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Profile for Water Bear



Name Water Bear
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Tardigrades the slow-walking extremophile.
  • Historical Ships Sailing Polars
    Board » Technical Discussion
    I'm interested in either authoritative or speculative answers to the question of where does SOL come upon the Polars for Viking ships and Tall ships. As a hobby project I've been working on a game simulating historical (especially naval) ship performance. My dream is to have unique performance models for a wide variety of ships from the Age of Sail and set them against each other in various scenarios. I expect I'll have to creatively extrapolate their performance from a wide variety of sources. However I was excited to see that at least some one has charted some boats based on modern replications like the Barque used in the SOL Tall Ships series and the Longship Drake. So any input on additional sources would be very gratefully received.

    If you're interested in the topic at all I'll share a link to an article I read in my research this afternoon: http://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol13/tnm_13_4_29-39.pdf

    That article by popular historian Sam Wills really drives home how horrible (by racing sloop standards) the upwind performance of these ships might have been and makes it all the more remarkable what feats of navigation were achieved during the golden age of sail.
    Tardigrades the slow-walking extremophile.

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New Ice Age 2026 - Scott Base to Neumayer Station


To complete our DN circumnavigation of Antarctica and our 4-race ice-boat marathon series, we continue clockwise, now departing from Scott Base back to Neumayer Station. It’s about 3500nm back as well, which, as said 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 #1971
INFOby brainaid.de
DN PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: NIA - SYC
Race starts: Aug 27th 07:00 Registration Open!
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Cross the Convergence 2026 - Tenerife to Fernando de Noronha


The sixth race of our series of ocean voyages across the World’s convergence zones takes us back up the Atlantic to Tenerife, from whence we will depart on a classic transatlantic passage to Brazil’s Fernando de Noronha. It’s 2150nm as the albatross flies, but you will undoubtedly have to take some and sometimes sudden detours to get your Volvo 70v4 through the doldrums stretching across your path from the Amazon to the Niger.
Race #1986
INFOby brainaid.de
Volvo 70v4PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: CCZ - SYC
Race starts: Aug 23rd 18:00 Registration Open!
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Palk Bay TIMED Race 2026

This month’s TIMED race takes us to the shallow waters of Palk Bay located between India and Sri Lanka. Sail the impressive MC 38 around a roughly 140 nm course through two narrow channels before returning to the start/finish line in Jaffna.
This is a TIMEDrace so you may RE-REGISTER HEREto try again after finishing a run. You will have two weeks to test your skill and decision making after the race opens.
Race #2054
INFOby brainaid.de
PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking:
TRQ3 - TRCH - SYC
RACE CLOSE: Saturday,
29 August at 23:00 UTC
Race starts: Aug 16th 12:00 Registration Open!
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