Virtual Volvo Ocean Race

surprisingly fine! the chunder in the kitchen tells a differant story.... off to
holland now, so anyone who applies to join the yandy group will have to
wait til i get back on friday night! much love x

Swat I reckon...those that went further east will suffer me thinks.

I have lost 4000 places in one day!! Its really starting to piss me off now!!!

Originally posted by GK.LaserII In the same wind and on the same angle as another boat  and he's 5knts faster......buggy as hell. If this continues after the next wind change I'm out.

He has probably has bought the pro sails option...

The VVOR is all about your routing which is down to the skill / luck of choosing which direction to go in for the given forecast pattern.  yes the weather patterns could be done to a greater accuracy (which is why it shows boats on the smae heading and wind speeds going at different hull speeds), but that would require more server space. 

as for all the additional electronic aids, yes it was wrong of volvo to add them as a pay as you go option, but like all yacht racing it is sometimes about the cheque book. that said i have seen a none aided boat in the top 5 consistently .  whether you loose 5 or 5000 places at this point in time is meaningless.  its all about the finish, currently ive got a friend in the top 200 but he is two days sail NE of my position and im in more wind so hopefully i'll overtake.

doing the sums; 408hrs total leg time so far, of which ive been logged in for about 30hrs, most of which is back ground running.  thats 7% of the leg time so far (actually less)  i dont have web at home at the mo so i have to plan for 15hrs over night throughout the week and hope for the best then i have no contact from sat afternoon till monday morning.  54hrs total possible routing time per week, which means that i could only use 26% of the possible leg time so far to route if i was on it all the time.

so although the aids obviously help, mainly with routing (you could get up in the middle of the night and do this also), they can also be a pain as if you dont get your predictions correct you could end up going backwards.

personally i wont use the aids, but ive also gone from top 2000 to 13000 (when there was only 20000) and back again. so its not about time online or the electronic aids you buy, its about the route YOU choose.  everyone has the same forecasts to go on.

its down to the individual to either put in massive hours and hope they get the breaks as and when they happen, or just use long sighted judgement and luck to get to the top of the fleet.

if you ask me thats what real sailing is about too!   so quiting would be pointless as its a best of 6 out of 9 legs (so a long way to go yet) and its also a nice distraction from work. plus you could win a car.

just my view.