So what next for the ACA Trophy??

We have whittled the contestants down to the finals groups last week.. So what now??

Well we will progress the Fleet races for the Intermediate Cup on the weekend of June 4th – 5th  and the Match races for the Elite cup week will be May 31st – June 5th

The Light cup contestants will go directly to the finals weekend!!

in-between now and the start of the Intermediate cup please feel free to use the Starboards Yacht Club Olympic Short course that we will be using for the fleet races

The light sailors should practice this course too as we will use that course for the finals weekend.

The Elite Cup racers should continue to practice match starts at the lines set up at Fruit Islands.

Resources

For the match racers Hawk has put some really good informational animations for you to use and study

You can download the animations from here  I can’t emphasize enough how useful these little animations are!!If you are in any doubt please contact Hawk, ewill do his best to help you all out!

Further to this Hawk has posted a presentation at the Breadnut start on various situations in match racing, and is as up to date on the rules as it can be.  These supplements the ones that are at the Muskmelon racing center.  It also has a little quiz at the end on ruling with a lee-bow attack a common manuver in MATCH racing but a very risky one!     further question regarding any situation

As well as virtual help why not watch the very best in real life sailing at SailTV. Fo rall three classes racing you can find some really useful video. For the fleets watch the TP52 and Soto40 races from Cascais last week, This was the first race meeting this year for these hard fighting boats. More Fleet racing will come out LIVE all summer! . For Match racing DO NOT miss the great WMRT feeds going through the year (watch out for this series its gonna get HUGE!)

Whatever you do.. keep racing! here’s the fleet races at NYC on Tuesday night (9 boats!) under the expert eye of Race Director Astro Marksman  and his very able assistant Willow Marksman. They run the very best ACA Races every Tuesday at 4pm

Fleet racing at NYC 24th May 2011. (Copyright Bolt Bashly)

So there it is.. Watch, Learn, Race!!!

Advertisement

ACA33 2011 CUP

This is the initial notice of the 2011 ACA CUP. This is a major event in Second Life sailing and therefore it requires a great deal of planning. The ACA CUP will be split into three distinct racing groups, and each will have a separate path to the finals.

The overall race officer for this race series will be ‘Hawk’ (LDeWell Hawker) He has overall control of racing and setting.

The three groups:

The ACA Elite CUP This is the premiere race group.  Those sailors that are skilled and fast. ISAF rules in place and once selected races will be match races.     Match racing is the pinnacle of sail boat racing requiring all the dimensions of competition: sailing skill, strategy, and rules matched against an equally skilled skipper.

The ACA Intermediate Trophy will be for those sailors whom are skilled with the ACA33 3.0 but performance not quite up to the elite level.   These races will be fleet races under the basic ISAF rules with some accommodations for Second life racing.

ACA Light Trophy will be aimed at those sailors that have chosen the ACA Light to sail, either new to sailing or still a little unsure. The rule-set for this class will be simplified so all may have the opportunity to test their skills.

So what group should I be in?

Your ability to sail the ACA 3.0 will determine which group you qualify for.   To determine groups your sailing skills will be demonstrated on a course to challenge them.   A special event called a TIME TRIAL will be used to separate the ELITE and INTERMEDIATE racers and the top Lite sailors.   Once placed into a group, a series of seeded races will determine the final 4 racers from each group that will compete in the finals.    The seeded races will be MATCH RACING for the ELITE group, and four boat FLEET races for the INTERMEDIATE group and LITE group.    Your ranking from the time trials will determine your seed placing.    Top time is first seed in each group, each group will have 8 seeded racers.   A chart is provided to show race groups by seeding and path to the finals.
The three stages:

Stage 1 (Time Trials) ACA Lights and ACA33 3.0
Dates 02 May-15 May 2011

The ACA Lights ACA33 3.0’s will participate firstly on the time trial This time trial will take place in the Fruit Island sims.(click here for the landmark)  The course challenges your Velocity Made Good (VMG) knowledge. Upwind and tacking ability, windward rounding, running skill, lee gybe to windward and the final run to the finish.   Time trials will not be spectator events to insure consistency in the trials.

