To the end of the world

Virtual sailing can be so many things. Racing, boatbuilding, yachtclubs, cruising, exploring, navigation  and more... A few days back I went cruising with Dutch. It was a nice change after all the pretty hefty testing and racing with the Nacra17 and the Laser.

Late afternoon sail

We took off from Tradewinds in one of the classics, the Cotton Blossom II built by Balduin Aabyes Yacht Design. This is the absolutely opposite of a racer. I think Dutch said it quite well, when he murmured: I have no idea how fast we're going, but who cares in a boat like this.

Who cares about the hud

Ofcourse, the Cotton Blossom II has a hud; We turned it on, watched it for a while, and then we turned it off again. It's true. It really doesn't matter. This boat is all about leaning back, relaxing and enjoying the ride, the view and the sounds. Yes, even the sounds are slow and Zen-like.

The views

Hard headed oldtimers will probably wonder, how the Cotton Blossom can be trimmed and sailed, when there's no hud. The answer is simple: Balduin built a couple of boats with telltails. This is one of them. The other one is the Bolero. I didn't look much at the telltails though. I simply enjoyed being in the passengers seat.

Uncharted waters

I wasn't even following the route on the charts until I began to see coastlines that I didn't remember seeing before. That's one of the beauties of being in the passengers seat. You get to see new places. This cruise actually went all the way to the end of the world. I've been there before, but this was another end of the world, hehe.

Navigator?

I usually go south-east, north or north east. Dutch chose a course that was kinda south-westerly; Nice area for a cruise, and as you can see above, the navigator has to stay alert (or online if it's a gps) all the time. No sleeping on the couch. Not even if it looks inviting.

A peek at the couch

So what's happened since the release of this pretty boat? After all it is a year and a half old. Not much actually. The Cotton Blossom has no sheets, but apart from that it is on par with the latest boats. The Cotton Blossom II is a modified BWind, just like the  Nacra17 and the Laser.  The only difference is: The Cotton Blossom has no sheets, and admittedly that does make it look a little old fashioned - in an weird SL Sailing kinda way.

Where are we?

Those new boats... they have sheets, but they don't have telltails. More importantly - the Cotton Blossom has pretty much full WWC support, so there's wind, windshifts, waves and currents all with local variations... Those new fancy boats, they have nothing of the kind... That seems like a strange step backwards?

Anchorage at the end of the world

In fact it seems the Cotton Blossom II is more of a sailing simulator than many of the newer boats. So here's a question: As a sailor, which would you choose: Invisible sheets or invisible telltails? Think about it! While you think, here's us anchored at the other end of the world. Tea and bisquit time. Now, where did I put those Digestives?

The missing boatshow post

Here's a few of those missing shots from the liveaboard boatshow back in october 2012. I've been writing so much about the Laser, I thought this would be a nice little change.

Cotton Blossom II and Bandit 27

First up is Ana's Bandit 27 and Balduins Cotton Blossom II. The Bandit fits well into the category of normal boats, and you can live on board. The Cotton Blossom is bigger but with less stuff inside. True to the original, there are only two sofas inside. More of a collectors item I'd say.

Cotton Blossom II

The finish of the Cotton Blossom is - or was at the time of it's launch - pretty much unmatched. It's really too bad Balduin Aabyes Yacht Design closed down. The sailing of the Blossom is a unique relaxed experience. There's a log, but who'd look at it in a boat like this?

Tetra 35

The Tetra 35 is much more of a live aboard, and it also qualifies as a normal boat along with the Bianca 107, the Oceanic, the Loonetta and possible a handfull of knockabout sloop type of boats such as the Trudeau One.

Loonetta

Here's the inside of the Loonetta. It's a fat little lady with a huge belly. Not exactly a classic beauty, but  there's loads of space inside. No wonder she's popular among camper and other tourists. The sailing feels pretty good, but there's no support for advanced sailing stuff such as local windshifts and currents.

Loonettas on the loose

Regardless, the Loonetta is everywhere. The shot above is more recent, and it's from the Marina just north of Tradewinds. There's seven or eight Loonettas in the picture and more behind me. Windvane and windmeter included. That's the sort of stuff any boat should have.

