Facebook

Login

Support Sailonline

If you haven't already - join the SAILONLINE YACHT CLUB!

Please also consider making a donation - all amounts are greatly appreciated!

Board » General Discussion » Real Life Sailing and SOL

Posted by
zero


Users avatar

Posts
120
Registered at
2010-02-07 16:56:30
2010-09-16 16:30:45 - Real Life Sailing and SOL
Never had I sailed so well as in the last Auckland Regional 3 race.
I was there with the big boys, side by side with Jepsom, Winston, Theviking and many others. At one point I was even in 1st place in the leader board. Exciting.

My crew was performing flawlessly as always. Here on SOL we all have the best crew ever, the weak link is always on the navigator.

I have to admit that it was an easy race to navigate. By help of Mother Nature most of the rhumb lines were at max speed. All we had to do was sailed at the TWA that gave max Boat Speed. Easy.

Max speed TWA to Little Barrier Island, to Channel Island 1 and to the Gannet Rock.
Fantastic, side by side with Winston. Theviking a tiny bit ahead, we all zooming with the kite up.

Them it came the final leg. Upwind leg. Again I made the right decision to go right since I knew the wind would be shifting right at some point. No brainer, everyone in the leading pack went right. Perfect, or so I thought.

Them one of my crew said, captain there is an island in the way, what you want us to do, pass south or go north? The Rakino Island was in our way. Oh Boy!
Big decision, tack south of the island or delay the tack and go north?
The wind was shifting fast but was it shifting as fast to go south and still make it the channel without an extra tack?

Big decision. The only real decision to make in the race.

This whole race, all 18 hours of it came down to ONE decision. ONE!
And I got it wrong. I went North.
Hew565 and Winston (as always) got it right and tacked early to pass south of the island.
I went from podium to 30+.

My point is, 18 hours of perfect sailing, perfect crew work, perfect gybes. All spoiled by ONE bad decision of the Navigator. Me.
If this was a real life boat I would not know how to face my bowman, my skipper, the grinders and everyone else in the crew.

ONE bad call spoiled the smile of a whole group of good guys. Who worked hard for almost a day nonstop. I was well awake, I can’t blame sleep.

The interesting point here is about SOL.
I’ve made many wrong tactical decisions on my years of sailing but never was it as crystal clear as is in SOL where the bad decision happened.
I’ve spent countless hours sitting on bars after each race going thru the mistakes. We blame the sail makers, the crew (of course), the bottom paint, you name it. The most blamed of all was always the boat designer which happened to be me (most of the times).

The truth is now clear, it was most likely due to a tactical error at some point during the race(s). The navigator. (Most of the cases where my job, so I am not blaming anyone else but me. Usually in those days the boat designer ended up being the navigator as well.

I wish I had SOL when I was starting sailing.
Evidently in real life we don’t have wind arrows floating on the ocean, or a sliding scale to see exactly what the wind will do in the near future. But, if you sail regularly in the same location you will, with time learn the wind pattern of the place. I did.
The question is, once you know well your sailing grounds what to do with the information. I never did know. I never act with all the information I knew. I never took advantage of being the “local guy”. I didn’t have SOL.

Some people are fortunate to have talent and “get it” without needing an explanation or some literature to learn from. Those are the super stars of Sailing.

For everyone else, SOL is precious.
So, if you are young, still with a long way ahead of real sailing take advantage of lessons we learn here and apply them in real life sailing.

Finally, I would like to hear stories of you who felt that the real sailing results have improved because of SOL. Please post here in this tread.

Thanks,
Antonio
Posted by
Yuan Hang


Users avatar

Posts
2
Registered at
2010-02-05 19:10:26
2010-09-17 17:47:33 - Re: Real Life Sailing and SOL
My story is a little (well, massively!) different....
In the real world I sail a little junk rigged cruiser named Yuan Hang - my SOL name. I have no particular interest in racing, I just go out for a relaxing time.
Although I'm the wrong side of 50 years old, I'm a relative newcomer to sailing, I've had my own boat for about 2 years and sailed for a year before that. I only took up sailing after my body decided it was too old for climbing!
I think SOL has already taught me a lot, watching for weather patterns and planning routes days ahead for instance.
Hopefully it will help improve my sailing!
I still don't think I'll be entering any real races, but you never know.....
I can see SOL keeping me busy through the winter.

--- Last Edited by Ken Powell at 2010-09-17 17:48:25 ---
Posted by
SWE54


Users avatar

Posts
29
Registered at
2007-08-11 10:02:20
2010-09-18 08:17:54 - Re: Real Life Sailing and SOL
This i one of the reasons for my blog. It's a personal debriefing, a good way to summarize and pin point things that went wrong and could have been done differently. We used to do this a lot after each real race back when I was racing, also personal things like crew work were analyzed of course. In SOL there is also another issue, time. Most of my own really stupid things is traced back to time issues. Things are forgotten under time pressure. Still it's a fantastic way to keep your head going..:)
Not all of my races will be published on the blog for the simple reason that it was obvious what happened or went really bad.If I can't sail the whole race at least at 75% capacity there is not much to debrief.