The time trials will be done over a period of one to two weeks depending on signups, and both a practice and formal trials sessions posted. There will be a limited set amount of laps sailed, each sailor will have no more than three official attempts. These laps will be monitored by an official of ACA race committee.  The course is open to practice and conditions for qualify winds are posted.

Tight control of the sims and calibration will insure consistency between trial dates.  In case of any question or the spread of times, the race committee reserves the right to have specific re-runs of any individuals with ties or any other factor deemed necessary.   YOUR SEEDING is dependent on your times, and it is of no advantage to do anything but your best times.  Details for the specific restrictions to have an accurate time are provided to each racer and posted at the course.

GROUPING:
Elite Racers:  Ranking 1 – 8 (Fastest rank 1)
Intermediate racers: Ranking 8 – 16
Lite racers: Ranking 1-8

Time Trial Course

Stage 2 (Match Racing – Fleet racing to determine finalists) ACA33 3.0 only
Dates – 23May-05 June 2011

Once ranking for each group is determined by the time trials the following diagram shows the path for each group to determine the finalists.   If match racing each paring requires 3 matches to determine the winner.   If fleet racing low point scoring, with one drop for a three race series determines the next matching.   Failure to attend a match, or miss a fleet race is a forfit.  No race is for time, so re-dress for sailing conditions is not allowed.   Specific criteria is provided for a re-run or re-match.

Hawk will be doing specific instruction on the MATCH starting sequence as well as on MATCH RACING in general and specific rules that differ with the ISAF rules.   Self teaching presentations are available at the racing center in Muskmelon sim.

Sailors whom are matched that are in different time zones, we work with to accommodate a slot to do these MATCH races.Failure to do so would be a default loss for those races not done.

Scoring for the Fleet trials and finals will be low score drop one, tie breaker by place on dropped race.   Locations for these races will be announced.   It is expected that each race will be about ten to 12 minute races.

Stage 3 (Finals) ACA Lights and ACA33 3.0
Dates TBA

This will be held at Starboard Yacht Club in the Blake Sea. The course(s) will be notified to the finalists not before 1 week before the date of the finals.

The racing will take place on one weekend ISAF Rules that apply will will be based upon each group racing and will be very basic set for the Lite races.
So how do I join?

That’s simple!!

1) You just need to register your interest in the races by filling in a simple form that can be found here

2) Join the ACA 2011 Trophy Group here or…… if you do not have room for another group then please visit ACA Island and touch the subscribe-o-matic booth this can be found at ACA Island click here for the SLURL this will send information without you taking up extra room in your groups.

If you have any problems or concerns please direct them to myself. We will hold an Question and answer session sometime on Saturday 23 April 2011. Please could you post any questions to me first so I might have an idea what needs to be answered

Lastly may I wish you all the very best in this competition

Quirky Torok
ACA Management
9th.com

ACA Trophy 2011

The Latest Review is in!!!

Meterverse sailing the well known and well regarded electronic Second Life sailing magazine has now published their views on the ACA33 v3.0!!

Read it here

Many Thanks Jane.. Look forward to reading Part 2!!

YouTube – ACA 33 v3.0 Introduction

~Announcing the ACA 3.0 ~ Let’s Talk To Caf and Quirky About It!

The Launch Party for the ACA 3.0 will be on Saturday August 21st at noon in the Hollywood Bowl! (program here)

I know that many people have a LOT of questions about the new boat, so I was happy to be able to corral Caf Binder and Quirky Torok in the midst of their work to answer some questions.  I VERY much appreciate the fact that they took the time to answer.  SOOO, let’s dive into it!

