KNRM

Saturday 14 May 2011

FINISHED in Zeilen TransOcean sailing Race

HURRAY...HURRAY...HURRAY 


Suratna has Finished her Zeilen TransOcean Sailing Race in Paramaribo, and ultimately reached the 25th Place; some 6 hours, 15 minutes and 51 seconds behind the Winner. (+ 6h 15m 51s). 


The last day was a glorious day as my plan to make a strategic move to the North-West to start the Ultimate End-Sprint worked out Fantastic. 
I managed to set heading to the Finish about 11 hrs before and in that stretch I could pass some 38 boats, :)




A screen shot for the Podium Winners:
1st Place for Cagouille17 in a winning time of 11 days, 8 hours, 43 minutes and 50 seconds
2nd Place for Fourwinds1000 who finished only 16 minutes and 32 seconds later
3rd Place for Dilolo who came in 32 minutes and 43 seconds after the winner. 


A complete ranking list can be found here : LiveSkipper - Ranking Zeilen TransOcean Sailing Race


A like to conclude showing the map of the route that Suratna followed (link also on the right in the list of links)


I  like to thank, my followers and readers, the organisers , Nauticlink and Zeilen Magazine and not in the least LiveSkipper for allowing their Marvelous sailing simulator to complete this beautiful Zeilen TransOcean Sailing Race. 


Note: for sailors that appreciate virtual sailing, Liveskipper is organizing a new but shorter race in Japan on 21st May starting at 08:00 GMT. Hope to see you there. 

End-Sprint to Paramaribo

I think I found out the Best location for the End-Sprint start to the Finish in Paramaribo !
it is coordinate N: 9degree 32' 26' and W:52degree 15' 35"


My placing at the moment of making my last jibe was 63. 


I am sailing on the Final Course to the Finish of the Zeilen TransOcean sailing race to Paramaribo.
Since the moment of my last jibe, I have gained already some 5 places and my rank now is 58. I hope I have the good line to pass some more boats.


The Podium is now too far for me. Some 2 days back I should have sailed further South for the stronger winds. However I didn’t.:(


I will report once Finished.

Thursday 12 May 2011

The best Location/Time to start the End Sprint

The wind is stronger and the boats are sailing beautiful with mid twenty kts of boatspeeds. The Fleet has moved more to the South last day, except that I found myself almost as the most Northerly boat in the fleet this morning. 
Luckily the wind direction gave me best approach speed to the Finish in going South and I can close the gap maybe a little.


Still difficult to say what will be the best approach to Paramaribo. South has the best wind speeds but then the winds are more easterly there, which would either push you further south for the final jibe or would force a jibe just before the Finish. 
Most likely the Finish of the first boats will be tomorrow mid-day gmt; but...........tomorrow is Friday 13th May ?!


My rank this morning 18 in a still growing fleet of 1062 boats.

Wednesday 11 May 2011

How to Approach the Last part of the Atlantic?

Today I see some two groups forming in the middle of the Atlantic passage? This is strange for me, as I can see only one route , jibing till the Finish. Maybe I have to do some simulations in the LiveSkipper simulator to see which of those groups has the better strategy. Funny thing however is, that both groups have some of the better sailing strategist !

Or................would it be the story of the 2 dogs fighting and the 3rd getting the bone? So if I keep sailing on headings around the direct line of sight, I might get the benefit ; at least my placing is improving greatly !!! So maybe , maybe ?

Winds are still in the same NE corner but picking up in the mid teen Kts. The boatspeed is nicely now 25 kts and I have to be careful not to spill my coffee , Irish coffee that is of course.

My Rank this morning : 24th   in a fleet of 1059 boats.

Tuesday 10 May 2011

In the middle of the Water

Sailing across the Atlantic. The wind is nice constantly from the NE directions and strength comfortable just over 10 kts. This allows to sail the boat in the high teens boat speed giving a very nice sailing experience.
And though some boats have slightly different routes, the majority of the fleet is keeping a common route.


Distance sailed yesterday about 577 Km = 312 Nm, not a bad day of sailing I would say.


My rank now 34 with 1058 participants in the TransOceans race.

Monday 9 May 2011

Passed Cape Verde Islands

So early last Night Suratna passed and validated the Gate at Cape Verde Islands. In the process I won many places , mainly by steering close to the Western buoy to reduce the overshoot to the minimum .

Now we are sailing in Westerly direction towards Paramaribo in a nice 12 kts NE breeze. The wind is veering more towards ENE in coming hours.

I have to make a study of the wind situation, should have done that maybe before, to see what is the best and fastest route to the Finish, as the winds in the South are stronger, but the wind-angle to wards Paramaribo is not that favourable.