Wildwind

This one here is a Wildwind. To be honest I cannot remember the exact model, but the sign says "Wildwind", and the looks says "pretty nice". It's a racer of sorts. That's all I remember. Strangely,  the interior looks more like a cruiser.

Thinking

That's about it. The show was much more extensive than these two posts indicate; I have more pictures, but this will do. Hopefully there will be a followup in a year or so, which is really nice. These shows are really a great way to see what's hot (and what's not) on the virtual sailing scene.

PS: Check for more boat shows at Tradewinds here...

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.

Tradewinds Airshow

All this Laser talk has made me completely forget what else is going on. Currently there's an airshow running at Tradewinds. A watery one. Boats and planes merged into one.

Now that's a big plane

If you're into planes that can land on water, Tradewinds is the place to go. Apparently, seaplanes come in all sizes, shapes and forms. The one on the picture above is the biggest one. It kinda looks like something I once saw on TV. Russian I think. Update: Ahab tells me it's the Howard Hughes "Spruce Goose". Thx. See comments for more details.

Boathouse view

That's how it looks from the door in the boathouse. Someone is motoring about in one of ReneMarines boats out there, but there's planes there too. More than a handful on this picture.

Overview

Here's an overview. There's probably even more planes there by now. Take a hour and walk around and inspect all these. Some are for sale. Some are not. Regardless, there's hours of fun for flyboys and girls.

Here's more on boatshows at Tradewinds.

Invisible features

The virtual Laser is already a very refreshing sail, but it seems Dutch just can't stop improving it. A few days back we got the windvane, which is great for both beginners and racers. This new feature is different. It is  almost invisible. It's not a gizmo that sits on the boat. It's more of a thingie that hits the other boats. Or should I say "unhits" the other boats?

The sailing...

Wanna take a wild guess? It's not really apparent from the picture, but if you zoom in, you can see it says test at the back of the hull. I put on my own sail though, so no test-text there. I know, the sails are standard. Even so, I kinda like to sail with my own sail. Sails are supposed to the same from the factory, but they age differently based on how and how much you sail.

The testing with Ana

Interestingly, Ana was able to catch me by pointing higher with her centerboard up. It's supposed to be that way on a reach. Here my apparent wind is like thirty degrees or so, and that makes it rather weird.  In a strange and unreal way. This indicates that the Laser needs more sideslip with the centerboard up. Anyways, you see my shadow in Ana's sail? In a minute Ana will shadow me. Windshadow that is.

And then the boat talk

Yup. The Laser now has windshadow. It seems to work great. We were only three boats out there, but the sailing was lag-free and just as refreshing as ever. This time we sailed with windvanes and a brand new shadowing system. That's the invisible feature. It still remains to be seen what will happen in a fleet with ten boats, but it looks promising. Also, I still cannot say if it works within the right angles and distance, - and with the right timing. More on that in another post.

The shadowing itself is not entirely visible though. When shadowed your sails will flap and you'll loose pressure. I am not sure how I feel about this. I can see it has an educational function, but it is unnatural. The thing is, casual sailors are always speculating if they're begin shadowed, and that alone make them loose focus. The good ones can feel it instantly.

I think my preference would be a totally invisible shadowing... lost pressure only. As in make it easy to sail, and make it hard to sail fast. As in make is as real as possible...

Can you see it?

Hey! While I've been on vacation in RL, the virtual laser just took a major step up my boat scale. It's not a big thing. Nevertheless it's pretty BIG. Can you see it?

Woohooo!

It's one of those things that you just absolutely need on a boat; Especially if you're learning to sail or trying to sail really fast. I can remember me learning to sail. First thing I ever bought for my savings in the boatshop... Can you see it now?

Yeah...

No. Not the sailing gloves. Not the shoes. Here's a clue: It's red and it's not the boat, nor is it the letters in the sail. Now do you see it?

... and it works too

Isn't that just soooo very nicely neat, cute and great? I guess there's still hope for virtual sailing, hehe, and there's more...

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...