SailGP

[david r]

That story almost makes me want to turn on the sound when I watch these heats….
The heat number 1 was hotly fought for, how did USA get up to 2nd briefly then finish 3rd after rounding the bottom mark in 8th? Here are screenshots showing some parts to the puzzle.
USA picked up 1 boat at the rounding and were in 7th starting the beat.

USA uses high mode and gets above everyone even further by going past the boundary, and getting a small penalty.

USA in 4th at the time NZ slowly luffed AUS right when AUS really needed to bear off. I think AUS would have tipped over if they didn’t auger the nose in.

USA must have had tons of speed at the top mark and done a nice bear-off where they get really low, very fast, like the one NZ did to take the lead.
USA has a 2nd flag graphic at 1 sec. before finish. GBR turned up perfectly to take 2nd in the end.

 

[crashtack]

That story almost makes me want to turn on the sound when I watch these heats….
The heat number 1 was hotly fought for, how did USA get up to 2nd briefly then finish 3rd after rounding the bottom mark in 8th? Here are screenshots showing some parts to the puzzle.
USA picked up 1 boat at the rounding and were in 7th starting the beat.
View attachment 540741
USA uses high mode and gets above everyone even further by going past the boundary, and getting a small penalty.
View attachment 540742
USA in 4th at the time NZ slowly luffed AUS right when AUS really needed to bear off. I think AUS would have tipped over if they didn’t auger the nose in.
View attachment 540743
USA must have had tons of speed at the top mark and done a nice bear-off where they get really low, very fast, like the one NZ did to take the lead. View attachment 540744
USA has a 2nd flag graphic at 1 sec. before finish. GBR turned up perfectly to take 2nd in the end.
View attachment 540745

don't bother turning on the sound, they don't comment on anything interesting beyond "oh look boat x that the camera is focusing on had a bad tack"

 

[enigmatically2]

That sequence by @david r highlights that sometimes it can be worth taking a penalty because the penalty system is fairly flawed. Sometimes the advantage is definitely worth it. Other times the penalty can be out of proportion high

 

[shebeen]

That story almost makes me want to turn on the sound when I watch these heats….
The heat number 1 was hotly fought for, how did USA get up to 2nd briefly then finish 3rd after rounding the bottom mark in 8th? Here are screenshots showing some parts to the puzzle.
USA picked up 1 boat at the rounding and were in 7th starting the beat.
View attachment 540741
USA uses high mode and gets above everyone even further by going past the boundary, and getting a small penalty.

USA in 4th at the time NZ slowly luffed AUS right when AUS really needed to bear off. I think AUS would have tipped over if they didn’t auger the nose in.

USA must have had tons of speed at the top mark and done a nice bear-off where they get really low, very fast, like the one NZ did to take the lead.
USA has a 2nd flag graphic at 1 sec. before finish. GBR turned up perfectly to take 2nd in the end.

well spotted.

you can see hear from the video feed off NZ that they sail past the boundary onto the layline. Effectively saves them two manouvers, and the penalty is meaningless because they were already dropped behind the other boats (who then had to all tack twice).

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[Admiral Hornblower]

3-2-3

The first race on day 2 was also counted, which was a 1st for USA. Even if the results for race 2 had been counted, they would still have been in 2nd place

 

[Admiral Hornblower]

I also found it amusing that the commentators kept mixing up kmph and kts! LOL

 

[nav]

Day 2 was a bit of a crapshoot but they deserve the win even if based only on their 3-2-3 on epic-sailing day 1.

Weren't NZ 1-4-1 on 'epic day 1' and 36 over 27 after fleet racing was complete.

Missing the mark - pffft, who cares, no ones bigging up these small town beer can races surely.

 

[Stingray~]

 

[Gorn FRANTIC!!]

don't bother turning on the sound, they don't comment on anything interesting beyond "oh look boat x that the camera is focusing on had a bad tack"

Or "look at the number at the top of the mast"

 

[The Main Man]

Or "look at the number at the top of the mast"

Which most of the time had been cut out of camera shot on the bear always.

 

[shebeen]

Or if the Kiwi's had accepted one of the alternate flags in that referendum thing, who doesn't want a giant kiwi with laser beams for a flag?

they really should have! failing that, the simple option that they use for online tracking races is the black silver fern one. wish Sailgp would just swap that out, especially since Pete learnt how to drive the thing they are often close now on the racecourse.

 

[JeronimoII]

good article on the FP about the issues of SailGP

SailTv

To TV or not to TV, that is the question... Those of us who feel cheated by America’s Cup and SailGP races that take just 10 or 20 minutes to

sailinganarchy.com

 

[yoyo]

It must be a colossal PITA to put on a quality video production on the water compared to any land-based sporting event.
Sure, for the knowledgeable racer there are quirks to the SailGP coverage, narration, format, etc. But I find it hard to bitch too much especially when we can watch some of the world's best sailors go at it in high-speed machines for free on youtube with multiple events each year. Enjoy it for what it is - entertainment. Hopefully SailGP is successful at keeping this going for many more seasons.

 

[enigmatically2]

It must be a colossal PITA to put on a quality video production on the water compared to any land-based sporting event.
Sure, for the knowledgeable racer there are quirks to the SailGP coverage, narration, format, etc. But I find it hard to bitch too much especially when we can watch some of the world's best sailors go at it in high-speed machines for free on youtube with multiple events each year. Enjoy it for what it is - entertainment. Hopefully SailGP is successful at keeping this going for many more seasons.

