I would also like to point out on often overlooked feature of this tool - the data logging.

When you open the graph for your Boat Log, it only displays COG/SOG/TWA data, but it collects much more, which you can export in a text format (CSV) to the clipboard by clicking the 'Export' button beneath the graph. The data is directly paste-able into Excel or similar, and includes a header line identifying the various fields:
TIME,LAT,LON,TWS,TWD, TWA,COG,SOG,VMG,VMC,PERF,RANK,DTF
The data is collected for every minute from when you have had the tool open.

The format of the latitude and longitude fields depends on what you have set for display in the Options/General. All numeric fields are given to 3 decimal places (including the lat/lon, so DDM provides more precision)

--- Last Edited by Aaron Gage at 2012-06-26 06:52:14 ---

I made one of those carts when I was 10 (~1981) from 2 skateboards, the shower curtain and some curtain rods... And it worked!!! (But mum was not happy about the shower curtain, or the ones on my bedroom floor). I even have a pic of me 'sailing' down the street on the first version which was just a single skateboard I stood on - I should hunt it down and post

I sometimes lament the money I could have made if I was 22 and not 10, and had the forethought to develop and market it

Setting a delayed command to start a race can be problematic in deciding the right time offset to use.
To improve this situation, I have implemented the ability to specify 'start' as the delay value, and the client will generate a random time somewhere between 10 ans 20 minutes prior to the race start for the command to fire.
Case does not matter, so start=Start=START
Here is an example:

Results in the following in the DC tab:


Edit: pics are clickable thumbnails - taken for the Pb³ race, so you can see the date/time is good

--- Last Edited by Aaron Gage at 2012-06-25 12:24:30 ---

Getting more out of the Notes tab - keyboard shortcuts

There are a number of keyboard shortcuts built-in to the Notes tab (enabled from the Options).
First to know and remember is 'Ctrl+S' saves the notes for that race, as does hitting Enter
Here I will list the shortcuts by key - implicit is the fact you need to be holding the Ctrl key when you hit it
Note: The keyboard shortcuts INSERT text where the input cursor currently is, followed by a space. If you have text selected, it will be replaced.
Where there are options for formatting what is inserted, your current settings will apply

T - Current date and time, UTC. The date is formatted like '07Jun' to be more 'international friendly'. Example: 02Jun@21:03 utc
M - The coordinates under the mouse. You can also cut and paste, but this bypasses that when you just want the coord in your notes (I also considered 'C', but then you couldn't easily copy text FROM the notes)
Y - The name of the Yacht the mouse is hovered over.
N - Relative Navigation information for the point under the cursor, from your boat. This is the same as the values you see in map top right (Xnm@Y°).
R - Just the 'range' part of the data you get by using the 'N' shortcut
B - Just the 'bearing' part of the data you get by using the 'N' shortcut
W - Wind data for the location under the mouse, at the time specified on the Wx slider - same as displayed at map top right.
D - Inserts a degree symbol - °

These few allow you to quite quickly and easily add useful information to your race notes, and keeping notes is a great way to keep track of progress (for example, recording range/bearing to a particular boat at regular intervals), and also to help you improve. You might record that you had an 'either/or' decision and the time, the possible choices you had, which you made and ideally something that helps you to evaluate that decision later on
- for example "01Jun@13:05 - undecided between staying on favoured tack with higher VMC, or gybing to Port and aim for more wind in 12 hours. I gybed, GnT off my lee bow: 1.27nm@277.40° remained on Starboard"
When our courses finally converge again, I can very easily determine if I made the right choice, by comparing his latest range/bearing

It is important to remember that the 'text insert cursor' needs to be visible in the Notes text box, for these shortcuts to work - so if you click outside of the textbox, you will need to return 'input focus' to it by clicking it again.

If you have any suggestions to add to this list, or to enhance the Race Notes facility, please leave a reply.

I do remember a while back (probably around the time i started developing the client) there were a few that got quite rambunctious in the chat, 'F' this and that all the time - but as far as I could see it was limited to toward each other. I actually did report 1 case of it to Kalle. It was definitely 'both ways' and I don't recall them behaving badly toward anyone else - but this is something to look into further.

@Capt. D.P.: Do you have any idea WHEN this might have occurred ?? Even during what race it was would be of help?

What was happening, is that on my machine each line for P/S VMC takes only a single line of text without overflow to next line, so both showed fine.

What I have done is put the Optimum Angles tool into a resizeable window. The 'content' stays anchored to the top left, but you can modify its size as you please by dragging the lower right corner of the window

On the 17th at 0400 did your raiders have a change of heart? and you took 5 hours to beat them back into submission and the Viking pursuit of a good raid?

Also Capt. DP: - a race like this could very easily have been used to HELP promote sailonline.org, given the right 'spin'
At the very least it is a great example of the versatility of sailonline - and how hard is it to say "Obviously for 95% of races we use modern racing polars" or something similar.

And congrats Scotsman!! - doubly sorry I missed that race now

I cant quite understand why a SINGLE race in the history of Sailonline.org, that used an historic polar including the fact that these boats included rowers is being ragged on...

a) Don't sail it... Nothing states we must participate in all races, ergo the SYC ranking being best 10 of last 30

b) +1 to SP's comment, & PaulR's

c) Perhaps actually having to examine the polar in a different way is not such a bad thing to begin with... Kind of like how sailing completely different classes IRL makes you a better sailor overall. (Well it has had that effect on my own sailing for sure)

Really all SOL did was have a race that took us back in history, and that is the sort of thing that makes virtual sailing so special - that we can actually do that sort of thing...

Personally I am pissed I had to miss it due to internet problems, I think its a great idea...

Also - I think the place for such comments is in the Race Calendar thread - and BEFORE the race starts.

--- Last Edited by Aaron Gage at 2012-06-20 09:58:25 ---

I have not encountered this but will look into it. Did it resolve, or did you need to reload the app?