Zezo forum:

Post by tmod | 2018-01-02 | 20:30:24

DO YOU GET PENALIZED FOR A 1 DEGREE COURSE CHANGE THE SAME AS A TACK?
PARDON THE SIMPLICITY OF THE QUESTION!

7 Comments

Post by zezo | 2018-01-02 | 20:31:43

No. Only tack, gybe and sail change.

Post by chuckl8 | 2018-01-08 | 09:38:30

The distance I'm losing to them is not due to differences in wind speeds, sail changes or wind direction, and we've all been on the same tack, with only slight course corrections of a few degrees. The only logical reason for losing distance has to be external slowing of some sort.

I've tried both "locked" and "unlocked" sailing angles for a few hours each, and both show the same result; ... no gain on the boat(s) ahead, even in the same wind speeds and angles, even though I'm showing two or three tenths more boatspeed.

Any suggestions?

Post by zezo | 2018-01-08 | 09:58:03

What you see is not what you get. Check this thread and possibly many others.

Post by Kroko | 2018-01-08 | 10:03:13

Speeds you see are not comparable. Your speed is almost real-time. Speeds you see of others are delayed. So if you all sail towards diminishing speeds, you'll see your speed consistently as higher.

Post by zezo | 2018-01-08 | 10:45:57

You can't see your own speed and server-side wind unless you install the Chrome extension. Another possibility is observing your boat from another account, but then you have 0.1 kt rounding error in boat and wind speeds and 0.5 degree (sometimes more) in the angles.

So you may think you're sailing at TWA 40, but it's actually at 39.5 and that translates to 0.05 knots difference in VMG.

Then the boat next to you never sees exactly the same wind. 0.03 knots speed and half degree in direction, those things are invisible in the game but add up over time.

And then the old sailing wisdom "quiet boat is fast boat" hods true even in the virtual world. 5-degree off-course translates to less than 0.5% longer distance, but combine it with a flat spot in the polars or two unnecessary sail changes and in the end of the day you are half mile behind your neighbor

Post by Kroko | 2018-01-08 | 11:32:54

Thank you Cvetan for the comprehensive explanation. VR wants us to sail in thick fog, but the dissipation power of this forum community is enormous.

Post by zezo | 2018-01-08 | 12:02:15

I've always felt this way myself. Boats passing me on the exactly same track, back in the time of wind squares when you could gain a bit by strategic planning of the border crossing. Always tried to play just by intuition and no other tools than my own site, but knew that someone somewhere is doing his homework, possibly sharing it in some obscure french forum or another.

So decided to do something about it this time - for me and the other players. Got the idea about the extension - this time as a means to study the game, not just transfer the position to the router. Then gave up the idea because of the debugger warning, but fortunately Michael did not give up and implemented it.