love it. It works great - even on this rather big 75 foot yacht.

Sunup

Here's a shot of those lines. Looks like sunup. We must have changed course. Yes, even in the virtual world the sun comes up in the east. Sunup is coffeetime. Hehe. It's a good thing we're on a Cafe Del Mar. There's loads of stuff inside, and almost all the little gizmoes work. There is also a coffeemaker. Didn't see a watermaker, but then again I didn't look for it either.

Gizmoes inside

Here's a peek at those gizmoes inside. Besides the coffeemaker, there's a shower, a couch and a table plus a huge bed in the bow. And you can sail the boat from that panel right inside the cabing. It's great for foul weather even though this boat clearly is meant for easy sailing and easy onboard living. Yes, you can race the Cafe Del Mar, but no... it's not really meant for that. Still, - note the telltails. They work, but they are positioned somewhat strangely. For instance I cannot see the headsail telltails while steering.

Blue water cruising

This is what the Cafe Del Mar is really meant for. Yes, you wanna click this picture and fullscreen it. It's virtual cruising. Blue water cruising even. At least in SL. It would need more long distance cruising gear to cross the pond in real life, but it sure is big enough. Size matters differently in SL. I sailed around the new Seychelles in SL in this, and for that it is too big. I'd much rather be Fizzin around those islands.

Blake Sea cruising

For Blake Sea cruising it doesn't get much better than this. If you are looking for a cruiser that is more than a daycruiser, the Cafe Del Mar is a step up from earlier times. I know I've been looking for a boat that sorta supported virtual on board living. There are others, but the Cafe Del Mar takes it to the next level. It sails nice, it looks nice and you won't get claustrophobia from staying on board over the weekend. Even if you bring a few friends, there's enough space.

More nightsailing here.
More liveaboard here and here.

Ktaba updates

A few days back I met Craig at TYC. I was planning to go tune my Fizz, but Craig was quite excited about his latest work on the Ktaba20. We talked boats for a while, but those updates really sounded interesting. I simply had so see them, so I hopped on board the beautiful Ktaba20. I can always do some more fizzin...

Boat talk 

Some of the new things had to do with the sails. That's why I sat on the front deck; To see those sail details. I like being up there. It's one of my favourites in RL, because you are even more immersed in the sailing whilst sitting up there - in the middle of everything. Perhaps my attitude up there is not very speedy, but it sure is a great place to sit while cruising. You could have an autopilot handling the steering for total relaxation, but that's more of an RL-thing. The waters in SL rarely offers hours of sailing in a straight line.

Take off

Besides, it's always nice to have someone like Craig at the helm. Then you know it's a smooth ride. No running aground and stuff. Lotsa nice boat talk too. We sailed north to have a peek at new Seychelles up there. As usual, the Ktaba20 sails like a charm. The sailing engine is Craigs own. It's very stable, and it comes with full WWC support. Make no mistake. We may look very relaxed, but the Ktaba20 is not meant for cruising only. Inside the Ktaba20 there's a racing heart.

Peeking

It turns out there's not much space in between those Seychelles, - more on that in a future post. We choose another route with more open sea to better test the new features. And they work great those telltails, - for that's what it was: Telltails enabling the cruiser to sail by visual - and the racer to find optimum speed without using huds and pocket calculater-like displays.

Open sea

We talked a bit about telltails. How to use them, where they go and why they work. Lots can be said about that, but in reality it's dead simple. The jib has a couple of telltails not far from the headstay. They indicate the flow coming on to the sails, and they are the ones by which you steer on an upwind and trim in any other case. The main has leech tails and they are the ones by which you trim the main. I better prepare a post on that subject.

It's very nice to see more telltails in virtual sailing. The Ktaba20 is now part of an exclusive club with only a few members still: The Flying Fizz, the Laser, the Cotton Blossom II, the Bolero and the virtual optimist aka the Shelly Fizz. Did I forget anyone? Ahh, yes... Manul made a tri-thingy with a fizzkit engine. I think it has telltails too.

PS: Why are there no closeups of those telltails? Good question. They need just a little bit of tweaking before they are perfect, and when they are, I'll post them.

