Anarchy in the Cup game

Mr Clean of Sailing Anarchy (SAYC) the popular global sailing forum site has decided to enter an Anarchy entry into the next Americas cup. Although the team so far don't have any funding or a boat the activity in the last 24 hours on the site forums suggest that this challenge may not be as much fantasy as some may think...

for more infomation check out http://www.sailinganarchy.com/

Image from Sailing Anarchy

Virtual Sailing Stuff Up

All virtual sailors will of recieved an email from the Volvo Ocean Race Game control center regarding the course in Leg 3.
It seems that although in the real Volvo all sailor were instructed and made well aware of the dangers of Sri Lanka their virtual counter-part were left in the dark about this matter.
As a result of this many virtual sailors have choosen to sail in between the southern tip of India and the northern coast of Sri lanka, and a nightmare for game organisers as many players (myself included) think that it is unfair that these people should be let off for this. Game organisers have acknowledged that their sailing instructions were not clear enough and so all boats will be teleported to a gate of the southern coast of Sri Lanka at 10:00 GMT today.

Volvo Ocean Google Earth

With the teams carrying an embedded media crew member for the first time in the 35 year history of the race, more content is being shot, recorded and written than ever before.

Now, using the power of Google Earth, you can see, hear and read what the embedded media crew members and their team mates are experiencing as it's posted in Google Earth. It's another way to get the content from the race out to the public using the latest technology tools while at the same time adding another layer of context to the raw content.

"This is yet another tool, another option for fans of the race," says Andrew Ferguson, the Head of Technology and New Media for the Volvo Ocean Race. "In this case, we're using the power of Google Earth to provide an accurate representation of each leg through the media the sailors are providing."

To follow the Volvo Ocean Race on Google Earth, fans need to visit the Volvo Ocean Race website www.volvooceanrace.org/Multimedia/google, where they can download the Google Earth data file, (the 'KML' file), and find help and instructions in order to get started.

The Google Earth application joins the official websites and the mobile portal m.volvooceanrace.org as options for race fans to follow their favourite sailors in the Volvo Ocean Race. Check it out for leg three.

source : www.volvooceanrace.com

The Monster is back

The Monster is back. And there will be no excuses for poor sailing says the team.

The boat building team and the engineers have come up with and pulled off a small rebuild that has given the sailors the confidence to get back on the horse and push it hard. There is no other way right? The fore and aft stringers have been upgraded or replaced in about half of the boat. Not in a huge way, but certainly toughened up to the point where they can put up with a lot more abuse. The beauty of carbon and modern engineering is that all of this can happen with very little weight hit. All good from the sailors point of view. One of the big steps now is cleaning out a boat that has been a full work zone for days. Hot, dusty, and dirty- not exactly the perfect atmosphere for a work zone. At least there has been no rain. That would have made things a bit more difficult. So, we are ready to get back at it tomorrow. Boat goes in the water today (Tuesday) and hopefully sailing tomorrow afternoon. The machinery had to be ripped out of a large part of the interior to do the repairs so going sailing and finding the gremlins is a big deal. We have to find problems before we leave. That is the key. Next leg is shaping up to be a lot of light air upwind. Not exactly il mostro weather but we shall see. We are sailing again into parts of the world that have a lot of unknowns. It will be interesting no matter what. Fishing boats, nets, long lines, pirates, Indonesian Navy...oh and the other competitors. Not sure who or what will be a tougher challenge. Lets see if they can finally beat Ericson 4...

Broken Record

On Dcember 3rd British team Vestas Sailrocket piloted by Australian Paul Larsen has become the worlds fastest sailing ‘boat’ by sailing at an average speed over the 500 meter record course of 47.4 knots.

Following the sucessful run the team set out to gain the outright record for a sailing craft, it was on this attempt that the boat took off resulting in both the boat and helm, Paul Larsen flying 30 feet in te air, upside down; skiff sailors eat your heart out.

Pilot Paul Larsen - “Conditions were perfect and I was hungry to begin the record haul. After seven years of testing and refining this wonderful concept craft, I calmly felt that if it was going to happen... it would be today. VESTAS SAILROCKET flew down the course in perfect control. I sat at about 90-5% power and concentrated on sailing a good straight course close to the beach where the flat water was. I knew it was fast but was pretty surprised at the end at how fast it was... especially as I knew there was more to come. Malcolm’s design had performed just as he predicted. Of course I was pretty happy but the possibility of breaking the outright record was right before us so we turned the boat around and headed back up the magic mile for another crack at the record. At that stage I was unaware that we had punched a big hole through 50 knots. I didn't want to just rattle the oppositions cage... I wanted to crush it”

On the second run Larsen sheeted the solid wing in hard to get full power. Vestas Sailrocket accelerated like never before pulling 0.35 G’s up to a speed of 52 knots before taking off from the water like an airplane at the end of the runway.

