VOR 2014-15 - Leg 1

[jbc]

Someone mentioned up-thread that AbuDhabi (sponsor) has to approve all content before it is released, this in addition to Volvo's approval = time consuming...

FWIW - I don't think any of the other teams are any less focussed on winning, this is exactly the reason why they have the OBR - content was suffering when sailors were doing it, as they were focussed on winning (and rightly so!). The OBR's sole responsibility is the content that comes off the boat (and the food) - so perhaps that is it - ADOR is focussing on the food?

Ah. That makes a lot of sense. Thanks!

 

[umpire]

according to the tracker ADOR is heading north!

 

[Breitling]

according to the tracker ADOR is heading north!

ADOR has no data available in the last sched (Na). That is shown in the tracker as north heading and 0 kt.

 

[weightless]

^^^ Yeah and their track and Brunel's had gotten a bit odd of late. Looks like corrupt / missing data.

 

[JeronimoII]

never believe the official tracker. A shame, but that's the case.

All out of the doldrums. 100nm lead on Vestas, 150nm on DG, Mapfre and Alvi, 200nm to the girls. A huge gap. It looks like Ian and Bouwe are going to match race this one all the way to Cape Town. The forecast could have them hug the coast almost until Uruguay. Did anyone ever try to go above the Saint Helena high?

 

[Micke]

never believe the official tracker. A shame, but that's the case.

All out of the doldrums. 100nm lead on Vestas, 150nm on DG, Mapfre and Alvi, 200nm to the girls. A huge gap. It looks like Ian and Bouwe are going to match race this one all the way to Cape Town. The forecast could have them hug the coast almost until Uruguay. Did anyone ever try to go above the Saint Helena high?

Highly doubt it. I can't come up with a weather scenario when that would be the fastest way to Cape Town. But, if someone more knowledgeable can prove me wrong, I'm all ears!

 

[thetruth]

One thing you can count on. Chicks being last with 3 extra people. Anyone who thinks that they are even remotely competitive needs thier head read. But hey it is a light air leg so I guess the extra weight of the 3 crew slows them down?

 

[sfigone]

I got a response from VOR to the feedback I gave them on the tracker app. So firstly it is great that they responded and it was a point by point, so they took the time to read my complaint in detail.

Here are my complaints:

• It is an around the world race being following all around the world. Saying "last update at 1830" it absolutely meaningless. Try "last update 1h30m ago".
• Better yet, have a live tracker! why do we have to wait hours between updates?
• But if you have to have updates every few hours, don't say "next update in 15 minutes" and then in 15 minutes time when a user comes back to look you say "next update shortly".
• The watch log is good, but you have to update it more than a few times per day. Surely you can come up with some expert who has a decent view of the weather and tracks to come up with a few paragraphs of commentary every few hours.
• Speaking of a decent view of the weather... Really? Those huge animated arrows are the best you can do? Also can't you replay the weather when the tracks are replayed.
• And why do the tracks need fancy graphics drivers to watch? The 2D tracker has the resolution of "somewhere south of Spain sometime in the last few hours". The 3D tracker needs to download the entire internet and then doesn't work unless you have a fancy graphics card. Android tracker is OK, but could do with velocity vectors.
• Android App is OK, but do we really have to waste time and battery watching the faces flick past every time we start it?

and their response was:


1 - We have changed the way the update time displays so it show the time to next update. I hope that has improved things for you.

2 - The teams have access to the internet just as we do so if we released a live tracker they would have live information about each others wind speed, direction etc. This would make the racing less interesting. We have live information at the HQ and as we get close to the finish we will track them live.

3 - Unfortunately the data system is all automated and occasionally it takes longer to process and update all the systems we are feeding with this data than the scheduled time.

4 - Hopefully the amount of video & text output about the racing has increased since your time of writing, we will constantly try to push to increase the quality and quantity of this as the race go's on.

5 - The wind arrows have changed to be similar to the meteo earth ones, although I appreciate they won't be to everyones tastes (especially experienced offshore sailors) we feel they are easier for someone less experienced to read. If you use a computer with the tracker now you can hover over anywhere on the map to get the wind direction and speed.

6 & 7 - Thanks for your feedback on this, your points have been taken onboard. Unfortunately the 3d system is fairly graphics processing heavy.
I do hope you are enjoying the close racing.

