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Board » General Discussion » BWR Route Helper Tool

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1. Do you think you will be so well placed even if not using them?

Yes. As it has been said, routers just save you time, they don't do anything different from what you can do with pen and paper. For sure you need to have some mathematical skills but these are allowed, aren't they?

2.Do you enjoy yr placement as if it would be the result of your capabilities, or you fill little embarrassed knowing, that you had a great help, which is not available to the others?

Indeed yes, capability of understanding the weather patterns and interpeting them with the aid of a tool is of great pleasure. It helped my IRL sailing too. And the same help is available to everyone, it's just a matter of personal choiche weather to uise it or not.

3.Do you think the others(not all of course,but many) would be well placed as well, by using the same sophisticated routers?

Yes, but said again, blind usage of routers leed to disater. otherwise we shall always see 200-300 boats ending simultaneously (routers behave the same, more or less)

4.Do you think all the competitors are sailing technically on equal bases?

Everyone sails to the best of their ability.Freely available routers are there for everyone (BWR, SP), using or not using them is a matter of choice. When brainiad was sailing SOL I had great pleasure in trying to challenge him although he was way ahead in wx knoledge. This allowed me to understand so many things and yes, I had great pleasure and fun as I always have when I learn new things.

Having said that I quitted sailing on my own SOL boat because i did not have time to dedicate to SOL. If you want to consistently be on top, SOL demands for 24/7 attention which it is not possible for me anymore. It is not a matter of tools, if you miss an overnight wx update you can say byebye to top spot (although I remember possible to finish top 5 even if consistently skipping the night update).

Now I am participating in ITA_2011 team boat because it gives me the fun without demanding so much attention.

So, in conclusion, using a router or not is a matter of choice, not an obligation. You cannot force people to quit using them as you cannot be forced to use them (as you cannot be forced to quit using canvas sails when everyone is using 3DL). I am strongly in favour any countermeasure used to limit automatic steering (which I believe everyone understand it is different from weather routing), IMHO the best would be a limited number of DCs as this will not allow routers to input accurate preprogrammed routes (1-2 DC per hour could be a good limit)

my 1eurocent
I will answer sicerly D.P

1) No. But I would have to spend alot more time on SOL. which I can not finacially afford.

2) Yes I enjoy my placement. Not embarrased.

3) Yes. I really enjoy sailing against the other router users. Suddenly it becomes very tactical again.

4) No.

I enjoy the way that I play SOL.
I enjoy the company of the other SOLers and the huge knowledge base that is out there.
The routing stuff I find very interesting as I am sure so do many others.
I dont enjoy the shorter races because of the time envolvement.

My dream is to do alot more offshore races (IRL) and put my SOL routing experience to good use.

Fairly honest answers DP :)
that is a wicked picture UC ! 12 footer ?

billy
I'm fairly new to SOL, and as my results sofar show - my strategic skills in ofshore racing are eh "absent".

I intend to use BWR on Leg 5, and I see it as a tool to improve my (absent)skills and achieve a better comprehension of whats wrong with my "understanding". I will also use the "Helper tool" purely to save typing and avoid typos.

My goal is to figger-out how people can beat a "router" so that I, one day, can seriously partisipate in races as a person again and not a "semi-bot"

Thanks for making the HelperTool available"
Started using Bluewater in the imoca challenge . As I am learning along the way I already found out it gained and has cost me places in the imoca.
However it saves me time in doing general route calculation.I don't use the router for a detailed route forecast.
I am stil convinced it is possible to do good without a router but this is time consuming and that time is not available to me as i have to earn some money too.
I always miss the 0430 update and sometimes the 2230.
To answer some of the questions:
Results are more or less the same with or without router in ocean races my "normal"placing between 20-50.
BW is available to everybody and free of charge, but you still need to interpret/correct the given route.
I enjoy using the router in an ocean race as it saves me time. In short / weekend races i do not intend to use a router at all because i also like the handwork and in the weekend i have more time available.
As technology advances it is logical that technology is used in this game it is called a sailing simulator and to my opinion routing is a part of ocean sailing.
I am still convinced it is not the router itself but the time dedicated to the game that determines your rank.
Some people will always be "unbeatable"or very hard to beat with or without router as they are more able sailors then myself.


Kees(Tempest)
It is Billy :) I used to crew on one called Stagecoach for 7 seasons. Best sailing I have ever done. Should have started 10 years earlier :)
Hi Aaron.
There may be a small bug in your Helper.

It converts the Date format to 2011.03.03 and Brainaids DC converter requires the format: 2011/03/03

Tom

--- Last Edited by WhyNot at 2011-03-03 11:48:33 ---
OK, not sure of problem to begin with, but it does not use any inbuilt DateTime formatting now, I rewrote it to pull out the individual fields, year, month day etc and construct new string yyyy/MM/dd, so should now work anywhere (I think must have been a locale issue).

Thx for informing me, that is one problem with not having proper test environment, if it works on my machine all I can do is publish and hope

I did set my machine to temporarily think it was Norwegian though, and it outputs fine... ;-)

New version here (same as old link??)


--- Last Edited by Aaron Gage at 2011-03-04 03:36:34 ---
I help develop the client interface for the best online ocean racing sim there is... __/)/)_/)__
Thank you. Now it works in Norway as well, but one question if I may?

Where is the little sucker?
I find the shortcut in the Startup menu - but the program it self - I can't find it!

Curious
Tom
The setup you ran is auto created by Visual Studio, and it creates odd folder names like UUIDS (universally unique identifiers) under Documents and Settings\{username}\LocalSettings\Apps\2.0\.....

On my machine it is installed in
C:\Documents and Settings\Aaron\Local Settings\Apps\2.0\2MWJH5WZ.T0W\DAJZG3EX.QM9\bwrr..tion_869fcd60e6b08b18_0001.0000_717664e969abc244\BWR Route to __brainaid_ DCs.exe

Not exactly sure why they do not support user specified install locations, something to do with the .NET framework as I've noticed other apps (like POLi for example) is installed under Apps\2.0 also.

It is also listed in the 'Add & Remove Applications', or if you use something like RevoUninstaller (which I can highly recommend) it is listed in there also.


--- Last Edited by Aaron Gage at 2011-03-05 04:16:59 ---
I help develop the client interface for the best online ocean racing sim there is... __/)/)_/)__

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Welcome to Newport, RI, one of the great sailing centers of the world. This TIMED race takes us around Nantucket Island in RC 44s to celebrate the life of Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold who, among many other things in his short life, named Cape Cod for the teeming fish he encountered there, and Martha’s Vineyard for his daughter. This is a TIMEDrace so you may RE-REGISTER HEREto try again after finishing a run. You will have 13 days and 11 hours to test your skill and decision making after the race opens.
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INFO by brainaid.de
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INFOby brainaid.de
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RE-REGISTER HERE to race again after finishing a run.
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INFO by brainaid.de
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WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
RANKING:
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INFOby brainaid.de
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Race starts: Dec 21st 16:00 Registration Open!

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Antarctica 3 of 3
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Race starts: Sep 16th 11:13 Registration Closed

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