Scoring Yacht Races in Progress

Way to go Team! In tonight's Wet Wednesday, Psyche's Song won again in extra innings. We finished 6th out of 15 starters, which situates us in 3rd place for the Spring Season Series - not at all bad for a start on 2009 WW's.

Last night's experience got me to thinking.

I see similarities between blue water/ocean racing on one hand, and racing in drifting conditions in our Santa Barbara venue. Of course, my experience in the former is not 'real' like in the Volvo Ocean Race, but 'virtual', as in the Volvo Ocean Racing Game.

Let's set aside Wet Wednesday handicapping systems and assume boat-for-boat competition on the water. In last night's conditions, and in the VOR/VORG, it's impossible to score a race while it's in progress, except at mark roundings and at the finish line of course. What I am saying is that, in almost any other competitive and quantitative sport you can think of (baseball, football, golf, tennis, etc.) you can, during the game, make a statement as to who's ahead and who's behind. In last night's adventure, it was impossible to tell, because there were so many different, scattered, and changing micro-wind situations. VOR also challenges racers with micro-weather systems except that there is a much wider range of conditions in ocean racing. In both situations, making assessments on the basis boats' positions during the race can prove very misleading. Someone pointed out last night that while Prime Time blew Psyche's Song away at the 1st mark, there was a photo-finish between the two at the finish line. Additionally boats which typically blow Psyche's Song off the water in light 5-10 knot conditions, were beaten boat-for-boat in last night's drifter.

The difference is to be found in the human component. Psyche's Song's team always extracts the most out of her rig, especially in the most challenging and marginal conditions.

VORG Leg 7 Starts

Less than 30 minutes away. Don't see Macavity or Oral Exam on the line. Nor do I see any wind to speak of. Zilch on the latter. There is nothing, there. Plenty of opportunities for winning places when there doesn't appear to be enough wind to beat the current. That's what Psyche Song teaches!

Well, I don't believe this picture is as bad as it appears to be. Nor do I believe Macavity won't appear. We shall see what we shall see.

Update (20:38 PDT): Got off to my best start ever, and worked myself up to position 18 (out of 207,000+). But when the wind filled in, I found myself in an adverse wind direction. Now I am around 420 and losing boats quickly. I don't think I can stop the bleeding until new wind comes in at 02:00 tomorrow. Beating at about 53 deg TWA. What else can I do?

Macavity and gang finally showed; they're back a ways. Bailiff also showed. Trailer Park Girl is the closest competitor at this point.

Have to press on.

May 25:

Trailer Park Girl finishes First in Fleet! This is Leg turned out to be the closest VORG event that I have been in. Substantial leads changed back and forth throughout our trans-Alantic crossing. TPG came from behind to grab 1st in Fleet in a photo-finish (click to expand):
Finishing in four digits behind TPG were Oral Exam, Wyliecat-30, Gilded Butterflies, Bailiff, and Macavity. (Oral Exam finished ahead of me by a mere 18 places!) Notably, these members of our SBYC Group also finished 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th in the 53-Member California Club.

Unfortunately, None of us finished under 1,000! For us, who have to contend with 2 A.M. watches, that achievement should be equivalent to line honors. Maybe next Leg?

Congratulations to all who sailed.

VORG Leg 7 Starts

Less than 30 minutes away. Don't see Macavity or Oral Exam on the line. Nor do I see any wind to speak of. Zilch on the latter. There is nothing, there. Plenty of opportunities for winning places when there doesn't appear to be enough wind to beat the current. That's what Psyche Song teaches!

Well, I don't believe this picture is as bad as it appears to be. Nor do I believe Macavity won't appear. We shall see what we shall see.

Update (20:38 PDT): Got off to my best start ever, and worked myself up to position 18 (out of 207,000+). But when the wind filled in, I found myself in an adverse wind direction. Now I am around 420 and losing boats quickly. I don't think I can stop the bleeding until new wind comes in at 02:00 tomorrow. Beating at about 53 deg TWA. What else can I do?

Macavity and gang finally showed; they're back a ways. Bailiff also showed. Trailer Park Girl is the closest competitor at this point.

Have to press on.

May 25:

Trailer Park Girl finishes First in Fleet! This is Leg turned out to be the closest VORG event that I have been in. Substantial leads changed back and forth throughout our trans-Alantic crossing. TPG came from behind to grab 1st in Fleet in a photo-finish (click to expand):

Finishing in four digits behind TPG were Oral Exam, Wyliecat-30, Gilded Butterflies, Bailiff, and Macavity. (Oral Exam finished ahead of me by a mere 18 places!) Notably, these members of our SBYC Group also finished 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th in the 53-Member California Club.

Unfortunately, None of us finished under 1,000! For us, who have to contend with 2 A.M. watches, that achievement should be equivalent to line honors. Maybe next Leg?

Congratulations to all who sailed.