--- Last Edited by SWE54 at 2010-09-18 08:22:51 ---

--- Last Edited by SWE54 at 2010-09-18 08:23:19 ---

Please login to post a reply.

Races

Next Race: 00d 00h 00m

Current Races:

West Papua to Oregon 2026

Our next race in our Ocean Championships is the first of a series of great natural migrations we will track in 2026. The leatherback turtle is the most widely distributed marine reptile on planet Earth, and chooses to breed in warm tropical waters, but prefers to forage in more temperate habitats, travelling thousands and thousands of miles effortlessly annually to maintain this way of life. Our race will follow one of the typical trips of this turtle, from breeding grounds in the seas off West Papua to the coast of Oregon. It’s only 5900nm, so to keep up, but in comfort, we’ll follow in our Gunboat 90.
Race #2006
INFO by brainaid.de
GB 90 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: OCQ1 - OCCH - MIG - SYC
Race starts: Feb 02nd 11:00 Registration will open soon
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Race to Up Helly Aa 2026

A-OI!!! The fiery spirit of Shetland’s legendary Up Helly Aa returns, and Sailonline’s annual race to Lerwick is once again upon us. Covering 383 nautical miles from Aberdeen, SOLers will tackle winter waters steeped in Viking tradition. This year, we race the classic Frers 33, a proven cruiser-racer born from the golden era of offshore racing and still a sturdy performer both on the virtual and real water. Can you master the course and reach Lerwick in time for the flames?

SAILING NOTE: Gruney may be approached from any direction but must be passed for rounding purposes as indicated on the chart.
Race #2005
INFO by brainaid.de
Frers 33 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking:
SYC
Race starts: Jan 30th 17:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Red Eye - Hobart Convict Run 2026

Back in 2010, one of our SOLers of the first hour, AUS_Scott76, came up with this ‘Convict Run’ out from Hobart, past Cape Raoul and the penal colony of Port Arthur, round Tasman Island, up and back down the east coast of Tasmania, to finish with a tight technical run – so Scott called it – up the picturesque D'entrecasteaux Channel, home to Hobart once again. It’s 250nm, ideal for a bit of ‘Red Eye’ in comfortable Finngulf 43’s, and if the original idea was to pick up some convicts on the way for a bit of R&R and sea air, you may always drop’m back before returning to Hobart!
Race #2002
INFOby brainaid.de
FG 43 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: RED - SYC
Race starts: Jan 27th 12:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

New Ice Age 2026 - Longyearbyen to Browerville


Although we have by no means exhausted the possibilities of ice boating on lakes at high latitudes or high altitudes, it was noticeable that as our 2025 Series progressed, there were calls from time to time for longer-distance challenges, and so in response to these calls we will pretend that global warming has reversed and as a result the coastal waters of Antarctica and Russia and Canada have fully (and smoothly!) frozen over offering us the possibility of a 4-race New Ice Age series in our trusted no-PL DN machines. Our first leg takes us 2600nm from Svalbard’s Longyearbyen east to North Alaska’s Browerville. You’ll be a few days on the ice, so dress warmly and take some provisions; go!
Race #1968
INFOby brainaid.de
DN PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: NIA - SYC
Race starts: Jan 22nd 07:00 Registration Closed
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Cross the Convergence 2026 - Robinson Crusoe to Galapagos


Welcome to our first race of a new series of ocean voyages across the World’s convergence zones, this first race taking you north from south of the Tropic of Capricorn to the Equator-straddling Galapagos, home of magical iguanas and other exotic fauna (but no mythical kings, Dory) Departing from the island where in 1704 adventurer Alexander Selkirk inspired Daniel Defoe to write the best-seller "The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe", by debarking off the unsound "HMS Cinque Ports", four months before she foundered off the coast of present-day Colombia, we will sail the 2200nm in our decidedly sounder and faster than the " Cinque Ports",
Ocean 50 !
Race #1983
INFOby brainaid.de
Ocean 50 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: CCZ - SYC
RACE CLOSE: Friday,
January 30 at 2300 UTC.
Race starts: Jan 16th 18:00 Registration Closed
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Go to race archive

SYC Ranking

  1. Sailonline Yacht Club Member KaSToR
  2. Sailonline Yacht Club Member WRmirekd
  3. Sailonline Yacht Club Member CriticalHippo
  4. Sailonline Yacht Club Member rafa
  5. Sailonline Yacht Club Member Sax747
  6. Sailonline Yacht Club Member rumskib
  7. Sailonline Yacht Club Member bonknhoot
  8. Sailonline Yacht Club Member vida
  9. Sailonline Yacht Club Member Panpyc
  10. Sailonline Yacht Club Member Kipper1258

View full list

Series

Mobile Client

SYC members have the benefit of access to our mobile/lightweight web client!

The mobile client