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Sailing game


lbrewer

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and I think there is some slippery wind changes and lee movement  :P or the forecasts are wrong.

The wind forecasts are just that...forecasts.  They are real computerized forecasts for the area we are sailing and uploaded to the game from something called Grib files.  Just like the guy on the news at six....the forecasts aren't always right on the money.  I know at the beginning of the leg I based my strategy on what appeared to be a developing low pressure that didn't quite act like the 12,24 and 36 hr forecasts said it would.  I've been playing catch-up ever since.  The boats that ran right into the forecast low ended up with great wind angle for the trip north and are now the leaders of the race.  Go figure! 

Larry

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Dave has a commanding lead of the messing-about fleet in "Hirilonde" and is closing in fast on the finish at Qing Dao.  A strategic decision early in the leg to hug the Phillipines and keep Taiwan to port paid off for himwith favorable winds and left most of us far behind in the Taiwan strait.  Great Move!

Larry

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PAR,

I kept getting kicked out of the game last night, and had to log back on every time I tried to check on the position. Seems to have cleared up today.

Amazing how a day or two away from the game can drastically change one's position. My laptop died while on the road, and I was trying to log into the game from various people's machines, but by the time I looked up Dave had zigged when we all zagged, and he's now sitting in Qingdao while we're all limping into port...!

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Huh? Who me?

They serve a good rum in Qingdoa.  Been toasting you all  :D

Gotta rest up, the next leg is a little longer.

Now I know why they offer a desktop icon for this game.  I bet the top boats are skippered by people with desk jobs, autopilot on the wind, that icon and live in a time zone where the wind changes occur during normal waking hours.  Basically, to be competitive, you have to be able to alter course, tack or jibe on every wind cell and wind change time as well as plan for the 12, 24 and 36 hour forecasts.  The top boats don't miss chances to optimize each wind change and they set courses based on future winds.

If you check the courses of the top boats, they are the ones that sailed into the supposed dead air that didn't die on the west side of the Philippines.  That extra easterly movement led to a significant lift on their next tack that sent them ahead of the rest. Even though their wind was a bit lighter, their velocity made good was better.  And they never lost that lead.  I gained some distance back reaching around Taiwan, but it was already too late to catch them.

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GEEEZ! I know! you would think I could get the hang of this since my job is to sit and read and write and use the computer! But I've been giving my self a crash course on German classical theory *bleck* for tomorrow morning's class AND all it has done for me is put my in irons!

no stinking mercy.

a.

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Ken,

Don't feel bad, last night I was wondering if I should go out and buy some plastic parallel rules so I could chart a course between a few islands.......When I realized it was too late to do that I "made" a set out of printer paper and found out that apparently the image on the screen is actually set up so that a course of 360 degrees "true North" is NOT directly at the top of the screen ! It's about 2 degrees "off". For most computer applications I wouldn't care, but in this case if I had proceeded without my makeshift ""plotting tool" I would be sitting aground on an island East of Shanghai right now....Looks like Larry tried the same thing and he got away with it too.....!

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