Facebook

Login

Support Sailonline

If you haven't already - join the SAILONLINE YACHT CLUB!

Please also consider making a donation - all amounts are greatly appreciated!

Board » Practice Racing » Pre-set practice race areas

There are times when there isn't a possibility to run a practice race in a conventional sense - i.e., races are running and there is no practice time.

At moments like these, and they are not that often, several have voiced the idea of a practice race course officially set up in the system which can then be used for a couple of hours only.

As a practical matter, it is not possible to create a practice race course without "pinning" it to a specific area - each waypoint has its own lon/lat - with map/weathersystem.

So if we chose a few areas in the world where practice-race quality winds are most likely to occur, I could ask the 'Gods to set up weathersystems tailored small to fit that zone.

The area(s) we choose can then be populated with a range of waypoints that we pick/choose as we want.

To this end, please would you all come up with a handful of places in the world where we are likely to nearly always encounter practice race quality winds!!

Thanks!!
RC...Sounds like a very good suggestion. Don´t where...Southern Ocean...lol,,,but it would good if it´s near land. Go ahead, that would be fine ! Robert
Robert
Set up a race site, near to each main race, but which is entered ONLY from the practice race site, with the boats auto-transported to the start, and returned to the main race site after the finish.
If it breaks, it's not strong enough--if it doesn't, it's too heavy.
Rod - yes, that would be doable. But what remains is the legwork needed to get a small group of practice races and their weathersystems/areas pre-set.

I am no sailor and apart from the S Oceans am not aware of parts of the sailing-globe where reasonable winds are usually available.

If someone could come up with these it would be a starting point!
*******************
I have been giving some further thought to this and the snag, really, is that a full-blown practice race set up in the style of a real SOL race will make a "blip" on the server and overtime practice races will take over.

We have to ask ourselves.. is it really appropriate for just a small group of us to potentially muck up someone else's race?

As it stands, our practising during the practice time of a race is not harming anyone.

If we were to have separate practice races that stand alone from SOL races then they should be open to all and publicly visible.... otherwise it smacks too much of cronyism.

There is a halfway solution though...a reusable practice race that has some but not all of the characteristics of a SOL race, a course in the race preview stage that is re-usable.

In other words we have a start and we have a finish line and we have waypoints. All of these are movable to accommodate variations on our racing.

What we would not have is either towback OR automatic start.. we would need to set start DCs or be online... but what we would have would be ranked finishes.

If we then wanted to use Mark Boats for waypoints/gates, they can be registered and sailed into place or we could have fixed SOL-style waypoints.

After each race I would, however, have to delete the registered boats to release them from the finish.

OR we could simply use the course/area as we do now - setting our starts and monitoring our finishes and just using the zone available.

What do you think?

Go to this url:

TEST PRACTICE
register your boat and then tell me what you think.


REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED!!!! 1935hrs

--- Last Edited by RainbowChaser at 2011-02-25 19:37:01 ---
it's oké, strong winds that are a little chance of direction
Perfect !!
Robert

Please login to post a reply.

Races

Next Race: 00d 00h 00m


Current Races:

South China Sea Race 2026


Welcome all to the South China Sea and a virtual chase in Cookson 50’s of the Rolex South China Sea fleet, racing 650nm – as the local red-footed booby flies – from Hong Kong to Subic Bay on the southern tip of The Philippines’ Luzon Island. Chances are it will be a fast downwind ride, so see how you can keep up with the real-life fleet which we hope to be able to follow on our monitors.
Race #2016
INFOby brainaid.de
Cookson 50 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: SUPBUD - SYC
Race starts: Mar 04th 03:20 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

SSANZ Round North Island Race 2026 - Leg 2

Leg Two of our Round North Island Series is where the real challenge begins. After Mangonui, our SOLers face a demanding 491nm passage around the top of the North Island and down the rugged west coast toward Cook Strait. Long miles, exposed waters, and relentless tactical choices will test every SOLer. In our powerful Sun Fast 3600s, a proven short-handed performer and true downwind flyer, endurance, timing, and smart routing will be key to success!