Fizz Cruising

So many people tell me the Flying Fizz is too difficult for them. While it is true the Fizz requires work to sail fast, I really think it is a pretty good cruiser. It's as simple as rez and go. The latest Fizz comes with a built in default wind that is perfect for beginners. And for experts.

Fizz Cruising

The important thing to remember is to NOT accept any local wind settings. Way too many marinas have local winds set to 25 knots or more. Now, most normal people would never go out in a wind that strong. Sailing the Fizz singlehanded is almost impossible in that windspeed. There's way too much power for one person to handle. With two people on board it is a little better.

Downwind is a blast

However, it seems singlehanded sailing in strong winds is popular. Ofcourse we all want to go fast, but sailing in those windspeeds is quite unrealistic. For most sailors trouble starts around 25 knots. Dinghies will capsize again and again. Keelers will simply break stuff. In SL those strong winds will not break stuff, but the Fizz will capsize. Other boats will continue to sail in ridiculously strong winds at ridiculously high speeds making sim crossing a real challenge.

Reaching is a blast too

What's worse is the math. The apparent wind calculations and the polar diagrams aren't really meant to handle those high speeds, so we end up sailing at weird speeds - in weird angles. Sailing a keeler so fast you need to gybe like an AC72 may be a fun and outworldly experience, but it has little to do with sailing as we know it in the real world. To me that's when it stops making sense.

Hey! Is that another Fizz over there?

Now, the Fizz may look complicated because it has three sails. That's where the other important thing to remember about the Fizz comes into play. It has several modes. There is expert mode. You don't wanna go there for your first time on the water. Then there's competition mode. Save that for later. There's novice mode, where you need to steer and trim the sails and finally... there's absolute beginners mode. It's point and sail. No trimming, no balancing, no hoisting sails. Just steer and everything else is handled automatically.

Rendezvous 

While I was cruising around the Blake I met these two guys. We sat there for a few moments enjoying the sunset. Talked a bit about the Fizz Cup. Then we sailed on. I had things to to, and that guy there in the other Fizz was training. The jetski-dude was just out cruising, but he kinda stayed with me for a while. Perhaps he secretly wanted to switch from stinkpotter to real sailing. Dunno.

Catching up

The boatspeed thing, the realism, was obvious a couple of minutes later. I had left the sunset rendezvous and was heading north-east on a beat. That usually means going just a little over five knots. So, the jetski was actually able to catch up with me. Had I been been going 22 knots in a crazy high speed keeler, he would have had a hard time catching me. Not to mention the fact that he would have been thrown off his jetski when he hit my 3 meter high wake, hehe.

Beating is a breeze

Anyway, here's me beating upcoast heading north to get back to Tradewinds. Going upwind in the Fizz requires a little training. Usually you'd go for those perfect telltails, but sailing the Fizz singlehandedly you often need to sheet out just a bit, - or point a bit too high, in order to keep the boat leveled. The speed penalty for not doing so can be more than a knot. There's something for you to work with - preferably before the Fizz Cup.

Me in the drink

Finally, should you decide to go for the Fizz Cup, be aware that you'd be sailing in competition mode as mentioned in the Notice Of Race. That means the capsizing feature is active. Too much heel and you're in the drink. Too tight sheets while gybing and the same thing happens. Not a big problem. Happens to me all the time. Well, not all the time, but still... You just crawl back on board and carry on; Hope the other ones capsize at the next mark.

Have fun Fizzin...

Here's more about those virtual telltails.
Here's a couple of sailing shots from the Fizz Cup 2011.
More cruising with the Fizz here: Destination Paradise.

Virtual telltails

George of Mid-Atlantic Musings-fame asked a question in the comments of the post right before this. The question was : Can you see those virtual telltails on the back of the sail too? The answer is not a straight yes, because virtual boats differ. However, one boat stands out as particularly life-like, and here it is:

Hi George!

It is (of course) the Flying Fizz. Built by a real sailor with realism in mind. It does not have all the trim options that we're used to from RL, but it has quite a few features that will make an experienced sailor feel right at home. In so many ways it is like a real boat.

Main, jib

It is beautifully built, so any RL sailor will immediately see it's potential. I am not quite sure, what it is built after, but it reminds me very much of the International 14 footer. Here it is under sail. Main and jib up. Both sails has sheets. The main has an outhaul, and the jib has a leader. Lotsa work to do for one person. But there's more.