So they have not improved much, but at least they are listening. Looking forward to live updates close to the finish, but probably the boats will be more spread out by then. When the boats were all within visual and/or AIS range, I think they should give us the live data as there is no benefit to the teams getting on the network!

cheers

 

[thetruth]

Staggered they needed to be told. This tech is old and they cant get it right. But hey Knutsy is in charge and all over it....................just let Mark Turner and OC do this race.........................

 

[Tunnel Rat]

never believe the official tracker. A shame, but that's the case.

All out of the doldrums. 100nm lead on Vestas, 150nm on DG, Mapfre and Alvi, 200nm to the girls. A huge gap. It looks like Ian and Bouwe are going to match race this one all the way to Cape Town. The forecast could have them hug the coast almost until Uruguay. Did anyone ever try to go above the Saint Helena high?

Highly doubt it. I can't come up with a weather scenario when that would be the fastest way to Cape Town. But, if someone more knowledgeable can prove me wrong, I'm all ears!

I seem to remember from watching the reports of some of the early races that some boats tried going the "direct route" and got spanked. I don't have the patience to sit through them all again to confirm this. I don't think anyone has gone that way in recent times.

 

[onimod]

The tracker is crap.

They are not improving things.

What do they think will happen when their 'less experienced' fans become experienced at reading a tracker?

They have a responsibility to educate fans, not dumb it down to bore any real fans to death.

If they're not interested in producing an acceptable product then they should just piss off and feed the data to someone who is interested in actual sailing.

Again - a TV filler graphic IS NOT A TRACKER.

 

[Rainbow Spirit]

I tried going over the Saint Helena high in the VORG in 2008, at first you got great DTF as you pointed almost directly at CT, but it is an upwind grind, traveling at around 10/12kts, whilst those that went south picked up strong following winds and motored away in the 20kt range.

 

[peragrin]

One thing you can count on. Chicks being last with 3 extra people. Anyone who thinks that they are even remotely competitive needs thier head read. But hey it is a light air leg so I guess the extra weight of the 3 crew slows them down?

I was wondering but then stop and do the math. 12 chicks, averaging 130 pounds each, versus 9 guys averaging 170 pounds each. The girls out weigh the guys by 50 pounds give or take. Women even active women consume far less calories than men too. Even with the extra food requirements, I bet the girls are no more than 200 pounds heavier from a crew and consumable perspective.

All that said while the leaders have taken off the back of the pack are still with in 50 miles of each other. with positions 3-7 anyone's game.

 

[Kia Ora]

Any idea if there is any way to take times at the rounding of the mark?

Stop watch would work.

Would suggest a chronometer of sorts.

 

[estarzinger]

. Did anyone ever try to go above the Saint Helena high?

Highly doubt it. I can't come up with a weather scenario when that would be the fastest way to Cape Town. But, if someone more knowledgeable can prove me wrong, I'm all ears!

The high is not completely stable. Isabelle Autissier managed to sail right "thru the middle" one year when a front split it. BOC 1994, if I remember correctly.

 

[Kia Ora]

never believe the official tracker. A shame, but that's the case.

All out of the doldrums. 100nm lead on Vestas, 150nm on DG, Mapfre and Alvi, 200nm to the girls. A huge gap. It looks like Ian and Bouwe are going to match race this one all the way to Cape Town. The forecast could have them hug the coast almost until Uruguay. Did anyone ever try to go above the Saint Helena high?

Had a wee boo at windfinder and there is a huge soft patch in the way.

Passageweather shows the same.

Problem is the soft patch gets bigger and bigger the further south you go.

Uruguay looks like (an) (the) (pick one) option, but then the challenge is getting back up to Capetown.

 

[greasy al]

One thing you can count on. Chicks being last with 3 extra people. Anyone who thinks that they are even remotely competitive needs thier head read. But hey it is a light air leg so I guess the extra weight of the 3 crew slows them down?

Stay classy, truth.

 

[couchsurfer]

One thing you can count on. Chicks being last with 3 extra people. Anyone who thinks that they are even remotely competitive needs thier head read. But hey it is a light air leg so I guess the extra weight of the 3 crew slows them down?

I was wondering but then stop and do the math. 12 chicks, averaging 130 pounds each, versus 9 guys averaging 170 pounds each. The girls out weigh the guys by 50 pounds give or take. Women even active women consume far less calories than men too. Even with the extra food requirements, I bet the girls are no more than 200 pounds heavier from a crew and consumable perspective.

All that said while the leaders have taken off the back of the pack are still with in 50 miles of each other. with positions 3-7 anyone's game.