The start time for this race may change at short notice to align with the real race. The confirmed start date and time will be announced via an in-race “L” flag message — Please monitor race communications closely.
Race #2012
INFO by brainaid.de
Sun Fast 3600 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: RNI - SUPBUD - SYC
Race starts: Mar 02nd 21:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Iceland to the Falklands 2026

Welcome to an all-new route, the first of three Round the 'Old World' of Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia. To give each leg of the ROW a bit of length we'll try to hug the coasts as little as possible, so starting in Iceland our first leg of the series, which will also be the final leg of our Quarter 1 Ocean Championships takes us 7200nm to the Falklands, the full length of the Atlantic end to end. To make sure we'll get it done within the month we'll be sailing our Maxi Trimaran.
Race #2010
INFO by brainaid.de
Maxi Trimaran PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: OCQ1 - ROW - OCCH - SYC
Race starts: Mar 02nd 11:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

SSANZ Round North Island Race 2026 - Leg 1

Welcome to Leg One of the Round North Island Series in partnership with SSANZ. The four-leg circuit of New Zealand’s North Island is a true test of short-handed skill, and it begins with the 150nm passage from Auckland to Mangonui. This year, our SOLers will be racing the dynamic Sun Fast 3600 – Jeanneau’s renowned racer-cruiser and a proven flyer downwind. A gentle opener on paper… but coastal tactics and shifting breezes will demand focus from the start!
Race #2011
INFO by brainaid.de
Sun Fast 3600 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: RNI - SUPBUD - SYC
Race starts: Feb 28th 21:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

San Diego to Puerto Vallarta 2026

Welcome to California! Established in 1953 this 1000-mile run from San Diego to Puerto Vallarta on the Mexican Riviera has become a tradition and online as well the tradition strengthens with this the fourth time Sailonline is making the race available to virtual sailors. Let's see how our virtual SC70s perform against the real fleet!
Race #2015
INFO by brainaid.de
Santa Cruz 70 Particulars
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: SUPBUD - SYC
Race starts: Feb 28th 20:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

New Ice Age 2026 - Browerville to Longyearbyen


Our 2026 long-distance ice-boating challenge continues with a second race in Arctic waters, now from Browerville, where we arrived less than a month ago, continuing east, back to Svalbard’s Longyearbyen, leaving Canada’s Ellesmere Island to port and Denmark’s Greenland to starboard. It’s about 2500nm, which, if there’s wind at all, should, well-wrapped in your DN-cockpits, not take you more than a day or three, thus to complete your first (of several) online circumnavigation of the planet of 2026!
Race #1969
INFOby brainaid.de
DN PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: NIA - SYC
RACE CLOSE: Monday,
March 2 at 2300 UTC.
Race starts: Feb 19th 07:00 Registration Closed
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Beketov by Balloon 2026 - In Siberia


Way-back-when France and England, and Spain as well, were squabbling about who should control what of North America, only to lose the most of it to their own insurging colonists, their eastern European neighbour empire, Russia, was quietly assimilating vast, thinly nomadically populated territory of its own – Siberia! Amongst the many explorers and adventurers that served Russia so well in these conquests was the Cossack hetman Pyotr Beketov. Let’s pretend we’re he and eschewing horseback, let’s travel by balloon from Yekaterinberg to Krasnoyarsk – just a short 2000km (1100nm) section of the Trans-Siberian Express’ 9289km!
Race #1972
INFOby brainaid.de
SOL Balloon PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: BOL - SYC
RACE CLOSE: Wednesday,
March 4 at 2300 UTC.
Race starts: Feb 03rd 13:00 Registration Closed
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Go to race archive

SYC Ranking

  1. Sailonline Yacht Club Member KaSToR
  2. Sailonline Yacht Club Member WRmirekd
  3. Sailonline Yacht Club Member CriticalHippo
  4. Sailonline Yacht Club Member rumskib
  5. Sailonline Yacht Club Member vida
  6. Sailonline Yacht Club Member Sax747
  7. Sailonline Yacht Club Member CollegeFund
  8. Sailonline Yacht Club Member rafa
  9. Sailonline Yacht Club Member Panpyc
  10. Sailonline Yacht Club Member sassy63

View full list

Series

Mobile Client

SYC members have the benefit of access to our mobile/lightweight web client!

The mobile client