Gennaker

It has a gennaker too. Loads of sailarea for one person to administer. In fact it is a little bit too much for one person; Even when I hike max it's not always enough, but luckily there is room for two. That other person can take over the trim of jib and gennaker - plus he or she can use a trapeze to help balance the boat. So far so good. Let's see those telltails.

Those telltails

Here's a closeup of me, my Flying Fizz and the telltails - all in perfect balance. I am going upwind around 60 degrees to the wind, so I can actually hold the boat being just me. That's why you see those telltails perfectly aligned on both sides of the sail. Note that there are two telltails per "spot". Windward and leeward.

Sun in my back

Yes, the sails are semitransparent. Just like real sails. Here's a shot where I have the sun in my back. The windward telltails are easy to see, and those leeward tails are a little bit harder to see. It is quite easy to see which telltail is on what side of the sail.

Sun at the back of the sails

Here's a shot where the sun is at the back of the sails. Again it is quite easy to see which tail is windward and which one is leeward. That's brilliantly made by the builder of the Flying Fizz. In RL it can be somewhat of a problem to see which is what. At least under certain conditions. That's why the starboard telltail should always be positioned  "a telltail-length" higher up. Green for starbord and red for port side is less important. It's more of a gimmick.

Ease out, peace out

So there you go. Telltails on the Flying Fizz. If the windward tail flutters you need to sheet in or bear away. If the leeward telltail flutters it is the opposite. Just like a real boat. And if you wonder why - on many of these shots here - my windward telltail is not perfectly horizontal, it is because the wind was too strong for me to keep the boat leveled. I had to sheet out just a tad to keep the boat levelled, or I would be two knots down; Be in the drink even. Yes, it's that good. 

Laser improvements

There's a new Laser out. It has a new feature that's big to sailors, tiny to cruisers and insignificant for landlubbers and almost invisible to all of us. It's not in the boat. It's in the sail, and it's one of those things that make virtual sailing just a littlebit better and closer to the real thing. It's a working telltail.

Setting sail in Puerto de Malla

So far the Laser has had the looks. Beautifully crafted hull, mast and sail with loads of details such as lines, blocks, cleats and other fittings. Now comes the brains. Not that it will sail by itself, but it will provide the visual feedback needed to enable an even better virtual sailing experience. It will make it easier for everyone to sail.

Looking at telltails

We've been missing a working telltail from the beginning of the Laser. Yes, they were there from the start, but they weren't quite working. They were just painted in the sails. Now, after months of dangerous experiments in the lab, Dutch is finally able to release a working telltail. It's the super classic model: Round dot of black tape and five inches of red wool.

Doesn't get much better than this

Yes, it has to be wool. Wool doesn't stick to the sail; Not even if it is soaked. Not a big problem for the two of us on this particular day. Outside the beautiful Puerto De Malla the ocean was quite calm. We only had a bit of seaspray. However, in a race, you need just just one misread gust, and you're in the drink. Next thing you know, you have defunkt telltails. Maybe just for 3 minutes, but that's when the other guys take off in a 3 degree shift you didn't see, because your telltails were glued to the sail.

See the islands

See? Flat! I am not entirely sure how much wave action the Laser supports, but I will get back to you on that. Promise. For now, I am just glad to see a telltail. Not that it's the first. The Flying Fizz has had telltails since 2008, maybe even before that. The Bolero was one of the first boats to pick that up. You'd think it was in every boat from there on, but no. Not even the supermodern virtual Nacra17  has telltails.

More talk about telltails

However, this is a start. We are moving away from the days of hud based sailing, where sailing was done by staring at numbers on the hud. No more looking at text that is green, when trim is good. Now we just need to get the telltails right.

The starboard telltail should be (always) green at located like 5 inches above the other one, which is (always) red by the way. You need to be able to differ between the two - even with the sun behind the sail. Why? If you're sailing too high the windward telltail will point upwards or flutter. If your're sailing too low the windward telltail eventually will flutter. However, the leeward telltail begins to flutter when the trim is off by a few degrees. Voila! Trimming made easy; Even better: Those telltails are in the lower front quarter of the jib. That's where you should be looking anyway; Forwards. Truely amazing huh? And better yet, it runs without batteries...