.

.

......mannnn...one thing you can count on is this guy's undying need to denigrate the women...facts,math and having a good turn at the front seem to mean absolutely nothing. The chart in post1052 should be informative ....but ohh,wait the truth cretin has spoken <_<

from the round britain race....

...............................With a team of the best offshore women sailors this will finally prove that they are not equal to men. The concept, theory and bullshit is tiresome. They cannot and will not beat men whatever the rules are. I will follow Dalt's lead on this one and rather than a pineapple up my arse I will go further and have Detroit Dawn (the greatest advocate of being "equal") strap on (unless she has grown a monster of her own) and butt fuck me on a live web cam.

....a lot of wishful thinking there,'mate'...I can't imagine any of the women named would care to get closer to you than a baseball or cricket bat will allow.

........the sound of your insecurities is -deafening-,,,and no I don't know care who you are <_<

.......as far as predictions go,I'll bet that the boats with the most RTW veterans who've sailed together will have the early advantage-pretty simple........probably not much difference between our early predictions--just very different reason. It could be said that if women were given the range of opportunity all along,there'd be more RTW veterans amongst them!

.......'stay classy'.....indeed.

 

[couchsurfer]

never believe the official tracker. A shame, but that's the case.

All out of the doldrums. 100nm lead on Vestas, 150nm on DG, Mapfre and Alvi, 200nm to the girls. A huge gap. It looks like Ian and Bouwe are going to match race this one all the way to Cape Town. The forecast could have them hug the coast almost until Uruguay. Did anyone ever try to go above the Saint Helena high?

Had a wee boo at windfinder and there is a huge soft patch in the way.

Passageweather shows the same.

Problem is the soft patch gets bigger and bigger the further south you go.

Uruguay looks like (an) (the) (pick one) option, but then the challenge is getting back up to Capetown.

.

.....yeh,,,saw that yesterday ....time to stretch the rations? :huh:

 

[RenBoss]

I got a response from VOR to the feedback I gave them on the tracker app. So firstly it is great that they responded and it was a point by point, so they took the time to read my complaint in detail.

Here are my complaints:

• It is an around the world race being following all around the world. Saying "last update at 1830" it absolutely meaningless. Try "last update 1h30m ago".
• Better yet, have a live tracker! why do we have to wait hours between updates?
• But if you have to have updates every few hours, don't say "next update in 15 minutes" and then in 15 minutes time when a user comes back to look you say "next update shortly".
• The watch log is good, but you have to update it more than a few times per day. Surely you can come up with some expert who has a decent view of the weather and tracks to come up with a few paragraphs of commentary every few hours.
• Speaking of a decent view of the weather... Really? Those huge animated arrows are the best you can do? Also can't you replay the weather when the tracks are replayed.
• And why do the tracks need fancy graphics drivers to watch? The 2D tracker has the resolution of "somewhere south of Spain sometime in the last few hours". The 3D tracker needs to download the entire internet and then doesn't work unless you have a fancy graphics card. Android tracker is OK, but could do with velocity vectors.
• Android App is OK, but do we really have to waste time and battery watching the faces flick past every time we start it?

and their response was:


1 - We have changed the way the update time displays so it show the time to next update. I hope that has improved things for you.

2 - The teams have access to the internet just as we do so if we released a live tracker they would have live information about each others wind speed, direction etc. This would make the racing less interesting. We have live information at the HQ and as we get close to the finish we will track them live.

3 - Unfortunately the data system is all automated and occasionally it takes longer to process and update all the systems we are feeding with this data than the scheduled time.

4 - Hopefully the amount of video & text output about the racing has increased since your time of writing, we will constantly try to push to increase the quality and quantity of this as the race go's on.

5 - The wind arrows have changed to be similar to the meteo earth ones, although I appreciate they won't be to everyones tastes (especially experienced offshore sailors) we feel they are easier for someone less experienced to read. If you use a computer with the tracker now you can hover over anywhere on the map to get the wind direction and speed.

6 & 7 - Thanks for your feedback on this, your points have been taken onboard. Unfortunately the 3d system is fairly graphics processing heavy.
I do hope you are enjoying the close racing.

So they have not improved much, but at least they are listening. Looking forward to live updates close to the finish, but probably the boats will be more spread out by then. When the boats were all within visual and/or AIS range, I think they should give us the live data as there is no benefit to the teams getting on the network!

cheers

Epic post is Epic!