How to get help from RG coaches?

[vanna]

Thanks BLZ for very thorough explanations.I am sure that my next starts will be definitely better.

[Coromandel]

quote from blzblz (Blaise)
Last about starting settings:
All boats are bring back to start the day the race starts, at 18h00. The sail setting is set to anchor and the heading setting is set the same fo all boats. The scheduler points and waypoints are deleted. The only thing that is not reset I think is the autoheading.
So you can start setting a sail and a heading just after 18h00. However, it's best to wait for 18h30 when the new wind forecast is available. That how most people handle their start: the make their settings when they have time between 18h30 and 20h00.
It's not a good idea to wait up to between 19h5x and 20h00 (x = iteration minute) because you may be confused by the winds parameters display (might be a bug there).
When making your settings and schedule points before 19h5x, be sure to set the winds forecast selector to +12h to have the right wind that the game engine will use at start.

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I initially thought it was possible to schedule the start of a boat well before 18h00 by leaving the boat on anchor and set a first schedule point with sail and direction selection on 19h5x + 1 minute. (x = iteration minute) The boat would in this case only start 1 minute late in the chosen direction.

However reading the above quote from Blaise I understand that everything is reset at 18h00 including all waypoint settings. Setting an autostart before 18h00 therefore appears not possible.

Can you confirm this Blaise.

Frank

[blzblz]

Hi Frank,

You are right, and I am wrong. Sorry, thanks for correcting me.

I never start this way..; I've just checked the code and there is nothing about resetting the scheduler points neither the waypoints.
Only the sail is reset to anchor, and the heading is set to a fixed value, the same for each boat, at 18h00.
So you can set your schedulers points or waypoints hours before the start, no problem, they won't be deleted.

One thing that you might have not well understood is this:
All races start at 20h00 whatever their iteration minute, so if a race have its iteration minute on 5, the first iteration will last only 5 minutes, the engine will calculate the route between 20h00 and 20h05.
Therefore, if you want to set a starting schedule point hours before the start, you have to set it at 20h01. For technical reasons it's not possible to set it at 20h00. Any schedule point before 20h01 will be omited. The first schedule point taken into account is at 20h01.

There is a french thread about the starting procedure (and its history) here:
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=131
but the infos may not be clear.
It would be nice to have an english thread of this starting procedure gathering all the good infos for new players, it will be done.

Regards

[limelight]

Isn't there a problem that setting the sail to "anchor" will cause the schedule points to move to the boat location (at least the first one will).
I'm still dubious about setting schedule points before the start. I have done it once, to test the 20:01 theory and found that it worked, sort of, but I reckon it made me lose time compared to those who set a sail and a course. Theoretically I should have lost 1 minute, but practically I found it was more like 10 minutes (basically an iteration). So I haven't done it again, maybe it was something else that caused the loss, but I can't figure out what it was.

So I try to be there before 20:00 FT to set a course and a sail and if I schedule some points, they are at least an hour away past the start.

Maybe another experiment can be done with 2 boats, one at anchor and scheduled at 20:01 with a sail and heading and another boat set with the same sail and heading before 19:5x And we compare the gap between them after the race has started.

John

[Coromandel]

We can try it out with the Clipper race start on Wednesday John.

[blzblz]

You can yourself create a few fake test boats to compare race start parameters, no problem
Just mind that you can not control several boats at the same time with the same internet browser, or this will mess up the display and all your work.
Either with the same internet browser, restart the game and login with another boat,
or use Firefox for one, Chromium for another boat, Opera for a third and so on to see them at the same time.

limelight: by starting with a schedule point at 20h01 instead of starting at 20h00 having set a sail and heading betwenn 18h00 and 20h00, you will lose around 10 -15% of an iteration on a race with iteration minute of 9 (like the WR), but 50% on a race of an iteration on a race with iteration minute of 2... (The first computed iteration start at 20h00 and stop at 20h0x, and not from 19h5x up to 20h0x)

Best way to start is to wait for the winds forecasts at 18h30, then set a sail and a heading, and sometimes put some schedule points (or waypoints) very close to the start (20h03, 20h14, whatever) when the best route is close to the ground.

If you can't be aboard after 18h30, set a schedule point at 20h01 with the morning +12h winds forecasts, which might change a bit at 18h30...

[Coromandel]

As a try out I started the Clipper #2 race with 2 boats. One boat was programmed with a normal start and was given a course, sail and a few waypoints. The second (fake) boat was programmed wel before 18h30 and given the same course and waypoints as the first boat. The only difference with the first boat was that it was was left in an anchor mode and given one additional waypoint with a starting time 20h01. The start waypoint was given the same sail as the first boat.

After approximately 30 minutes sailing the "standard start" boat was leading by only 0.09 mile. Very close!!! This shows that the 20h01 start option works OK and doesn't put you back 10 minutes.

The main risks with programming the boat before 18h30 are the possible changes in wind direction and wind strength.

[limelight]

Thanks Frank, I'll keep it in mind, But with the French moving soon to winter time and us having gone to summer time it's not so hard, Waking up at 5 am is easier than at 3 am. So for the time being, I'll start manually. When we return to winter time, I'll reconsider.