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Profile for Chappo



Name Chappo
Email Address peter@mindmechanics.com.au
AvatarUsers avatar
Posts53
  • Re: Minor Beta update 23 May
    Board » Technical Support
    Aaron
    There seems to be no limit to the clever, convenient enhancements you keep adding. Your Optimum Angles tool saves me a lot of computing time, many thanks (and my wife says thanks too!)
  • Re: SOL World Race: Leg 2 Analysis
    Board » Flag Officers » Races
    I have been tweeting Askel Magdahl, the navigator on Sanya who pulled off that clever passing move to win the Rio leg of the last Volvo race on Eriksen 3. He said he uses Expedition and Deckman plus some of his own routing software. I wonder what course he is working on for this Dhabi leg??
  • Re: General System Spec - to aid SOL development
    Board » Technical Discussion
    3 year old desktop, 19 inch screen accessing via Firefox

    Microsoft Windows XP Professional
    Intel Core2 6400 2.13GHz @ 2128 MHz
    Graphics Card: 256MB ATI Radeon X1300PRO

    2046 MB System RAM (Score: 104)
    - RAM Speed: 3191 MB/s

    CPU Tests (Score: 210)
    - Floating Point Operations/Second: 50669288
    - Integer Operations/Second: 123177326
    - MD5 Hashes Generated/Second: 710277

    Graphics Tests (Score: 33)
    - 3D Frames Per Second: 112

    Hardware Tests (Score: 10)
    - Primary Partition Capacity: 298 GB
    - Drive Write Speed: 11 MB/s

    Nova Bench score 354

    Internet download rate 1.78 Mbps

    Screen resolution 1280 by 1024
  • Re: Gain or loss by using TWA
    Board » Technical Support
    How do you find time for work Aaron, you have been very busy creating tools, updating your blog, being very competitive in SOL and now working on SOL development! That sounds like a very flash tool you are working on so I will keep an eye on your blog. Thanks for your great work.
  • Re: Gain or loss by using TWA
    Board » Technical Support
    *8MR, I am not an IT guru but wouldn't these choices be made by the SOL server when you are looking at the forum and perhaps it is configures any large attachments that cannot physically be displayed in the message as attachments only.
  • Re: Gain or loss by using TWA
    Board » Technical Support
    8MR, I see the diagram embedded in the post and as an attachment too?
  • Re: Gain or loss by using TWA
    Board » Technical Support
    Excellent summary 76. I presume it is not to scale but broadly highlights the distance differences. It certainly makes a good case for twa but as Aaron notes, just because the fast yachts have curved tracks, often actually reflects continuously adjusting VMC sailing rather than TWA sailing.
  • Re: Gain or loss by using TWA
    Board » Technical Support
    Good points Aaron, it is easy to work with confidence when plotting within 6 hour weather cycles, much more challenging after 6 hours so CC is a safe option. We have all seen some big shift between weather updates. I note you mentioned you have written a small tool that calculates both max VMG (for upwind & downwind) for a given TWS – , and also maximum VMC given input of TWS, TWD and a CC to the waypoint. Does it link to an uploaded polar or does it just require manual input based on different angles and BS from the polar at the time you choose to do a calc. Is that tool available for download somewhere? I use my simple worksheet attached for my max VMC calcs. I find it pretty good downwind, can be misleading upwind.
  • Re: Can't get rankings and race leaderboards
    Board » Technical Support
    Thanks Jack. Yep I am on the work computer where I am getting the Leaderboard and Rankings. I will check my home PC.
  • Re: Gain or loss by using TWA
    Board » Technical Support
    I have taken advantage of the speed difference of CC or TWA in different races and yachts. I am not an expert but I think the differences come from various factors such as the shape and position you are sailing on the polar, whether you are sailing into a heading or lifting wind change and whether you are going upwind or downwind. So even though the CC is a shorter course, that advantage can often be offset by the fact that the last part of the CC course is so much slower than the TWA course (when sailing upwind into a header, or at the start of a CC course into a freeing wind change, the CC course is much slower than the TWA course.