The Fizzkit 1, 2, 3

Boattalk. I love boat talk. This time I met with Ana, and we took the FizzKit for a spin. Don't know what it is? It's what makes the Flying Fizz so friggin fantastic. The boats in this post is the raw, test boat  that's inside the kit.

Beating

It's meant to have a boat built around it. If you wanna see something more recent and boatlike, - check Orca's blog for posts about Manul's beautiful Waddensea cruiser. Manul also built a trimaran with the FizzKit, and it sails great. I couldn't find anything about the FizzKit on Jane's blog, but this will give you a glimpse of the evolution that lead to the FizzKit. The Fizzkit holds the essence of all the knowledge gained from the Fizz 1, 2, and 3.

around

So this actually works? Oh yes it does. The Fizzkit comes with all the features that a sailor would expect such as windvane, compas and telltails. Three (or more) sails. Support for four people on board, and they can all balance and trim the boat. If they don't, it will (optionally) capsize. It can be tweaked to act like a keeler, a dinghy, a planing dinghy, a foiler (see the Moth posts) or even a multihull. Ofcourse you can sit in the cockpit, but there's also a trapez.

the 

It has full support for all the WWC wonders. There's windshifts plus (optionally many) local variations. There's a wave simulator with a direction, speed, length and height. There's current with speed and direction. Both waves and currents come with (optionally many) local variations. Currents and waves are also adjusted according to depth. Shallow waters means less current. For all three, wind, waves and current, there is a option to set variance, so even if the waves are set to 1 meters high, and 5 meters long, they'll never be the same.

island.

There is built in shadowing; Tweakable ofcourse. Classboats can have realistic races, but the tweakable shadow allows for true multiclass races. The sailshape can be adjusted from open over several states to rounded. The sail is visibly changed to reflect the trim. The steering is precise and you can choose to use wheel or tiller. The dynamics are great. Heeling works fast, and the boat will lift its snout when planing. There's live sheets and trimlines everywhere. There's audiofeedback as well. Several different sounds depending on speed and sailing state.

Boattalk with Wanda, Ana and Brutus

On the inside it's completely modularized; The entire WWC, wind, water and current simulations are located in separate modules, so they don't mix with the sailing engine. The sailing engine is held completely separate from that. It just reads the WWC to "get" the attributes of the physical environment.  The core sailing engine is closed source; However, all the settings can be tweaked via notecards, so there's really no need to fiddle with the highly optimized sailengine code. The kit is by far the most advanced sailing engine available in SL, and the code isn't just an afternoon read.

The FizzKit was built by sailors to get an absolutely first class and realistic sailing experience. Get it at Tradewinds Yacht Club. The fully sailable testboat is in the box along with extensive documentation, help, sounds, animations, wwc interface, several test tools and more.

Just like a real boat

Yesterday I got a new friend from Italy... By chance I met Titiro Arriago. He was looking for a boat, so I asked him on a blind sailing date. Lucky me. He looked kinda cute. Turned out he also knew a littlebit about sailing from RL, so we took off; Me in the trapez for once.

Me, Titiro and the Flying Fizz in Blake

We had a wonderfull cruise around the Blake Sea. Started off in "fun" mode. Dunno why it is called that, because it is no fun at all. All you gotta do is steer; Everything else is done automatically. Titiro at the helm quickly got the hang of it, and started asking about the sails.

Bad jib trim

I explained how to trim the sails using the telltales. Titiro said: Got it and immediately switched to novice mode. Thirty seconds later he yelled: Yay, it works! I was like... Course it works. It's a boat. Let me show you something else... I can trim the jib for you... He said: "Really"? I took the sheet, and obviously I am not doing a very good job as a trimmer. See the shot above...

Perfect trim

This shot here shows much better balance. Horizon tilted a bit. It is hard to take photos while hanging in the trapez. Time to talk balance... I explained how we could both move around to actively balance the boat, - in competition mode. Didn't take long before we switched. Didn't take long before we got wet. Titiro was perhaps a little confused, but I was all laughs and smiles.

