Hey yes, everything happens ! In all my computer-nautical career I had never played any computer game whatsoever, not even the historical Windows card game that consumed thousands of hours of idle office time for businesses… but you should never say : never !
So, therefore,, here I am registered at Virtual Regatta, one among the more than 340.000 players registered at this time, ready to start the Vendée Globe tomorrow at 1:02 p.m.. Like any beginner, I watched some videos to quickly understand this game, that, on balance, seems relatively easy for a confirmed sailor. But, from there to play in the big league, there are still several oceans to cross !
Unfortunately I have two handicaps : I am not a player, and I'm even less a racer. I'm more of a contemplative navigator, and I have never taken the sea for a "Circuit 24 " (the elders will understand). But it doesn't prevent : the greatest interest of this game, from my point of view, it is to familiarize the players, even non-sailors, with the notions of weather, and the sailors with the notions of routing. And it’s exciting !
I am even more motivated than my two fellows, Olivier Bouyssou and Henri Laurent, bring for this new competition their routing module developed jointly, integrated from the start into Virtual Regatta (¹).
I will therefore do my best to monitor the weather and routing of this virtual race for the coming months., while keeping an eye on the skippers who, them, will not be comfortably seated warm in front of a screen and a glass in hand. With the friendly complicity of Yann Amice, scientific director of SportRIZER whose specialist and weather referent he is, I will try to share here my point of view on the virtual regatta in terms of weather-routing strategy.
Yann Amice has entered into a partnership with the group Ouest France to provide them with daily weather monitoring and analysis, covering both the actual race (²) and the virtual regatta (³). SailGrib up to Weather4D daily provide Yann with the forecast routings carried out with their two applications, which allow Yann to illustrate his analysis in addition to his own meteorological sources. And this fine team gets on board of course, with each his own boat, in the Vendée Globe of Virtual Regatta today.
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(¹) Weather4D embarks on the Vendée Globe 2020
(²) https://www.ouest-france.fr/vendee-globe/meteo-marine-course/
(³) https://www.ouest-france.fr/sport/voile/virtual-regatta/vendee-globe-virtuel/
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Good evening,
I report my "virtual" position in Weather 4D to do a comparative routing with what the game offers me…but I do not have the polar of an imoca without foil in W4D so it is necessarily wrong…
Is it possible to have the imoca polars or to hope for an update of W4D with….?
Thank you
Thanks for the Imoca fleeces I received from Frankie.
Santiago at the helm of Bachibouzouk2
Well done Francis,
We have the same maritime approach, I am not contemplative for all that my wife and my friends, confirmed.
I try to follow you in IT matters, so buy, installation (it is already more difficult), start up manual and LA, anger, injures, everyone goes there and strangely the emptiness is created around me, it must be said that in IT matters I have two left hands and five shoots on each hand.
But I would like to do the virtual regata too
Great admiration and good luck
Super Francis
There is always a start to everything…
What is the name of your virtual boat ?
A follower…
Remi
SY Belissima
Thank you Remi, my boat is CamIvan (uppercase c and uppercase i)
Well done Francis
Bon virtual regatta!!
Jacques
Aquamarine