Basic game question
Post by iconPost by Betterman | 2020-12-04 | 15:59:45

Hi, I should start by saying I really have no clue. I've never been sailing in my life but have a passing interest in the Volvo race cause they stop in Cape Town and the pictures look cool. My knowledge level is novice!

My question, mostly about the game, but I guess also about sailing; last night as my virtual boat moved along the due east ice limit I just tacked once but noticed some of the boats around me tacked a few times - some almost zigzaged along the line. (The wind seemed the same everywhere.) I did this cause 1) I didn't want to risk going close to the ice zone while I was sleeping 2) if I loose 50% speed for a minute every time I tack surely this is slower.

Why would you choose to tack repeatedly? At the end having rounded the turn it's looks to me like nothing has changed position wise anyway. So why risk it?

commenticon 6 Comments
Post by iconPost by Retsam | 2020-12-04 | 16:41:21
Welcome Betterman! If you took part in 40 VRs (from VG profile) and now you are around 3000 place, you have many talents for a novice.

But the is no shame to ask question and my answer comes from 'Polars'. They are optimising the route by hand (and spreadsheet), taking into account VMG angles, minimal tackle count and avoiding polars 'defects'. Every knot counts!

Take care.
Post by iconPost by BooBill | 2020-12-04 | 17:33:18
If you are talking about bouncing along the top of the ice line 24 hours ago, there was more wind if you stuck close to the limit. The little bit of extra speed (at 150twa you keep accelerating up to 30knts wind speed), outweighed the time cost of the extra gybes.
Post by iconPost by zezo | 2020-12-04 | 19:37:47
Even if wind is the same the distance gets shorter as you go South. There is a point where the tacking penalty becomes smaller than the difference of the distance sailed.

The difference between Earth circumferences at 43S and 42S is about 1.5%
Post by iconPost by Betterman | 2020-12-04 | 20:45:56
Thanks everyone - yes, was talking about the bouncing
Post by iconPost by Retsam | 2020-12-04 | 22:00:07
You can calculate it by yourself:

cos(42S) / cos (43S) = 1.01612, so 1.612% when traveling on parallel, of course. Guys going over Kerguelen (50S) being now on 42S, will have 15.6% advantage when heading E.
Post by iconPost by zezo | 2020-12-04 | 22:02:04
The devil is in the cosine ;-)
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