Read all the article here:

~Announcing the ACA 3.0 ~ Let’s Talk To Caf and Quirky About It!.

by Nber Medici on August 19, 2010

ACA33 Racer v3.0 RELEASE NOTES

//////////////////////////////

Featuring

• spinnaker and associated special behaviors;
• apparent wind;
• WWC – wind, waves, current standards compliant;
• top mast pennant light indicating race wind;
• new windshadow, capable of exchanging effects with boats of other classes / builders;
• floating state, swinging with waves;
• while floating, boat will slowly get aligned to current stream;
• brand new sounds, through two independent audio channels;
• real polars;
• mega prim sails;
• sails tack by the wind (tack command deprecated);
• eject control;
• many and adequate new HUD features;
• all v2.53 features, kept;
• completely recoded to faster and more efficient script performance;

//////////////////////////////

GENERAL

• compatible with WWC system features, cruise and race, shared windshadow, and also capable to deal with WWC local conditions, up to a maximum of simultaneous 15 different locals.

• new windshadow, capable to throw and receive wind shadow and wind bend between ACA, Fizz, Shelly, boats based on the DIY kit and more to come, like the Jangars;

• windshadow calculations based also on estimated other boat apparent wind and boom position;

• complete review and recoding of all scripts; lag reducing measures at countless spots;

• up to date script tecnhology, taking advantage of new LSL functions available from Second Life Server 1.38.* and up;

• functions distributed among scripts for maximum efficiency: control and sailing engine, wwc interpreter functions, polars, particle system, set data, windshadow, moving parts, wwc receiver functions, settings card reader, data storage and transient sounds;

• from previous 17 scripts, ACA33 has now 4 central controls and engine scripts, all at root prim; besides that, only the still inevitable two for email sending and scripts for animated / ejectable sit targets;

• ability to set and save user wind, waves and current;

• prim names reviewed and organized;

• race wind, wave and current check indicated by a top mast “pennant light”; all boats in the same race must change light simultaneously and to the same color;

• standing up, and by that getting boat moored, will lose race wind and its indicators; next boarding will load set / skipper saved wind (waves and current);

• class name for WWC setters including version;

• eject control:
  . Command “eject” through chat (via gesture, if so wanted) with this syntax:
  . eject (alone) : eject all crew
  . eject on : lock (remaining) seats (no one gets ejected here; useful to lock to strangers after crew is complete)
  . eject off : unlock seats (default state at each rez)
  . eject abc : eject avatar which name is or starts with abc (case insentitive)

//////////////////////////////

BOAT

• higher timer frequency, for faster overall response;

• realistic behavior as much as possible;

• swing over waves (can get you sea sick 🙂

• losing speed drastically reduces ability to turn; running aground or in irons is big mess;

• inertial steering, after holding left or right arrow for a while, or precise one when done by quick keys taps;

• any sail can be used alone or combined, except for jib and spin, which cannot be up together; raising one automatically lowers the other;

• spinnaker raise / lower through transparency;

• speed penalty and time delay for sail to be effective when raising or lowering spinnaker;

• spinnaker boom/pole kept on deck;

• “spin slap” – when you go too much upwind with a raised spin you can suffer the spin slap, represented by extra heeling and huge speed and turning power decrease; on strong winds the only way out may be to lower the spin;

• with currents introduction, comes water speed concept, that is, speed relative to water and not to ground; some behaviors, like wake emission and turn rate are affected by that;

• waves and wind will try and push bow or stern away, especially at low boat speeds;

• while floating, boat will slowly get aligned to current stream;

• new sounds, especially for crackings and hitting metal;

• ability to have partially transparent boom, to allow better mouse mode view sailing;

• with one mega prim each sail, boat has gained spinnaker and spinnaker boom/pole and still got reduced by one prim overall; total now: 25 prims, what allow to carry skipper at helm and many crew;

• protest command to shout;

• new default camera position defined at ACA33Settings notecard, which can be deleted or renamed after use; When you change any of those positions, they become valid for the next times you sit. So if you re already sitting, you need to stand up and sit again.

