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Board » Practice Racing » General Practice Race Notes

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Posted by
newsartist


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2009-08-20 03:01:55
2010-06-27 13:59:29 - General Practice Race Notes
Post annotated by RainbowChaser :
This thread was moved from the category Races.
I wanted to respond to Glynnwi's very good race suggestion without hiding RC's current Notice of Race.

A thread that is non-race-specific is good anyway!

My thoughts are that races should be laid out with options that can be chosen at the last minute based on actual winds.

In this case, Mark 5 could be announced after the Practice Race Start to shorten the course, and Mark 4 could be substituted as an alternate Finish.


--- Last Edited by newsartist at 2010-06-27 14:00:17 ---
Posted by
newsartist


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2010-06-27 14:13:08 - Re: General Practice Race Notes
General course guidelines(?):

-The Start needs to be where new racers can join easily.

-The "Practice Race Course" should avoid the Actual Race Course to avoid confusing us, and the actual racers.

-Distance and direction, based on expected winds, should include a beat into the wind if possible.

-If possible, one or more legs should be unburdened by land. This allows multiple tactics and avoids boring 'follow the leader' situations.

-The Finish should be at a natural 'trap' to keep boats close, if people finish on DC's.

Races should end with the plan to let future races 'drift' toward new and interesting waters.

Your thoughts please?
Posted by
glynn


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2009-11-24 07:16:27
2010-06-27 15:51:05 - Re: General Practice Race Notes
newsartist said @ 2010-06-27 13:59:29:
I wanted to respond to Glynnwi's very good race suggestion without hiding RC's current Notice of Race.

A thread that is non-race-specific is good anyway!

My thoughts are that races should be laid out with options that can be chosen at the last minute based on actual winds.

In this case, Mark 5 could be announced after the Practice Race Start to shorten the course, and Mark 4 could be substituted as an alternate Finish.


--- Last Edited by newsartist at 2010-06-27 14:00:17 ---
my idea was to get away from using boats that have no consequence of hitting them when there is a hundred isles that can be raced around properly.i don't see any point in racing around an open bay when there is real isles in reach.even if it means missing one days practice in favour of heading in one direction dc setting to get the isles.to race properly
Posted by
RainbowChaser


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2009-06-14 09:44:50
2010-06-27 16:12:56 - Re: General Practice Race Notes
Good thread news - here are my comments (in italic)

-The Start needs to be where new racers can join easily.

Agree. The first start should always either be the SOL Start or a point v close to it so as many as possible can join in

-The "Practice Race Course" should avoid the Actual Race Course to avoid confusing us, and the actual racers.

Agree in principle but there may be races where this isn't possible.

-Distance and direction, based on expected winds, should include a beat into the wind if possible.

Agree - several have suggested triangular courses as being most fun, and IRL racing usually starts into wind.

-If possible, one or more legs should be unburdened by land. This allows multiple tactics and avoids boring 'follow the leader' situations.

Not sure about this. Some areas where we race are dotted with super little islands. The Mark boats simply give us some flexibility when there aren't many islands available.

-The Finish should be at a natural 'trap' to keep boats close, if people finish on DC's.

Agree - and the finish, as svein suggested the other night should be shown to 4decimal places, even when it is a natural "trap".

Races should end with the plan to let future races 'drift' toward new and interesting waters.

Yes and no. We don't have to practice race every night if there are several nights available. Cruising to a better location and leaving at a fixed time or under our own steam makes a break. Racing every day could get a little wearisome and sightseeing is fun too!!

Posted by
ivar-sails-no-more


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2010-02-04 22:24:21
2010-06-27 18:43:45 - Re: General Practice Race Notes
I like the idea of having some open water to experiment with courses and polars. Boats marking islands when needed, why not? Would like to see a race every night, so people can join in when they have time for it. Could there be a fixed line of tekst saying there is a practice race at 18.00, something like below
Race starts: Jul 03rd 09.00
Practice races every night at 18.00

Could make the word "Practice race" a link in bleu to an explanation of what practice races are.

Anyone have ideas of how about to have more clearity in finisching times? Or do we keep Boinking hahaha
Posted by
javakeda


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2013-03-01 03:18:22
2013-04-11 21:47:11 - Practice Race Rules
During today's PR, there was a lively chat about rules, and how they should be applied in a practice race. I suggest the chat raised a number of valid issues that bear further discussion:

Issue #1: It seems to me there are at least two 'goals' for Practice Races:

a) helping 'newbies' become familiar with the SOL client;
b) allowing all skippers time to practice sailing the boat that will be used in the main race.

That suggests to me that there could be two boat classes in the PRs [novice and experienced]. That would allow different rules for each class.

Issue #2: To what extent should the PR rules comply with or differ from the "real life" rules of yacht-racing?

Here is a three-tiered answer:

1) The rules of the main race should comply with the "real life" rules of racing -- unless there is a specific and compelling reason to the contrary.

2) The rules for 'experienced skippers' in the practice race should comply with the rules of the main race -- again, unless there is a specific and compelling reason to the contrary.

3) The rules for 'novice skippers' may be modified, and penalties for mistakes may be reduced, in order to encourage [hearten?] novice skippers.

NOTE: In this view, novice and experience skippers compete for different podiums [podia?]. It should not be possible for a novice skipper to "win" a PR if they did not comply with the rules that apply to experienced skippers.

Issue #3: To what extent should the PR rules accommodate the needs of those who are not sailing "hands-on" and are changing course via DCs?

The chance to practice DCs before the main race is IMO under-appreciated. But there are two competing arguments here:

1) To encourage practicing the use of DCs, we will minimize the penalty of missing a mark.

2) To make practicing the use of DCs real, we will impose the same penalties in the PR that one would experience in the main race.

A further alternative is a third class in the PR that is DC only.

My preference is to make penalties for the DC users the same as the penalties in the real race.
Hey, that is what those folks would experience.
Also, it is hard for me to believe that novice skippers are relying on DCs in Practice Races.

OK ... time for some feedback!


--- Last Edited by javakeda at 2013-04-11 21:57:37 ---
Posted by
Smo


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2009-05-02 21:49:04
2013-04-11 22:03:16 - Re: General Practice Race Notes
PR should be like IRL racing on ISAF rules or like sol. Inspecial cases RC (Race comittee) .. rainbowxhacer desides
Posted by
Mark


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2013-04-06 10:01:41
2013-04-11 22:09:54 - Re: General Practice Race Notes
Ive only been using the game a week or so but heres my view.

The PRs are an opportunity for noobs like myself to learn the client and how the game works. It also gives members a chance to chat and socialise.

There are already serious races where results count and there are rules to be obeyed. PRs to my mind should be fun snd as informal as possible while maintaining the semblance of a race.

In short, if it aint broke dont fix it
Posted by
javakeda


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2013-04-12 00:28:54 - Practice Race Rules Discussion
Agree in principle with the concept, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
But, in the chat, there seemed to be a reasonable question as to whether "It was broke." Certainly Dana and I felt something was amiss.
I believe we owe it to the game to discuss the basic issues.
The alternative is that we ignore the significant issues that emerged in the chat.

As I see it, simply saying the equivalent of "fuggeddabouddit" ["forget about it" -- translating the slang] is abdicating responsibility.
Posted by
Pocobueno


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2011-05-27 17:42:56
2013-04-12 05:33:18 - Re: General Practice Race Notes
@javakeda
we had here a discussion about PR - rules for a long time.
Since then, i take it as a 'Just for fun' run.
And when there is no PR - we go to burn down tractors or something like that.
So, get prepared for the real race and don't worry about PR-rules so much
Pocobueno

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