Just you show you the route followed so far a screenshot of the TransOcean map, see link on the right.


My rank this morning is 40 in a still growing fleet of 1049 boats. For a ranking list see Ranking list

Sunday 8 May 2011

Target Cape Verde Islands

The target for today is to pass the Gate at the Cape Verde Islands and validate before turning the Heading West to Paramaribo.
Yesterday, we had a weakening wind (<10kts) that slowed the boatspeed. The wind direction was not too bad and we could use the Genaker as most effective sail. 
Today offers a little better wind and the direction is still fine from NE. 
ETA at the gate is Sunday 15:00 GMT, wind permitting.

I see some boats sailing SE to very close to the African coast and after some study, I found out the wind is a lot stronger up there. Guess these boats have a good strategy and some may even pass me.

My rank is now 122 and the fleet 1049 boats.

Saturday 7 May 2011

Past the Canary Islands

Yesterday saw the head of the fleet pass the Canary Island along the West side. Where the first boats that followed the Coastal route just now are to arrive. 


The wind has calmed down to the single digits and also veered to the North. These conditions have slowed the progress, but as the air and water temperatures are warmer it is still considered beautiful sailing. 


My Rank: 101 now in the fleet that has grown to 1048 boats. 


Have you discovered the Chatroom in LiveSkipper (LS) already?
It sits below the game screen, but  only visible when you do not engaged the Full screen option. 


at the arrow you find the button for Login or Logout. 
There are standard 3 Chatrooms, one for each of the main LiveSkipper languages , France, English and Spanish. Type your chat in the one line open space and if done Send
For those skippers that have joined a Club within LS, there is a special Club chatroom, only open of club-members. 
It allows you also to open a special chatroom with a friend of yours, so you can have some private talks. Search for your friends boat-name in the list on right side, if found , double click on it and a special Chatroom will open for you two.

Friday 6 May 2011

Past the Azoren Islands

It is now definite! The route from the Western strategists has proven to be the better over the Coastal strategy for conquering the Northern Atlantic !
The quickest coastal boat is still some 200 Nm North of Madeira, while the best western boats have passed the Azoren with about 400 Nm. 


The wind has weakened now however, and is causing a difficult approach to Cape Verde islands. With the weaker winds, comes also more variable winds, so what one morning looks a good strategy, might turn around in the afternoon, which reduced the progress. The main point is that all sailors are in the same winds, so it looks still an even battle for the Podium. 


My Rank this morning: 104 ;and the fleet has grown to 1045 participating boats. 
If you would be interested in the trend of my progress and that of a lot of other boats in the English Forum of LiveSkipper, then you may have a look at my race status report LiveSkipper boats -- trending for race status

Polar diagram 
Did I propose yesterday  to try the Advance Mode in the simulator, today I like to inform you on the benefits of using the polar diagram available. 


To engage the Polar diagram, you click on the "Polar" icon in the right-side top of the screen; see the hand. 








A new window will open with a lot of information on the boat, its sails and its performance. 

On the top you see the type of boat this polar is for. 
In the half circle (0-180degrees is shown as this boat and sails are symmetrical) you see different coloured curves. This is one curve for each of the available sails, each with its own colour. [the Auto sail does not have a curve, but it would be a curve that indicated about 90-95% of the performance of the best sail per heading.]  
The yellow straight line is an indication for your TWA (True Wind Angle; the angle between your boat-heading and the wind-direction) here it is 108degree. 
With this you can easy find the optimal heading to sail most effective. 


The polar tells me then that the purple sail "the Genaker" is the fastest sail with a boatspeed of 29.1 kts at the windspeed of 17.2 kts. 


This information on sail selection , heading , TWA and boatspeed is also available and permanently visible in the bottom right side of the screen, see the screenprint on the right.
Sails can be selected by the arrows around where now Genaker is shown, locked now as I sail with the WP scheduler on. Auto Heading will engage the autopilot that locks the TWA, so it will change your heading when the wind-direction will change. 
The 2 small arrows around My Boat, will activate any marks that you have set in the simulator and allows boat setting from the location of that mark. 


What would happen when the wind increases in strength? Well, you can simulate this by clicking on windspeed and up it to about 19.7 kts 


see a next polar with higher windspeed. 
Now it informs me that the "Solent Jib" sail (green curve)is the most effective for this wind-direction, -speed and my heading. Giving me a boatspeed of 30.3kts!

But would I change heading and the TWA increases to 115degree, again it will be the Genaker that is the best sail. 


So this is a Fantastic tools to assist you in sailing optimal conditions, that for sure you need if you want to end up on the Podium in this fleet of experienced Sailors.