I think that is fair, and it should be borne in mind that its fairly new compared to other sports so the skills take time to develop.
There are a few obvious issues that could be easily addressed though, e.g.
1) Someone needs to keep an eye on the wider picture for what is going on, because the commentator is looking at the front, but the action (or a significant boat for qual for the final) could be elsewhere. That person can then butt in
2) Boat speed is most relevant for records when rounding the top mark - so thats the one time you don't want it to disappear (even if there are issues with accuracy and you don't want someone saying a boat never reached a speed that is claimed later - just explain that it is averaged or whatever)
3) When not at the top mark, VMC/VMG would be better - surely they can be calculated given the information available. Harder to explain tro newbies I know, but people learn the most extraordinary things when watching sports- look at the stats given out for cricket or baseball forex
4) Get SailGP to think of a fairer penalty system- for a start it should be absolute rather than relative to another boat- but with the caveat that a boat shouldn't still gain
5) Get better at calculating the time/course length needed to get most of the competitors to finish

 

[Jethrow]

1) Someone needs to keep an eye on the wider picture for what is going on, because the commentator is looking at the front, but the action (or a significant boat for qual for the final) could be elsewhere. That person can then butt in

I'm not sure where I got this from, but I don't think the commentators are actually out on/near the course (or even in the same city)?

Aren't they just watching the same footage we see with maybe more feeds and commentating on that?

Some of the long pauses when speaking to a "live" person on the water indicate a distance delay.

 

[Stingray~]

I'm not sure where I got this from, but I don't think the commentators are actually out on/near the course (or even in the same city)?

Aren't they just watching the same footage we see with maybe more feeds and commentating on that?

Some of the long pauses when speaking to a "live" person on the water indicate a distance delay.

Correct, there are water-reports and such from onsite but much of the commentary comes from a studio in England, I think London somewhere.

It's hard to please everyone on what views to show but it's reasonably natural they will feature the leading boats more than the others. Just like in most any other race.

One of the minor innovations this time was when you could see the speed readouts above the boats change color from green to yellow to blue to red as they topped 80kph, 85kph, 90kph and 95 kph (or whatever the progression was) - that was kinda fun especially for on that extremely high-speed Day 1.

It will be interesting to see if AC37 boats will touch the almost-54 knots these guys did in St Tropez, that cavitation limit is outta-control speeds!

 

[ChairborneRanger]

I think that is fair, and it should be borne in mind that its fairly new compared to other sports so the skills take time to develop.
There are a few obvious issues that could be easily addressed though, e.g.
1) Someone needs to keep an eye on the wider picture for what is going on, because the commentator is looking at the front, but the action (or a significant boat for qual for the final) could be elsewhere. That person can then butt in
2) Boat speed is most relevant for records when rounding the top mark - so thats the one time you don't want it to disappear (even if there are issues with accuracy and you don't want someone saying a boat never reached a speed that is claimed later - just explain that it is averaged or whatever)
3) When not at the top mark, VMC/VMG would be better - surely they can be calculated given the information available. Harder to explain tro newbies I know, but people learn the most extraordinary things when watching sports- look at the stats given out for cricket or baseball forex
4) Get SailGP to think of a fairer penalty system- for a start it should be absolute rather than relative to another boat- but with the caveat that a boat shouldn't still gain
5) Get better at calculating the time/course length needed to get most of the competitors to finish

the main issue is that the commentators are in a different country and always commenting on something a couple of seconds behind RL events.

 

[Stingray~]

 

[Swanno]

Correct, there are water-reports and such from onsite but much of the commentary comes from a studio in England, I think London somewhere.

It's hard to please everyone on what views to show but it's reasonably natural they will feature the leading boats more than the others. Just like in most any other race.

One of the minor innovations this time was when you could see the speed readouts above the boats change color from green to yellow to blue to red as they topped 80kph, 85kph, 90kph and 95 kph (or whatever the progression was) - that was kinda fun especially for on that extremely high-speed Day 1.

It will be interesting to see if AC37 boats will touch the almost-54 knots these guys did in St Tropez, that cavitation limit is outta-control speeds!

Didn’t American Magic go past those speeds in their final races?

unfortunately we never got to see the ETNZ boat in any sort of wind because, as you know, she was rumoured to be a rocket

 

[dg_sailingfan]

Didn’t American Magic go past those speeds in their final races?

unfortunately we never got to see the ETNZ boat in any sort of wind because, as you know, she was rumoured to be a rocket

No they didn't!
Richard Gladwell confirmed in this Article that the French Team are now the fastest Sailboat on Planet Earth:

From RG:
That mark was set by the French team helmed by Quentin Delapierre on the final leg of Race 3 in front of a jubilant home crowd. According to what we have found, the top speed in San Francisco set by ETNZ in an AC72 was 48.12kts. Artemis Racing did 47.16kts in Bermuda in an AC50, and American Magic did 53.1 in Auckland in an AC75. The French AC50 is now the fastest foiler in a race, lifting the mark by almost 1kt.

American Magic had only 53.1 knot on that windy Day against LRPP in their Semifinal while the FRANCE SAIL GP TEAM had 53.963 knots.