• new animated seats can be defined through ACA33Settings notecard through lines with syntax: “sittarget PosX PosY PosZ RotX RotY RotZ”;
  – with this, will have a sit target;
  – copying script “SEAT” found at some prims to the new seat prim inventory will allow use of first animation also put there to replace default sit animation;
  – example is prim and the line “sittarget -1.5 -1.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 frontwinches”;
  – remember: after loaded, you can rename notecard for it doesnt need to be loaded at each rez.

• degrees-per-click
  ACA33Settings includes parameter
  – degreesperclick 5.0
  – replace the default sails trim 5 deg up/down keyboard arrows and HUD arrow clicking.
  – saved with boat, no need to re-read the notecard each rez.

• Commands moor or lower all sails, from chat or HUD, will set boat to floating state. Complete mooring by standing up.

• Minimum sail set angles, in degrees, aproximately based on RL boat: jib 10, spin 30, main sail zero.

• spin raise or lower are indicated by whispered chat text;

• ability to ignore specific wind setters by ignore list, after “Ignore this” answer;

• Wind setter dialog shows windsetter name and more data. Example:
  ————————————-
  Caf Binder’s “ACA33 v3 Racer”
  Wind setter: “WWC Setter ACA Island”
  Wind speed: 14.9 kts
  Wind direction (from): 0 deg
  Wave heigth: 0.5 m
  Current speed: 1.0 kts
  Current direction (to): 90 degAccept this | Ignore this | Ignore all
  ————————————–

• Chat command “/1 set” alone, shows “present” data (not “saved” data)

• Chat command “/1 set save” saves present data to the boat

• “/1 ?” or “/1 help” command gives a summary of chat commands;

• chat commands to check or save wind, waves, current and user data
  – … display
  set [save] = shows everything; or save current data;
  set = shows that block data (wind, wave, current or user)
  – … set
  set wind [dir-FROM [speed [gusts [shifts [change rate]]]]]
  set wave [height [length [speed [Hvar% [Lvar% [originX [origin Y [water depth]]]]]]]]
  set curr[ent] [dir-TO [speed [water depth]]]
  set channel [channel#]
  set alpha [%opaque] [“boom” or negative number for %opaque]
  set showsail [off] | [jib(=1)] [spin(=2)] [main(=4)] [port(=*-1)] (or numbers sum)

• more chat commands:
  – protest [text]
  – unlock, lock: allow guest at helm
  – raise [all | jib | main | spin]
  – moor or lower: set boat to floating
  – m, j, s [+- 0 to 90]: mainsail, jib, spin sheets
  – id [AA99]
  – eject [on | off |  <name or part of>]

• units used:
  – compass angles (N=0 degrees, clockwise)
  – speeds in knots
  – distances in meters

//////////////////////////////

HUDs (HORIZONTAL, VERTICAL, INFO)

• one script per HUD now; 42 scripts made into one, both at H and V HUDs;

• JIB or SPIN sail presently up, effective, raised, indication below wind angle.

• JIB or SPIN active destination for commands from HUD indicated by a lit button and can be toggled by clicking any of them. Not to be confused with JIB or SPIN sail in effect.

• HUDs able to indicate apparent or true wind angles; WIND button

• negative, backwards, speed indication;

• panel texture reviewed to accommodate new buttons;

• Tack command is deprecated. We now deal with sheets only and cannot “push” sail away. We have the keyboard arrows as: up=more sheet, down=less sheet. Similar behavior at HUDs: since up and down already are raise and lower, they adopt left=less sheet, right=more sheet.

• a few less prims, wherever possible;

• HUD channel encrypted;

• settings notecard at INFO HUD for text color;
  – text color saved, so notecard is needed just once.

• H and V HUDs able to indicate wind shadow (wind speed) or bend (wind angle) effects by colors
  – no color = no effect
  – tones of yellow = growing effect, up to 50% of maximum
  – tones of orange = growing effect, up to 99% of maximum
  – red = 100% of maximum

• Info HUD able to indicate wind shadow (wind speed) or bend (wind angle) effects by “***”
  – no indication = no effect
  – * = growing effect, up to 50% of maximum
  – ** = growing effect, up to 99% of maximum
  – *** = 100% of maximum

• HUD shows ground speed. You ll see it slowering when against current (and will have to adjust sails as well).

