The Ocean Race 2023 / GAME / One More Time - Around The World

Tunnel Rat · Mar 21, 2023

Good morning,

Back to life on the ice limit. This time, as discussed above, the optimum routing is short gybing to stay in the best pressure, however the energy aspect is causing split solutions. Some, such as Breitling are short gybing, as though energy is not an issue. JeSa has been leading the long gybe group, keeping at VMG angles, but taking long gybes to allow stamina to rebuild. Others, such as Gybe Turkey and Mom are trying the straight line approach and completely ignoring optimal VMG angles.

kea.nn has taken an alternative course of action and ignored the ice limit completely and gone straight through it, this didn't seem to give the optimal result.

Looking ahead, we should get to Cape Horn in about 5.5 days with reasonably settled Southern Ocean conditions. The 5.5 days up the S Atlantic to Itajai seem to be full of booby traps ready for those not paying attention.

Rankings that (for once) seem to bear some resemblance to reality.

22-Mar
02:30UTC
Place	SA Name	Boat Name	Dist to Leader
1	viper43	viper640	4540.2
2	JeSa-SA	JeSa	0.13
3	Gybe Turkey	Gybe Turkey	2.9
4	Your Mom	Your Mom SA	5.2
5	Breitling	Breitling_SA	5.6
6	Blue Mountain YC	shockwave11	7.6
7	prettyhatemachine	prettyhatemachine	8.9
8	Tunnel Rat	Mongrel	10
9		tcross	11.4
10	Sapphire Girl	Sapphire Girl	16.8
11	eliboat	Hoople	23
12	Driftwood	Me Rongo Rekohu SA	24.8
13	SailingMyCubicle	SailingMyCubicle	32.3
14	kea.nn	kea.nn SA	41
15		Mozzie 2	53.5
16	Mike G	MikeVentura	57.2
17	sbpoint	Sbpoint	72.7
18		MikeMike	78.8
19	mad	Sticky	88.3
20	12345	Siafu	123.4
21	Jean-Baptiste	HelloKitty-Iceland	521.1

Breitling · Mar 22, 2023

Nice move crawling the ice limit at 153º, took me by surprise. Anyway I managed not to lose so much.

Breitling · Mar 22, 2023

kea.nn said:
could be worse .. screwing up (distracted & not hitting 'save') and already spending over 1hr below ice limit, + going to spend longer to get back above it

That really hurts ! Push hard, you´re now in good wind.

JeSa-SA · Mar 22, 2023

Breitling said:
Nice move crawling the ice limit at 153º, took me by surprise. Anyway I managed not to lose so much.

Caught me by surprise too! I bounced off the ice limit and it looked like the guys around me had forgotten how to turn, or stuck their tongue out of the boat a little too long and got it stuck on the frozen ice limit, lol

By the time I realized what was going on, and that the 160º was quickly going to turn to a comfortable 153º for them, I was committed to the long gybe and waiting for a header to rejoin the herd.

Tunnel Rat · Mar 22, 2023

Good morning,

Most of us have gybed onto starboard and are now proceeding along the northern section of the ice limit. I gybed early (because I was asleep) and am not hugging the ice limit with a slow angle, but shorter distance, while others such as Viper gybed much later and now are screaming in towards the NE corner of this exclusion zone.

There will be a slide towards the SE and then back to the fun and games of gybing along the ice limit. It will be interesting to see if everyone will stick their tongues to the boundary markers and go deep, very deep.....

Rankings which are remarkably similar to yesterday.

23-Mar
01:00UTC
Place	SA Name	Boat Name	Dist to Leader
1	viper43	viper640	3983.8
2	Gybe Turkey	Gybe Turkey	2.7
3	Your Mom	Your Mom SA	4.5
4	Breitling	Breitling_SA	4.9
5	JeSa-SA	JeSa	7.1
6	Tunnel Rat	Mongrel	7.2
7	Blue Mountain YC	shockwave11	8
8	prettyhatemachine	prettyhatemachine	10.5
9	Sapphire Girl	Sapphire Girl	20.2
10		tcross	22.1
11	Driftwood	Me Rongo Rekohu SA	28.6
12	kea.nn	kea.nn SA	41.4
13	eliboat	Hoople	44.3
14	SailingMyCubicle	SailingMyCubicle	51.3
15		Mozzie 2	56.3
16	Mike G	MikeVentura	79.3
17	sbpoint	Sbpoint	114.8
18		MikeMike	148.8
19	mad	Sticky	151.6
20	12345	Siafu	196.5
21	Jean-Baptiste	HelloKitty-Iceland	1011.1

Tunnel Rat · Mar 23, 2023

Good morning,

The ice limit has trended more SEwards, as the winds clocks towards the NW. Soon the wind will be running directly along the ice limit. Strategies to deal with this scenario remain to be seen.

