Tactics Plugin

[rgleason]

tom_BigSpeedy has been using
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...dr-154277.html
as a thread but his Tactics_pi deserves it's own thread.

Thomas will be sailing BigSpeedy in the
SUNDAY May 29th - Sat June 4th
9.00 a.m. delivery SGS Tracking, how to use briefing
02.00 p.m. 42^ LA CINQUECENTO race start
www.lacinquecento.it
Follow him under BigSpeedy and wish him well.

He'll be testing and using OpenCPN, Tactics_pi, Grib_pi and Weather_Routing_pi.

[rgleason]

La Cinquecento 2016 Race
SGS-Livetrack
link to the tracking software of 500 miles race
Thomas Rauch is sailing #17 "Big Speedy" and predicts:

It's gonna be rough first 24 hrs with 20 - 28 kts of head-/crosswind and thunderstorms over night (gale warning up to 40 kts).
Then the wind will die away completely ...

Big Speedy has 409 nm to go.

[rgleason]

It looks like he is in good position with 198 nm to go.
La Cinquecento 2016 Race
SGS-Livetrack
link to the tracking software of 500 miles race
===

Want to know more about how drift and leeway are defined, you can read here.
US Naval Academy
USNA Sailing Center Lectures and Training
Lectures and Training - USNA Sailing Center :: USNA Sailing Center :: USNA
NAV 100 Part 0 Overview
NAV 100 Part I Basic Piloting Techniques
NAV 100 Part II Piloting and Chartwork Scenario
NAV 100 Part III Tricks of the Trade
https://fliphtml5.com/pqgm/vnhr
Chart Prep Checklist
Celestial Navigation
Celestial Navigation 2
Celestial Navigation 3

[rgleason]

Big Speedy is near the 3rd Mark Tremiti and is 8th by distance, 267nm, from finish.
La Cinquecento 2016 Race
SGS-Livetrack

[rgleason]

Big Speedy is #2!

[bcn]

With 10 boats arrived Big Speedy is the next to get in in about 1.5 h from now (10nm from finish line) (13:30 UTC)

[bcn]

Arrived....

[tom_BigSpeedy]

We're back from the race,
thanks guys for following :-)

We did 6th in double handed real time, 11th over all.
Due to the bad rating of our boat we ended up 5th in IRC, 3rd ORC.
Anyway it was great fun.

I used weather routing as well as tactics pi throughout the whole race, using zygrib GFS forecast files.

The zygrib GRIBs are the only free and somehow reliable GRIB source for the Adriatic sea. I tried using weather routing predictions on all legs, although the course limits you somehow to the coastline on the first and last leg.

But for the diagonal crossing it makes absolutely sense to give it a try.
On the way south, after the first Turnpoint Susak/Sansego, weather routing suggested to sail more to the west, and then down the italian coast. Initially we sailed with the fleet on a more easterly course, until I noticed we had a constant surface current of +/- 1 knot against us (tactics_pi display !).
So we really left the fleet, sticking to the westerly option, until in late afternoon the wind veered away (other than predicted by the GRIBs), and we couldn't follow the route anymore.

On the way back up from the most southerly turnpoint, the passage of a small depression was forecasted, and this time the GRIBs were correct, weather routing did a great job and we were able to follow the suggested route gaining some positions.

In 4 days of nonstop sailing I expierienced only one O crash, when I tried to clean up (delete) some exported weather routing tracks in the route manager.

Tactics_pi runs stable, instruments seem to work correct.

I discovered a bug in the "laylines to Tactics WP" display (the red/green VMG lines from boat to wp), but as this is still work in progress anyway, I didn't expect it to function on a 100% level.

I'll add another instrument "TWA to Waypoint", as I constantly have this question : Which is the TWA on courseline to a mark ?
This is meant as aid for the selection of the right gennaker/spi, e.g. if you sail upwind, and you know that after passing a turnpoint you'll go downwind. But which gennaker to select ? The Code5, the reacher or the runner ?

They all overlap a bit, but I can't use the runner with TWAs less than 115°, and the Code5 stops working at 125° ...

Maybe a first step into a sail plan selection tool ...


I'll clean up the code now and upload it to github during the next few days.



Thomas

[tom_BigSpeedy]

HI there,
new version available on Rick's file thingee.
I implemented a "instrument" that shows the "TWA to Waypoint".
It's meant to do a quick check of the TWA on the (new) tack prior to sailing the tack/gybe manouver.
Either place a WP in the GPS( NMEA--> RMB) or simply drop the TacticsWP on the new course line.

It should give you an idea which gennaker to select.

Some minor bugs corrected.

Virustotal check

Update of documentation will follow tonight.

Thomas

[rgleason]

OpenCPN Beta File Thingie rguser rgpass

Tactics_pi is located in
Directory 4.2.0 PI Win

Aki950 routage.polSample1.zip - VDR file upwind
Sample2.zip - VDR file downwind
Tactics_pi.dll
Tactics_pi.pdf - Help and Instructions

Use https://www.virustotal.com/en/
SHA256: 9d9dbff28de316520d86a5720f4fee6fa0140e2c589ed976dc bca8c4ad0f7f29
File name: tactics_pi.dll
Detection ratio: 0 / 56
Analysis date: 2016-06-07 19:05:51 UTC ( 0 minutes ago )

[tom_BigSpeedy]

Documentation is updated on Rick's file thingie.
Latest plugin version refers to Doc Rev 1.3


Data cleanup is in progress (prior to upload to github) ...

Thomas

PS : the plugin works well with all 4.2.x versions of O, not just 4.2.0

[rgleason]

Thomas, I tried the new "TWA to Wpt" I think that's going to be very useful for next leg questions about sails and setting.

This is just a question about why we can't just right click and pick "Set Tactics Mark" "move" the mark rather than having to delete the previous mark and then set the new tactics mark. Its fewer clicks, but perhaps you are planning on having multiple tactics marks?

==
To help answer the previous question about menu resize freezing vertically, I may have had one of the instruments you removed in one of the panels. Something was different. Anyway when you pick "horizontal" the change back to 'vertical" it started working again.

Laylines not working too well but you know that.

[tom_BigSpeedy]

Originally Posted by rgleason

This is just a question about why we can't just right click and pick "Set Tactics Mark" "move" the mark rather than having to delete the previous mark and then set the new tactics mark. Its fewer clicks, but perhaps you are planning on having multiple tactics marks?

Rick,
you can drag the Tactics Mark, but this depends on your general waypoint settings, as it is a normal (non persistent) waypoint, just with a special name ...

Probably you have set that tick ?


Thomas

PS : "Laylines to mark" bug is the next one on the list ...

[rgleason]

Yes, good point.

[LEPINARD]

Hi Rick
I have tested this brand new pluggin. it is great.
Have some remarks / requests.

as you write in the documentation, we have this prerequisit:
- preferably True Heading from an electronic compass.
if not available, magnetic heading will do, as long as you have magnetic variance available (either from the GPS RMC sentence or from the wmm_pi plugin)

In my case, as my autopilot is old (and still alive) I do not have information on heading. (True or not )

I understand that it is no good for the computation of the drift and of the surface current.

However by having an option available such as "force True Heading to SOG" we could continue to have great functionalities using the approximation that the surface current is backyard or frontyard (but not lateral).


What do you think about that.

I didn't find a way to have true heading unless changing my autopilot which is a money hole.

Best regards
And thank you for this great job
Cumulus