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Old 17-01-2013, 07:16   #376
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Re: VENDÉE GLOBE round the world race

The next change in the weather patterns will be critical to the finish I think. Attached is a Noaa 24 hour Weather Fax overlay in qtVlm at 18Jan UTC 00:00 with the qtVlm grib set as close to that time as possible.

(To do this, I downloaded three Noaa North Atlantic 24 hour Weather Faxs from here and set them up using the qtVlm dialogue box at "Grib file > MetroFax > Open a MetroFax" and entered the following: North 64 degree, West 105 degrees, 120 degrees and 50 degrees. Which locate the images and scale them about right. Qtvlm will remember this information on the next download.)

18Jan UTC 00 is around the time we will start or be crossing the unsettled change in winds. The Noaa forecast overlay seems to match pretty closely, but what does this 24 hour weather forecast overlay tell us about the grib forecast? It could be important to finishing well.
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Old 17-01-2013, 07:21   #377
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Re: VENDÉE GLOBE round the world race

I intended to include a link to qtVlm wiki Weather Fax page. Actually the crossing of this unsettled weather occurs from 18 Jan UTC 0200 to about UTC 0700. The dead zone may extend further north than the grib shows. In which case Poup is in good position.
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Old 18-01-2013, 02:25   #378
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Re: VENDÉE GLOBE round the world race

Rick! You missed the arrival and hit the coast
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Old 18-01-2013, 04:44   #379
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Re: VENDÉE GLOBE round the world race

Yes, I got up this morning and found I had not checked the endpoint of my last route! How disappointing, what a screw up! I came in 123 as a result. I was keeping track last night at intervals and I was doing ok. What would I have finished? Did you notice?
Thanks for all your help Maitai and Kirke. It was a fun race. I think I can do this.

Rick

Maitai Kirke rgleason Nm
WP2 Gough Island 59 52 381
WP4 Cape Good Hope 58 51 325
WP5 Heard Island 31 47 297
WP8 Cape Leeuwin 18 50 259
WP13 Cape Horn 46 32 133
1/17 849 am 33 43 64
1/17 12:25 pm 34 48 63
1/17 4:25 pm 34 48 67 Bay of Biscay
1/17 6:27 pm 34 48 61
1/17 10:59pm 33 40 56
1/17 11:32 pm 34 39 55
Finish 32 36 123
Nm 28164 28877 28345 and 69 Days

After a difficult first leg, boat went astray at the start, cut africa instead of going west, got lucky 18th, then started to cut west but did not go far enough, got shellacked 381 (and worse before Gough Isl). It appears that I tend to favor the shorter route rather than going further and faster.
1. Make sure I have the boat on a proper route at the start.
2. Make sure I have the destination correct ! (Finish)
3. Consult Pilot Charts & Meteo faxes.
4. Watch/chart the lows at all times. Compare position to overal fleet.
5. Try to anticipate and articulate how the next grib will change.
6. Try not to vacillate on course decisions. (Did this once by Brazil, and once closer to the finish.)

What is?
Dnf = Did not Finish
ABD=?
HTP= ?
HC=?
distance parcourue = distance traveled
moyennes = medium
loch = = log or speed log

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Old 18-01-2013, 04:57   #380
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Re: VENDÉE GLOBE round the world race

This kind of stuff happens all the time, even to the best virtual sailors. chboing did the same as you, and he is very experienced...

You would have arrived approx at 50, I think.

ABD: abandonned (resigned)
HTP is hors temps (arrived after the time limit)
HC is hors course (not in the race)
moyenne=average

That was a nice and fun race, I am happy I succeeded to pass kirke in the last few miles Now the problem is to return back to normal familly life
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Old 22-01-2013, 09:20   #381
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Re: VENDÉE GLOBE round the world race

How can I easily loose 73 places or more at the end of the VLM Vendee Race?

What happened?
I ran aground. I sent a good route to finish the race to the autopilot using VBVMG. I did not check that the last waypoint went between the gates and woke up the next morning with the boat hard against the French shore. I had to create a new route to finish and lost 75 places.

Why did this happen? The boat probably made it to the waypoint, but did not cross the finish, so what happened afterwards? Once the boat reached the waypoint, it appears it continued sailing, but in what direction? Was it still using VBMG? Why wouldn't it have gone towards the finish line (next waypoint) or perhaps just stopped at the end of the route and sent an alarm? Does the program have some of these choices?

Answer from Maitai: The VLM My Waypoint documentation states:
"If no value has been filled, your Way Point (WP) is the next mark, provided lat,long are entered as '0'. When you complete (lat, lon) values in the 2 text boxes, the next race mark is forgotten until you reach your waypoint. "

First of all, a WP is considered as 'reached'' in VLM when the distance beween the boat and the WP is less or equal to the distance the boat sailed during the previous crank (vacation). So in fact the WP is always reached *before* the boat hits it.

After a WP is reached, what happens depends on how the WP has been set-up:

If there is a "Heading-to-follow-after-WP", then the boat will be set in heading mode with this value. Nice, but if the wind happens to come from that direction, you might not move a lot...

If there is no such value defined in the WP (i.e. it has been set to "-1"), then the boat will keep the same navigation mode (VBVMG, VMG or ORTHO) as the one it had before reaching the WP, using that mode toward the closest point of the next race gate. Nice again, but if there is land between the boat and the next gate that might create problems

Follow up:

There is no way to find out, but I unknowingly probably had pilot instructions set on a "Heading-to-follow-after-WP" because the boat went ashore, rather than ''-1 '' to continue to the closest side of the next race gate (the finish)!

There is an option in qtVlm for that and probably this is what happened to you. By default qtVlm will set "heading-to-follow" with the last direction that the boat was sailing when the WP was reached and deactivated.
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Old 22-01-2013, 11:13   #382
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Hi Rick,
thats why i have set a WP just short before the finish line and another WP far away on land to give the right direction crossing the finish line. I dont know if this is the prefered strategie, but it works.
Hartmut
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Old 22-01-2013, 15:17   #383
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Re: VENDÉE GLOBE round the world race

Thanks. Good idea.
Bottom line is to take the time to check the Finish line Wp (which I did not do) and I like your double WP idea.

I did check what a qtVlm Route > Route Tab > check VBVMG > Autopilot > Load Auto > Send does, and by checking

Boat > Autopilot > Autopilot Instructions

Pilot Mode

5. Very Best VMG

Heading / Angle - Used for constant heading

Position
Latitude Lat was entered.
Longitude Long was entered

Next Heading - Next Heading was entered
Matai wrote --
If there is a "Heading-to-follow-after-WP" entered, then the boat will be set in heading mode with this value. -- Nice, but if the wind happens to come from that direction, you might not move a lot...


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Old 22-01-2013, 17:41   #384
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Re: VENDÉE GLOBE round the world race

Updated the qtVlm Wiki for Autopilot
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