However, the preparations for this vary: Mom has stormed into the lead by having her/his tongue stuck to the boundary, which will lead to an early gybe, or running very deep angles; while others are running deeper early and hoping to reduce the number of gybes, or the length of time needed for deep running. Gybes in the forecast wind speed will use up 20% of stamina, and doing multiple gybes will be expensive speed wise.

Anyway, the weekend is approaching which involves a couple of nights out and a day of sailing. This sounds wonderful, but is fraught with danger for standings in the game. Wish me well!

Vaguely representative rankings:

24-Mar
01:00UTC
Place	SA Name	Boat Name	Dist to Leader
1	Your Mom	Your Mom SA	3325.4
2	Breitling	Breitling_SA	1.5
3	Gybe Turkey	Gybe Turkey	1.6
4	viper43	viper640	1.9
5	JeSa-SA	JeSa	4.7
6	prettyhatemachine	prettyhatemachine	5.9
7	Blue Mountain YC	shockwave11	6.1
8	Tunnel Rat	Mongrel	11.8
9	Sapphire Girl	Sapphire Girl	17.8
10	Driftwood	Me Rongo Rekohu SA	24.9
11	kea.nn	kea.nn SA	38.8
12		tcross	39.8
13	eliboat	Hoople	44.6
14		Mozzie 2	54.4
15	SailingMyCubicle	SailingMyCubicle	65.6
16	Mike G	MikeVentura	85.5
17	sbpoint	Sbpoint	154.5
18	mad	Sticky	202
19		MikeMike	210.8
20	12345	Siafu	255.7
21	Jean-Baptiste	HelloKitty-Iceland	1515.1

DRIFTW00D · Mar 24, 2023

Going 7 knots DDW in 20 TWS ts not what I expected this morning, OUCH! Now I know why the real boats went north……it’s just a game.

Breitling · Mar 24, 2023

Now I have an outstanding companion, I will know the daily reports before you do.

Edit: he´s gone...

DRIFTW00D · Mar 25, 2023

Go Faster mom you go the 50s nailed down. And viper you are just fast… go the Viper! I’m just a 2000 player, to much sleeping on watch I guess. What daily reports are you talking about Bert?

Your Mom · Mar 26, 2023

DRIFTW00D said:
Go Faster mom you go the 50s nailed down. And viper you are just fast… go the Viper! I’m just a 2000 player, to much sleeping on watch I guess. What daily reports are you talking about Bert?

I screwed up. I was moving up despite sailing a real world regatta. On the way home, I did a gybe sumlutaneously with a sailchange to LG, which is beneficial if done correctly. When I got home, I decided to turn autosails back on. Unfortunately, 2 minutes later, I briefly sailed into more than the 18.22 windspeed limit, So went back to HG. 20 minutes later, of course, it was time to go back to LG again. So I lost 3 miles and 100 stamina.

The lesson in this is... don't mess with advanced techniques like turning off autosails unless you're ready to really focus on zero mistakes. Really grumpy right now.

JeSa-SA · Mar 26, 2023

Your Mom said:
I screwed up.

You're not alone, Mom. I think I've gone through an accidental triple sail change twice on this leg already

You'll be catching up to the lead again real soon, I'm sure.

Your Mom said:
I did a gybe sumlutaneously with a sailchange to LG, which is beneficial if done correctly.

I've been wondering about this. The time penalties actually overlap, they don't add up?

Tunnel Rat · Mar 26, 2023

Good morning,

After a weekend of fun activities, which included racing being abandoned due to a large tropical thunderstorm, we can concentrate on virtual sailing again.

There have been a lot of gybes between the last report and the current situation, but the leading gang are just SW of Cape Horn and should pass the line of longitude within the next day. Zezo is being rather indecisive about routing and changing minds on a regular basis, but it currently looks as though east of the Falklands is the way to go. Time will tell.

Current rankings with a heavy bias towards the northerners.

27-Mar
04:00UTC
Place	SA Name	Boat Name	Dist to Leader
1	viper43	viper640	2121.8
2	Gybe Turkey	Gybe Turkey	7.3
3	JeSa-SA	JeSa	9.2
4	Your Mom	Your Mom SA	14.6
5	Tunnel Rat	Mongrel	16.3
6	Blue Mountain YC	shockwave11	16.8
7	Breitling	Breitling_SA	27.3
8	prettyhatemachine	prettyhatemachine	29.4
9	Sapphire Girl	Sapphire Girl	38.2
10	kea.nn	kea.nn SA	42.2
11		tcross	69.3
12	Driftwood	Me Rongo Rekohu SA	113.3
13	SailingMyCubicle	SailingMyCubicle	122.1
14	eliboat	Hoople	129.3
15		Mozzie 2	140.4
16	Mike G	MikeVentura	148.4
17	sbpoint	Sbpoint	298.3
18	mad	Sticky	387.6
19		MikeMike	484.6
20	12345	Siafu	488.9
21	Jean-Baptiste	HelloKitty-Iceland	2430.8

Your Mom · Mar 27, 2023

JeSa-SA said:
You're not alone, Mom. I think I've gone through an accidental triple sail change twice on this leg already You'll be catching up to the lead again real soon, I'm sure.