Races

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Current Races:

Lake Ontario 300 Challenge 2026

Lake Ontario Offshore Racing (LOOR) welcomes Sailonline sailors to a second virtual version of a race in their annual series, and for the sixth year in succession the LO300. As the name implies, the LO300 is a 300nm offshore race across the length and breadth of Lake Ontario, from and back to Port Credit YC. This year, for the first time, we will be racing the 300nm circuit in Sun Fast 3200s. As usual, there is an overall prize for the SOLer who best bosses Lake Ontario over the two races hosted by Sailonline, this LO300 and the Susan Hood raced back in May, and this year also the race and the Susan Hood count towards the title of Super Buddy 2026; so, let the competition be fierce!
Race #2044
INFOby brainaid.de
Sun Fast 3200 PARTICULARS
NAM_AWIP WX Updates:
0245 / 0845 / 1445 / 2045
Ranking: LOOR - SUPBUD - SYC
Race starts: Jul 11th 15:10 Registration Open!

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Tall Ships 2026 - Harlingen to Antwerpen


Welcome to the second of four virtual Tall Ships Races in European waters which are concurrently being organized in-real-life by Sail Training International . This second race is from Harlingen in Friesland down along the coast of Holland and Friesland to Vlaanderen’s famous port of Antwerpen – circa 150nm in Sailonline’s classic Clipper 240.
NOTE: Starts and Finishes in tall ships racing are always offshore to avoid conflict with shipping and shipping lanes; online and real-life may not match exactly.
Race #1993
INFO by brainaid.de
Clipper 240 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: TSI - SUPBUD - SYC
Race starts: Jul 06th 16:00 Registration Open!
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Alaska to Easter Island 2026

Welcome to yet another all-new series. The initial leg of the RNW (Round the New World), Alaska to Easter Island, also part of our Ocean Championship. The first race of OCQ3 2026. This race will be sailed in our revised 'version 2' Imoca 60 Foil. Race #2042
INFO by brainaid.de
Imoca 60 Foil v2 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: OCQ3 - RNW - OCCH - SYC
Race starts: Jul 06th 11:00 Registration Open!
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Cross the Convergence 2026 - Sao Tomé to Tristan

The fifth race of our series of ocean voyages across the World’s convergence zones takes us back south down the Atlantic from Sao Tomé on the Equator to Tristan da Cunha on the edge of the Roaring Forties. It’s 2500nm; in your path the Benguela winds and current along the south west African coast, and behind that the St Helena High stretching halfway to South America. So, mind where you go in your Volvo OD65 version 3 (based on sampled real-life race data by kroppyer)!
Race #1985
INFOby brainaid.de
Volvo OD65v3 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: CCZ - SYC
Race starts: Jul 03rd 18:00 Registration Open!
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New Ice Age 2026 - Neumayer Station to Scott Base


For a second-half of long-distance ice-boating, we take our DNs to Antarctica for a circumnavigation of that continent in two legs clockwise, in harmony with the prevailing winds (such as there are), beginning with a race from Germany’s Neumayer Station to New Zealand’s Scott Base. It’s about 3500nm, which, if there’s wind at all, should, well-wrapped in your DN-cockpits, not take you much more than five days. And remember: charts down here are unreliable – what is land and what is ice?!
Race #1970
INFOby brainaid.de
DN PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: NIA - SYC
Race starts: Jul 02nd 07:00 Registration Open!
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SYC Ranking

  1. Sailonline Yacht Club Member CriticalHippo
  2. Sailonline Yacht Club Member KaSToR
  3. Sailonline Yacht Club Member WRmirekd
  4. Sailonline Yacht Club Member Panpyc
  5. Sailonline Yacht Club Member bonknhoot
  6. Sailonline Yacht Club Member cdhinman
  7. Sailonline Yacht Club Member rafa
  8. Sailonline Yacht Club Member ms0689
  9. Sailonline Yacht Club Member YANN
  10. Sailonline Yacht Club Member HoratioPugwash

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