Wet Wednesday

Thanks for hanging in there tonight, everyone. We finished the marathon in 5th place, out of 20 starters. Zephyr finished behind us an hour later. We trophied. But the big news is that by finishing we moved from 3rd to 2nd in the series! Thanks to you guys making this boat go through the water without any wind to speak of!

The Volvo Ocean Racing Game (VORG)

Standing after the 6th Leg.

This is the way I score the Santa Barbara Group:

I and a few other people close to me discovered this event mid way in its 2nd Leg, South Africa to India, as I recall. Therefore I toss all scores in the first two legs, counting just the legs I was able to start: 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th. However, some of the other boats were in the race from the start, and some placed rather impressively. So, I had to include their good scores and toss their less illustrious performances. One skipper changed boats (1st boat had a rather unfortunate name), so I combined the scores for her boats.

That said, there are two ways to score this race. I'm not sure which is more valid.

The first is VORG's way: the cumulative standing of the Group's boats vis-à-vis the other 200,000 boats in the VORG. According to VORG, I'm in 5th place:

In the SBYC Group on a typical leader board, I am also in 5th place:

I can easily see that the long 5th Leg from China to Brazil was my worse performance, followed by my best Leg from Rio to Boston. Really alarming is how Macavity's performance has steadily improved. In the 6th Leg, Macavity not only finished 1st in the group, but finished under 1,000. Both coveted scores have so far eluded me.

Both of us scrupulously maintain radio silence as to outside resources used. I'm concerned that he has become a little more computer proficient than I had anticipated. Otherwise, he's on the keyboard 24-7.

The racing was very close. I thought I had lured him into a wind pocket and ditched him for good on the way up the coast of South America. I will remember that tactic! But he came back. Then around Boston, I went to bed too sleepy and too late to check my auto-pilot and went off course enough to hand him an insurmountable margin.

I have not reduced the number of errors I make in a leg; but I have reduced their magnitude.

But I will remember this leg especially for turning the mid marker in 32nd (out of 200,000) places.
It was also a 1400hrs weather change, also. I had carefully plotted my course but not noticed the Island was east of the mark. (Note the last minute course change to avoid the half-moon shaped island under the port rail.) That was inexplicable that the course would be laid out like that! In my resultant panic to avoid running ashore, I immediately lost 1,000+ places. Running aground would have cost me 10,000 places easily.

Very exciting. But no cigar.

The Volvo Ocean Racing Game (VORG)

Standing after the 6th Leg.

This is the way I score the Santa Barbara Group:

I and a few other people close to me discovered this event mid way in its 2nd Leg, South Africa to India, as I recall. Therefore I toss all scores in the first two legs, counting just the legs I was able to start: 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th. However, some of the other boats were in the race from the start, and some placed rather impressively. So, I had to include their good scores and toss their less illustrious performances. One skipper changed boats (1st boat had a rather unfortunate name), so I combined the scores for her boats.

That said, there are two ways to score this race. I'm not sure which is more valid.

The first is VORG's way: the cumulative standing of the Group's boats vis-à-vis the other 200,000 boats in the VORG. According to VORG, I'm in 5th place:
In the SBYC Group on a typical leader board, I am also in 5th place:
I can easily see that the long 5th Leg from China to Brazil was my worse performance, followed by my best Leg from Rio to Boston. Really alarming is how Macavity's performance has steadily improved. In the 6th Leg, Macavity not only finished 1st in the group, but finished under 1,000. Both coveted scores have so far eluded me.

Both of us scrupulously maintain radio silence as to outside resources used. I'm concerned that he has become a little more computer proficient than I had anticipated. Otherwise, he's on the keyboard 24-7.

The racing was very close. I thought I had lured him into a wind pocket and ditched him for good on the way up the coast of South America. I will remember that tactic! But he came back. Then around Boston, I went to bed too sleepy and too late to check my auto-pilot and went off course enough to hand him an insurmountable margin.

I have not reduced the number of errors I make in a leg; but I have reduced their magnitude.

But I will remember this leg especially for turning the mid marker in 32nd (out of 200,000) places.
It was also a 1400hrs weather change, also. I had carefully plotted my course but not noticed the Island was east of the mark. (Note the last minute course change to avoid the half-moon shaped island under the port rail.) That was inexplicable that the course would be laid out like that! In my resultant panic to avoid running ashore, I immediately lost 1,000+ places. Running aground would have cost me 10,000 places easily.

Very exciting. But no cigar.

Tipperary

Frivolous yacht race meets life and death struggle.

Wednesday night's race was another light no- wind struggle. Well, I always say there's always some wind. The problem arises when there's not enough wind to contend with current.

But Wednesday night's race from start to finish was a doldrums drifter. Boats were so close together for so long and so slow that you could talk to each other, without VHS.

15 minutes into the race a sea lion pup swam around the fleet, and then hitched a ride on our boat. Now, isn't that slow - even for a sailboat race? He (gender assumed) plopped up on our stern swim platform, for a bask in the failing sunlight. All the boats around us were greatly amused.