I've been wondering about this. The time penalties actually overlap, they don't add up?

If you execute the gybe (or tack) in the same minute as the sailchange, there are two benefits:
-Both get executed with the same stamina, instead of the second one being executed with the stamina reduce from the first one.
-The percentage speed losses are compounded... so instead of getting two separate penalties of 30% each, you get one for about 50%, which is a little better.

You still take the full stamina loss of both maneuvers summed. (And then if you turn autosails back on and change sails back and then change sails again, like I did, you suffer two more huge penalties and drop your stamina to zero, so the pain of your stupidity lingers for a day or more...)

Breitling · Mar 27, 2023

What a bad approach to the Horn I´ve made, most probably I´ve lost pace with the leader group for the rest of the leg.

JeSa-SA · Mar 27, 2023

Thanks for the insights, Mom! I was halfway hoping that doing both at about the same time would 'hide' one within the other (i.e., only cost you the larger of the two penalties), but that would be unfair, I get it.

Tunnel Rat · Mar 27, 2023

Good morning,

A forecast change while I slept meant that I was a lot further south of Cape Horn than optimal, but no big losses, such as running aground which is what I was fearing.

The leading group are currently negotiating the Le Maire Straits under the influence of a large low situated to the east of us, providing strong southerlies. It looks as if the following group will go outside the Isla de los Estados. The low will track of to the south-east and in 24-36 hours will be replaced by a confusing mass of highs, lows and front. It will be messy. Easy to lose a lot of ground here. East or west of the Falklands may well be a critical choice.

Another gilt-edged opportunity for huge pain will spring up in about 3 days when a small high is forecast to jump out from Argentina, in front of the fleet. Timing will be everything.

BTW, this leg started on 26th Feb - so going over a month now.

Here are the rankings which seem to be increasingly reasonable:

28-Mar
02:00UTC
Place	SA Name	Boat Name	Dist to Leader
1	viper43	viper640	1777.5
2	Gybe Turkey	Gybe Turkey	8.9
3	JeSa-SA	JeSa	12.8
4	Your Mom	Your Mom SA	14.4
5	Blue Mountain YC	shockwave11	17.9
6	Tunnel Rat	Mongrel	30.6
7	Breitling	Breitling_SA	40.1
8	prettyhatemachine	prettyhatemachine	54.1
9	Sapphire Girl	Sapphire Girl	57.9
10		tcross	74
11	kea.nn	kea.nn SA	97.3
12	Driftwood	Me Rongo Rekohu SA	103.5
13	eliboat	Hoople	109.5
14	SailingMyCubicle	SailingMyCubicle	122.6
15		Mozzie 2	181.5
16	Mike G	MikeVentura	195.7
17		MikeMike	508.1
18	mad	Sticky	521.6
19	12345	Siafu	521.8
20	sbpoint	Sbpoint	549.5
21	Jean-Baptiste	HelloKitty-Iceland	2510.8

Gybe Turkey · Mar 28, 2023

It has become very tiring trying to manage sail changes and stamina levels and I just can't get it right (preventing multiple changes in a relatively short periods of time). In my opinion the penalty is way too severe but somehow still managing to hang in there. Anyway, I realize that this is a major component of the game and requires way more time and precision than I am willing to give.

As always, thanks for the commentary and updates TR!

DRIFTW00D · Mar 28, 2023

Breitling said:
What a bad approach to the Horn I´ve made, most probably I´ve lost pace with the leader group for the rest of the leg.

Welcome to the cheep seats.. also rans.. the 1000+ crowd Mome got hammered too!
The big hole ahead is our last chance anyone else see the beach as the way?

Breitling · Mar 28, 2023

DRIFTW00D said:
Welcome to the cheep seats.. also rans.. the 1000+ crowd Mome got hammered too!
The big hole ahead is our last chance anyone else see the beach as the way?

I´m desperately trying the outer route with poor to none chances to regain leadership positions, no other clear choices for me now.

Anyway my latest poor performance has a reason, an infamous german arrived home (Alzheimer), so probably this is my last leg with you all. My mind is far away from the game and real world sailing, I need to focus all my attention on my wife. Sad, but that´s what life brings me now.

JeSa-SA · Mar 28, 2023

Breitling said:
What a bad approach to the Horn I´ve made, most probably I´ve lost pace with the leader group for the rest of the leg.

I'm starting to like the East-of-the-Falklands route you're on more and more. I gave it a strong look for a long while yesterday and am kicking myself! Too many obstacles yet to know which way is going to pay off, but you might cross the finish line ahead of everyone here!

Of course, I'm only saying it out loud here to jinx it for you

Gybe Turkey - I hear ya, I think I'm sleeping about as much as the folks in the real yachts!

Driftwood - The beach never stops calling

And big props to prettyhatemachine who's threading the needle in the Falklands at the moment!

The Ocean Race 2023 / GAME / One More Time - Around The World

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