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Board » General Discussion » Around the world race

Posted by
Blue_Magic


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10
Registered at
2009-01-25 19:10:30
2011-04-03 13:52:56 - Around the world race
Not to whine or anything, but why was the time allotted to each race in this series so short? I had to take 3 DNFs because the leg I was on evaporated. Now I know that server space might be an issue, but really, Leg 6 was pulled before leg 5. It's a shorter race with less map and weather to load so shouldn't it be the one to stay?

The other sort of irksome thing is this: now in order to finish the race, you have to use a router and be in the top 150.(ish) I have chosen for the past couple of years to not use a router or any help outside of my noggin and what comes attached to SOL. Great, my choice I know and I'm ecstatic if I get in the top 100 - it's a "win" if I get in the top 150. But that doesn't happen an awful lot, and now with truncated race times, I am denied the satisfaction of finishing, and tactically I'm glued to the rhumb line as that will determine my position when the plug is pulled. In other words no more flyers in the second half of the race.

So, SOL people, I love the opportunity to do this, but am very frustrated by this turn of events- maybe a solution would be to have SYC membership mandatory, or some other form of income to offset server costs. If this can't be done then the closing date/time should be posted and maybe a countdown could run so time running out would be visible to all us back markers

--- Last Edited by Blue Magic at 2011-04-03 13:58:30 ---
Posted by
RainbowChaser


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2009-06-14 09:44:50
2011-04-03 21:17:18 - Re: Around the world race
Blue Magic - Upfront the rules of the Global Challenge were posted - namely that a new leg would start 48hrs after the arrival of the first boat in the preceding leg. The idea was to generate a sense of continuity.. a real round-the-world race. As an SYC member your ranking will always be the position you are in at race close, so you never "lose" as such, although the personal frustration at not finishing is heartfelt (I didn't finish every leg of this race, so I do understand).

I am sorry if you did not see the announcements in both Leg 5 and Leg 6 which explained what was happening with respect to their closures.

Leg 6, as you say, was much shorter and well over 50% of starters had finished.

Leg 5,more than 6000nm, was a far greater challenge and consequently, 50% of starters have yet to finish.

Because the effort expended in Leg 5 has been so enormous, it was decided to keep this Leg open longer that would otherwise have been the case.

Traditionally SOL doesn't have more than two races open at the same time, it has always been thus, but with long ocean races running "in the background" this rule has been over-ridden recently.

On your next point, regarding success on SOL, many SOLers who finish very well in races are not using any form of routing or other software. All SOLers who do well, as well as others (like me who do not!) expend a lot of time and effort into trying to do well.

Using a router or other navigation software is not a "magic button" to certain success - all any router can do,I understand, is indicate what it, at that moment, has determined to be an optimal route based on the wx data and parameters given. It is an indicator, no more, of what is doable.

There are free routers available online and details are available here on SOL.

It remains, however, a point of pride for many that their excellent results are due to personal judgement.

Finally, SOL would love for everyone to join SYC and thus provide an income stream but the beauty of SOL is the fact that it is free. After sailing a few races people are hopefully motivated either to donate or to join SYC in acknowledgement of the value to them of SOL. If people don't donate or join SYC then... that is their choice too.


--- Last Edited by RainbowChaser at 2011-04-03 21:31:56 ---
Posted by
ronny_f


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3
Registered at
2010-12-19 02:15:49
2011-04-08 04:48:24 - Re: Around the world race
Edit: sorry this is AGage.... *oops*

He does have a point regarding rank when race is closed though - best tactic is to stick to rhumbline to minimize DTG as this is how SOL bases its ranking, not to sail as you would if race were not about to close.
Consider the same race, and say I am 120th, the race is a) sailed to completion, b) stopped 36 hours prior to my ETA. Now, I am 120th because I have sailed far from rhumbline for better conditions, so in case a) the next 36 hours was going to see me pick up ~65 boats because I was sailing in more favourable conditions, case b) sees me finish in 120th.
Similar to the start of a race where often those who finish top are at the bottom of ranks (like L5 some of us headed almost AWAY from Gibraltar at the start).

I understand there is nothing else that can be done, and why SOL must occasionally pull races early. Just pointing out that having your rank at time of closure recorded isnt always a good thing, sometimes you will benefit other times lose, on where you would actually have finished.

I would make a suggestion which should not be too difficult/take long to implement. When a race is going to close early, not only post this information on the home page, but also within the SOL client. There is a field within each fleet/race file named 'message', which currently just has the name of the race and how many entrants there are, ie it is the first sentence you see in the top right of the SOL client.
Now this message field could also include the time remaining, so that it would read "{RaceName}, racing with X boats, CLOSING IN: d.hh.mm.ss" All that requires changing is the code that generates the race xml files...

--- Last Edited by ronny_f at 2011-04-08 04:53:45 ---
Posted by
AGage


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411
Registered at
2008-12-27 10:31:57
2011-04-08 05:12:51 - Re: Around the world race
Must be a login cache issue or something... I have been (as AGage) constantly logged in all race, but logged in as ronny this morning to do a little boat-sitting and then closed his race screen down, but obviously SOL didnt log me out ??? indeed I just had to logout/relogin as myself again...
I help develop the client interface for the best online ocean racing sim there is... __/)/)_/)__

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