• WIND button, used to choose wind to display between TWA and AWA, also provides a third state which is to keep changing displayed wind from AWA to TWA and back, at a rate of 3 seconds for each display. Repeatedely clicking WIND button will select APP, TRUE or blinking state.

• As it was it previous ACA versions, burnt given HUDs allow crew to also handle the boat.

//////////////////////////////
August, 2010

9th.com

(:)s CAF BINDER

************************************************************************
The Second Life America’s Cup ACA33 Class Boat and Racer is a collaborative project made possible by the efforts and talents of these Second Life Residents:
Project development and management: Florencia007 Csak
Project producers: Javier Merlin & Aca32 Barbosa
Vehicle and HUD scripting: Caf Binder
Boat sculpt modeling: Florencia007 Csak & Caf Binder
Full motion skipper and crew animations: Larinda Cordeaux

America’s Cup ACA33 Class Boat is sponsored by 9th.com
*******************************************************************

The Revolution begins!!!!

ACA33 v3.0 LAUNCH EVENT
Date: Saturday 21st August 2010
Time: 12.00pm SL time
Venue: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hollywood/196/97/22

Schedule:
12.00: A few words from the ACA team (Florencia007 Csak, Caf Binder, Quirky Torok)
12.10: Video presentation
12.20: Photographic competition winner announcement
12.30-13.30: Pink Floyd Tribute concert

Be part of the ACA33 v3.0 revolution!

Florencia007 Csak
ACA Management
9th.com

Meet with Q

Its something i have been meaning to do for a while now, and never seemed to get round to it.Tonight however I managed to have our first ‘Ask Q’ session. I had a few questions asked and i think i managed to answer all of them… mostly correctly as well!

The idea is simple. Come and ask me questions about the ACA in world. It’s mainly aimed at our new ACA sailing friends but anyone can come along and ask  a sensible question.

The first question was from Ultralas Moleno about the hull texture.. Fir the moment i gave him an old texture of mine to transfer out of Second Life and into Gimp. I may well add a layered version on this blog soon.

The second question was about the sailing angles that the ACA can be sailed at.. well simple answer is.. suck it and see.. Thats part of the fun of sailing.. see what sail angle is right for the conditions.

The majority of the other questions were about the new ACA 3.0 that is expected.. Well.. for the moment I am keeping quiet about this… hehehehe theres nothing like anticipation.. all i can say is that it will be truly awesome. We have Caf and Neron tied up in the workshops working tirelessly scripting and sculpting for your sailing pleasure. maybe in a week i may have a little news for you.. and by the way.. no we do not need any more beta testers..lol

Ok that about wraps it up for today.. I will be holding more meetings in the near future at other time zones fro all our wonderful community to get involved.

Quirky Torok

ACA management

9th.com

P.S. before i forget…. please take a peek at Aquarious’s wonderful set of pictures here, they are a wonderful set of photographs of the recent ACA trophy.

ACA and copyright issues

Just a quick note.. The ACA as you know is a wonderful boat with lots of opportunities to customise your craft. Whether it be a new hull or a modified suit of sails.

However with that comes responsibility. We at ACA and 9th.com will not be held responsible for any copyright infringement. That is to say if you choose to design your sail with a real life company logo name or design that has been copyrighted you do so at your own risk. You could of course ask the owner of the copyrighted material for permission to use their logo or name within virtual world of second life.

Although there is a very slim chance of you being actively sued for copyright infringements there is a chance. We just need to point out that if such a case were to appear ACA and 9th.com would point to this post as a clear indication that we do not condone intellectual copyright theft.

I would include an image of a boat that has used a copyrighted logo, but that would get into as much trouble as you….lol. Please remeber that some real life companies are VERY litigious and protective of their logos and name. For further information please take a look at the Linden Labs Wiki on this subject here

Quirky Torok
ACA Management
9th.com