Tilføj billedtekst

After a few minutes he was up to speed on the balancing too, so here we are in perfect balance and trim probably doing around eight knots. My new friend changed mood... At first he was, - rightfully skeptic - and only an occasional wauw escaped his lips... Now he was yelling "Weeeee", whenever we surfed down a wave and reached 10 knots. I was too. 

Low winds

That's when the wind faded, and I almost dipped my butt in the blue soup... Not a big problem. I was wearing a bikini under my surfshorts. Still, it was the perfect time to introduce saildepth trimming; It is kinda like a combo of outhaul, halyard and back stay on the main; Halyard and sheeting point on the jib. It is used for powering and depowering the sails. 

Bingo

Titiro looked at me in disbelief and said: Geezzz, it is just like a real boat. Bingo. That's right. It is just that. Like a real boat, and that's why we love it. You've already noted us surfing down a wave. What you can't see right here is, that there is also currents to take into account when we race... "You race it"?

Currents can be seen by the trained eye

The current will be visible once we approach that buoy out there. Tiny dot on the horizon in the pic above. You will see us slip sideways. That is, - if there is a current here... And yes we absolutely race in this one. For that we also have a genakker on the bow spirit... Wanna see it?

Genakker UP!

I hoisted the genakker and we crossed 10 knots and stayed there; Both of us yelling weee, woohooo and what nuts... Virtual sailing to the max! Titiro, - I am pretty sure I enjoyed it just as much as you did. Probably more. Hearing you say "It is just like a real boat" really made my day. Thanx for a great time.

New fanatics start here...

PS: I forgot to tell you about the italian sailing school. Not like you need any sailing lessons. Just a fun day at Tradewinds :-)

The Cotton Blossom II

Balduin Aabye is brewing again. This time - the result will be an updated version of the Cotton Blossom II. If you don't know what the Cotton Blossom is, then go to Balduin Aabyes website and read the story. Link here to the right, - or google for images of the Cotton Blossom II. Amazing pictures of a fantastic boat.

The Cotton Blossom in the North Sea

A few days back I sailed the Cotton Blossom around the North Sea with Serafina. We also explored the marina in Mango, but that's another story. The Cotton Blossom shares many features with the Bolero, so when she comes out, the Bolero will become less unique. That's because...

Telltales

The Cotton Blossom comes with live telltales. This is huge, because experienced sailors will instantly know how to trim the boat. Put that ugly hud away and sail by telltales, luffing sails, heel, wake sound and wind drift. Yes, wind drift too. Yummy. It's absolutely delicious. As is the North Sea...

Enjoying the North Sea and the Cotton Blossom

Ok, you can get the primitive hud still, if you must know those figures. It isn't pretty, but it's still there for you to switch on. On top of that, there is a new graphical hud with direction, windangle, and trim, which you can place freely. As much as I love to hate huds, I must admit that Balduins new hud is rather nice.

Those lovely telltales

Here's a closeup of those beautiful telltales. As with the Bolero, they are placed a little different from RL telltales, and this has to do with the fact, that the jib is hard to see when sailing. Hopefully there will be a next version, where I can sit on the sidedeck and see both the jib and the telltales in the jib. I will write to Santa about that.

Mango marina in the back

It also has many of the other well known Bolero features. A nice spin, easy to trim, and it collapes both visually and with sound, if you aren't paying attention. Improved dynamic sounds, and much improved dynamics overall. This boat is very lively. That's partly because it has full WWC support with waves, wind and current. 

Back to the marina.

Full WWC support also means, the Cotton Blossom features tactical racing, so who knows... maybe we will see a fleet of virtual Cotton Blossoms racing. Obviously I miss a few things, since the sailing engine is the same as the one in the Bolero. The boats feel different, but the features are rather much alike. Balancing is missing, and crewed sailing is too. The crew cannot trim the jib. Or the spin. I will write to Santa about that too.

Sails down and ready to moor. 

Overall, this is a fantastic boat. Very pretty, - well almost majestic, and very much fun to sail due to the well designed feedback. Not the huds. All the other stuff, that turns it into a virtual sailing sensation. And the inside... it's true to the original. U can take a nap on the couch, once you are done sailing. Just lovely. Virtual sailing as it should be. Thanx Balduin. 

PS: Someone told me to write, that these images deserve full screen viewing.