Larsen - “As soon as the whole nose lifted I thought ‘oh s**t... we had discussed the possibility of this and here we are’. The nose just kept coming up and I was pure and simply flying. No noise, no spray... she just kept going up until I was vertical. I waited for an impact but there was none. When she went fully inverted and there was still no impact I knew I was a long way up...at least the height of the rig. At this stage I thought ‘when she hits upside down... get out as soon as you can’. She slammed down hard and despite a few bruises and a smashed helmet... I was out of that cockpit in a flash. It was pretty gutting but then it comes with the turf. We are sailing prototype craft to new extremes here."

The team will gather round and we will be back in action as soon as possible. I have no doubt that with a few tweaks to the geometry are predicted to absolutely smashed the outright.

The team anounced today that both the boat and crew are rpairable and should be out on the water by December 20th and are hoping to smash the record by Chistmas.

February 10th marks the final showdown in the current litigation between Ernesto Bertarelli of team Alinghi and Larry Ellison of team BMW Oracale racing. As that date gets closer, the peripheral characters to this drama are wheeling into action in the eyes of public opinion. Lawyers will tell you that their clients feel the greatest pressure to settle just before a big decision, and we will soon see the biggest decision in America's Cup in a very long time. That means the PR war will build to a fever pitch as the litigants and other teams try to influence the likelihood of a negotiated settlement through the court of public opinion.

Rolex Sailor of the Year, Team Origin helmsman and all time sailing legend Ben Ainslie went on record complaining about the “frustrating situation” just before getting beaten 3-0 by Dean Barker in the finals of the NZ Match Racing Championship this weekend. Alinghi's Brad Butterworth is quoted in an interview with Seahorse Magazine asking for BMW to enter the 33rd Cup and be “part of the process.” Today Valencia Sailing sent out a press release from the "Ayre Challenge,” pleading with GGYC to withdraw its suit and recognize that Alinghi's mood has changed.

According to the release, “After three meetings in Geneva, all participating teams have been able to confirm Alinghi’s predisposition to carry out the necessary modifications to the Protocol, the Event and Competition Regulations, as well as the design of the new box-rule, in a completely democratic way. As a result, great advances have been achieved in a short time.”

What we have heard in this last week sounds like music to the ears of all Cup fans, but they also provide nothing but conjecture from heavily invested parties. Despite these “democratic” meetings and the spirit of openness so lauded by these sound bites, the Protocol still hasn't been formally amended and Alinghi's mandatory non-disclosure agreement that kept Mescalzone Latino out of Geneva precludes anyone from actually saying what happened behind Bertarelli's locked doors...

Alinghi has cited “cost-cutting” as a primary goal, to make it easier for new teams to enter a competitive team into the cup, since the 33rd Protocol saw it's first storm of criticism (mainly from teams with lower budgets). If there was ever a time to gain public support with such a goal, now is it.

Although this idea is very good the fact that it was arranged behind the closed doors of Alinghi suggest that there will be some catch and so until we see an Amended Protocol that satisfactorily addresses the problematic parts of the existing protocol and binds SNG and ACM to its terms, I'm not buying it just yet.

What do you guy's think? Post your comments.

And remember to subscribe to this blog.

VOR - Green Dragon 'Foot Loose'

Looks like the fellas on the Dragon did a pretty good job sailing without their boom, at least in this picture by Rick Tomlinson, on their 7th place finish approach of the Volvo Ocean Race leg two in Cochin, India.

Virtual Sailing ...

Currently high profile in the sailing media virtual sailing is an obsession that is taking over the lives of sailors around the globe.

With recent attention being put on the Volvo Ocean Race it is no doubt that one of the most popular sites for virtual sailors is the Volvo Ocean Race Game. In this race skippers drive their own Open 70 racing the legs of the Volvo Ocean race with real time wind data and boat speeds.

Similar to the Volvo Ocean Race Game is the 'more challenging' Vendee Globe Game. Run by the same company as the Volvo the Vendee Globe Game is the ultimate challenge for sailors who share the enthusiasm for off shore as some of the big guns although with out the extravagant budget, element of risk and in the comfort of their front room or office.

Some of the many problems with these games are as follows :-
- Whilst the game experience does feel very 'real' the server does not have the capacity to update the monitors of all 150,000 users in real time. To avoid the frustrating lag time this would cause the game has been programmed to update every 10 minutes.

- Although the games are free to subscribe to the more advanced options such as auto-helm, auto-sail changes and sail repairs cost money. And no body want to pay for internet sailing.

- The game is still very new and there are many bugs in the system. These have frustrated many virtual sailors.

If the idea of long distance real time offshore sailing isn't for you then there is an alternative. Sailx is a round the cans tactical simulator, where users battle against realistic wind and tide conditions (and each other) in one of the best sailing games around. Like the other games reestration is free and sailors can try their hand at sailing lasers, catamarans, skiffs and keelboats.

Check out what you are missing out on at the following links :-

Volvo Ocean Race Game - www.volvooceanracegame.com
Vendee Globe Game - www.virtualregatta.com
Sailx - www.sailx.com (previously www.tacticat.com)

enjoy,

bowman :)