Virtual ISAF Youth Worlds 2012 - Update
by SailX.com 16 Jun 2012 15:13 BST
Half way through but 90% of points still up for grabs
With three weeks of racing completed and a further three weeks to go, yesterday (Monday 11th June) marked the half-way point in the inaugural "Virtual ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships 2012" run in partnership with the organisers of the real world event, Dublin Bay 2012 and with ISAF approval.
While it may be the half-way-point in terms of time, when it comes to points available, the competition has only just begun. 90% of an individuals total possible points tally are still available until end of Stage 3 (the last regatta of Stage 3 takes place this Sunday 17th June at 2130 GMT) and then 60% of points are available in the final two-week long stage, Stage 4 - which starts on Monday 18th at 0400 GMT and continues 24/7 until the final regatta on Sunday 1st July at 2130 GMT.
Already this Virtual ISAF Youth Worlds is one of the largest held on SailX. So far 733 individuals have entered the regatta and 464 have taken part in official racing (not just practice racing) representing 46 countries. Of the 464 classified so far, 94 are entered in the Youth category. With so many points still up for grabs, entries are expected to keep coming in right until the last day so it will be exciting to see how large the competition becomes.
To take part in the competition please register at dublinbay2012.sailx.com/ (click Register in "Login to SailX" box on top left of screen).
At this point in the competition two Irish youth sailors ‘IRL711' and ‘markh' are in the lead, with ‘mirrorking' from the UK completing the podium – but some way back. As a result Ireland leads the Nations Youth ranking – followed by the UK and New Zealand. Surprisingly, France, winners of the Nations Trophy (now the Volvo Trophy) for the past three years are lying in 21st position out of 46 countries overall! Some work to do yet it would seem!
When it comes to class ranking the Laser Radial Class is absolutely dominant – with almost 70% more points than it's nearest rival, the 420 Class. Surprisingly the 29er Class, which was so strong in the last major SailX regatta (the RYA Volvo Dinghy Show SailX Championships) is lying in last position overall behind, the SL16 and RSX Classes. Exams clearly taking their toll on that age group – but we expect a bounce back soon.
Amando Estela, SailX creator said "We deliberately design these regattas to build to a crescendo by offering more and more points for races and regattas that occur later in the Championship. That way people who hear about the event after it has started still have every opportunity to enter and win. We have run many regattas like this in the past and it means the action builds right to the very end. All this means that while it is interesting to see the line-up so far, it's early days yet and rankings will change a lot before it's over. But already we can see this is going to be a really great event – bring it on!".
ISAF Youth Worlds Statistics so far:
- 733 individuals entered (taking part in practice racing)
- 464 have taken part in official racing (and hence been classified)
- 94 of whom in Youth category (age under 19)
- 5 weeks of racing (including practice Stage 1)
- 175 regattas
- 700 races
- 6,700 starters
- 4,700 finishes (approx. 7 boats per race on average)
- 1,300 user-hours of official racing (i.e. not practice racing)
About SailX.com
- SailX is an online inshore sailboat racing simulation environment that runs one-design fleet, match and team racing
vRacing takes place real-time 24/7 between sailors from all over the world and in strict accordance with the ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing
- The simulation provides fun and learning for all level of sailors from beginner racers to World Champions & Olympians
- SailX can be played for free, forever
- While there are some advantages to subscribing, users will never be able to buy a faster boat!
Recent SailX Statistics:
- SailX is the leading inshore sailboat racing simulation environment in the world (by far)
- On average SailX hosts a 12-person race every 5 minutes, 24hrs a day, every day (that's 1.2m individual race finishers / year)
- The SailX community is made up of over 28,000 users from over 114 countries worldwide and it's growing fast
- On average users spend a total of 10,500 highly-engaged hours (14.5 months) racing each month
- The SailX rules engine currently decides on over 1.5m incidents per year with >95% accuracy
- SailX has a searchable database over 18,000 ruled protests complete with incident videos and community commentary