Our stowaway abandoned yacht after about 20 minutes to swim around the fleet looking for a more comfortable roost. Within five minutes he came back and boarded us again. After deliberation, we decided to name him Tipperary. He definitely made like he wanted to ascend into the cockpit, but couldn't master the steps on the folding ladder. We offered ol' Tip some Coronas but all we had was cold. He/she would have preferred it warm, me thinks.

Tip stayed with us into the slip. Against all advice - I couldn't resist - I patted him (with gloved hand) on the pate as we left the Marina.

Because Tip was obviously a sick puppy, all of us reported his presence to the local Marine Mammal Center and the Harbor Patrol. Between them, he was rescued later that evening. Our predominant fear is that his behavior is attributed to Domoic Acid Poisoning. I wish a Tip a full recovery and a long life, but that's without any knowledge of his prognosis. Whether he makes it or not, I feel warm that he picked our rescue-friendly stern for some of his last moments. That's probably close to what I'd pick for myself, too, if allowed such an option.

We finished this particular race in last place. But the 1st-rate company aboard made that bearable ...

Platform Grace Race 2009

I see now why I'm losing my shirt and taking it in by shorts simultaneously in VORG: I haven't done enough distant racing.

In last Friday's 17-mile race we did miserably. Helene's Intuition won it despite almost missing the first mark on the course. (Go figure: sail that far out of your way and still get a bullet certainly brings into question the validity of the handicapping.) Cheryl Anne (right) took second. Zephyr, sailing high to get some speed out of the light wind, lost her time to us. But Jules found wind below us and passed to leeward. In the end, we captured an unnoteworthy 6th out of nine starters. Looking at the times, my 90-second late start - though inexcusable - was not a factor.

There was not enough wind to sail rhumb. My crew knew it. I didn't. When I went off watch, and later when I went forward to fly the spinnaker, they connived, conspired, and sneakily heated the rig up. It was emblematic of the major on board debate in almost every race, even the short ones. Crew wants speed; I want direction.

Would a GPS at the helm resolve all conflicts by rendering constant VMG? I don't know who on my crew I can trust to give me a good ROI to justify it!

I do not want to be the one whose eyes are always on the GPS. MVP is already multi-tasking.

Bubbles relieved me from the helm, so I could stretch my legs (in a horizontal position below) and join JJ is flying the spinnaker. Mark worked his magic, as usual in flawless spinnaker sets and drops.

We didn't really get our wind strength until forty minutes before the finish. Which meant that we got all the fresh cold air in our faces and driven through our bones on the way back.


Everyone was cold and tired when we returned to the harbor. I pushed us to try a backing in. Two attempts were insufficient and we gave up for the day and nosed-in to slip. Later, Captain Helene opined that what I encountered was 'prop swing'; she said, as I re-construe it, was to line it up, directly up wind, gun it in reverse and immediately shift into neutral and drift in stern first. Worth a try: it's the key to icing Wet Wednesdays, guaranteeing a start regardless of the wind strength.

Undated Photo

Psyché's Song

On the Reach

The date on this shot is 29-Mar-08.

Psyché's Song thanks Brisa for our acquisition of this shot!

Last Wet Wednesday Fun Race

The Skipper's job of forcing the wing-and-wing set up looks like relaxation, but it is uncomfortable. It's not pretty, to be sure. Wing-and-wing did the job putting us to the front of the pack. MVP, navigated, JLR, steered wide of the mark until we could put up the spinnaker on the way back on the second and last leg of this shortened course.

This race was a classic situation for the momentum-assisted start: gunning the engine and shutting it down outside of the 4-minute limit; coasting to the line so as to cross with momentum. The only problem was instead of getting there late, we were early and had to round and thread through the starters who were are on starboard. But we go there with momentum. Once were moving in the sub 4-knot wind, we can rely on inertia of the lighter other boats to stop them. There they are, all parked together. We coasted against the current to post an unbelievable - for this wind 3rd Place!

The Ides of March - Quiet Time

Putting away that bottle of hyperbolic acid this evening and picking up a little Botti. . . .

Botti, that's Chris Botti, 000000007

It's 0300 hrs Sozadee Time. The moon is reflecting off the breeze of the Channel into the ceiling of my study. Many who know me consider it insane to get up out of a warm bunk to change the course of my Wyliecat-30 at the Eastern Pacific buoy at LAT-LONG 112'30 W & 45-00 S.

176,000 maniacs behind me in the Volvo Ocean Racing Game (VORG). 28,000 are at their keyboards at this moment. There is good company among the VORG lunatics.

Before I know it, I have bungled my rounding through micro-managing my helm. Hundreds of places have been lost in these three early morning hours. Like all other losses before them, I have to put them behind me. Scoldings from Trophy Wife for my sacrifice of sleep and risk of health are ahead of me.

Through it all - loss and gain - Botti's Emanuel will sustain me.