Other sports worth following

rick_chasey

elbowloh said:

I'd like to learn to sail, i think it would be quite relaxing (inshore/lakes) rather than off-shore.

I think i'll give it a bash sometime.

Do, it's great.

I picked up a Dutch sailing licence for certain boats and it's great. Super chill or fairly full on - you can pick your poison.

I found sailing on the sea around busy areas with shipping lanes very stressful, not least the constant recording required, the radios etc.

Also the consequences are so much more serious - an accidental jibe in a lakeboat, unless it's a really big boat, is never that bad, unless it's really very windy.

In the sea it can be fatal.

ddraver

elbowloh said:

I'd like to learn to sail, i think it would be quite relaxing (inshore/lakes) rather than off-shore.

I think i'll give it a bash sometime.

The adage, "Sailing is like standing under a freezing cold shower tearing up £50 Notes" holds true...

(find someone else's boat to do it on )

shirley_basso

Definitely find someone else's boat, especially if you are going to race. The owner of my boat says 'if you're looking at the receipts you probably can't afford to do it'.

My grandfather said it was akin to standing on the shore ripping up £50 notes and throwing them into the sea, only you can't rip them up fast enough...

shirley_basso

Update on the Vendee: Alex Thompson is pretty much in second place. Not bad going.

Occitaine appears to have re-entered the race having presumably resolved the sail issues. Charal still heading back to base with plans to restart once the rudders and backstay are repaired. Great shame for the race, but still plenty of competition. Can't remember who but in one edition, someone had to return to the start for repairs and went on to win.

Edit: Was Michel Desjoyeaux in 2008, his second victory

thegreatdivide

The Christmas holidays aren’t about the baby Jesus, trees, presents or family. No, it’s all about the PDC World Darts Championship. The sport of kings!

surrey_commuter

thegreatdivide said:

The Christmas holidays aren’t about the baby Jesus, trees, presents or family. No, it’s all about the PDC World Darts Championship. The sport of kings!

Won’t be the same without a drunken baying mob. When they get under a players skin it’s like watching a blood sport.

Also not the same since the retirement of the greatest ever British sportsman.

shirley_basso

Alex Thomson confirmed has moved into second.

He should have the speed advantage over the boat in 1st. Let's see....

shirley_basso

So Alex moves into 1st after the latest update.

Masters tees off 7.10 today local time. Consensus is Bryson Dechambeau will do well as the ground is soft and slow so his driving will make up for that. He seems clued up enough to know the importance of the short game as well.

coopster_the_1st

shirley_basso said:

So Alex moves into 1st after the latest update.

Masters tees off 7.10 today local time. Consensus is Bryson Dechambeau will do well as the ground is soft and slow so his driving will make up for that. He seems clued up enough to know the importance of the short game as well.

Already hit with a weather delay. Lightening is a lot riskier when you are waving metal sticks around.

Looks dry after today so expect the competition committee to have the greens firmed up overnight tonight and the temps are warm.

laurentian

thegreatdivide said:

The Christmas holidays aren’t about the baby Jesus, trees, presents or family. No, it’s all about the PDC World Darts Championship. The sport of kings!

I have been to a session of this over the past few years - if you're even remotely interested, you really should go. Mental but great fun

Ben6899

Rugby League

Cargobike

Big wave surfing is on again.
Doesn't get any bigger than Nazare in Portugal.
Not much TV coverage, but then again I doubt they'd have lens' big enough to capture the size of the surfers balls

https://youtube.com/watch?v=GJc4Ir78KdE&ab_channel=Olympic

ddraver

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10101408421760525&id=222406795&sfnsn=scwshmo

sorry for fb, but did you see this "close up view"? 😶

shirley_basso

Dustin wins with 20 under. Sadly no intregue today as he was so far ahead going into the final day.

Lots going on in the sailing. Alex Thomson got flattened going through Theta and almost lost the main but fully recovered and now making hay heading south ahead of the other foiling boats.

Jean Le Cam doing an insane job in an ancient non foiling boat, but likely to lose a fair bit of ground in the coming days.

Dorset_Boy

Just seen that Tiger Woods had a 10 at the 12th hole today!

ddraver

shirley_basso said:

Jean Le Cam doing an insane job in an ancient non foiling boat, but likely to lose a fair bit of ground in the coming days.

For the non sailors, this would be the equivalent of winning a Prologue on an MTB...

shirley_basso

Haha yes. It's a bit like one of those top gear challenges where you can take a faster, less direct route or slower direct route and the non foilers have done very well in the opening days as they can sail a lot more close to the wind.

Almost as if the prologue was to go down a mountain and you could take the road or directly down the side of the mountain.

The French were alarmed when Alex went straight into the centre of the low pressure but not remotely surprised.

They now call it 'doing an alex'

rick_chasey

Stupid question I’ve only sailed keel boats why can’t foilers ride very close to wind?

Lose too much speed to keep the aerofoil going?

shirley_basso

Hull shape and daggerboards help pointing upwind - foilers won't have the daggerboards. The foils are out the sides rather than, say an international moth dingy where the foil is the daggerboards.

Non foiling boats also handle better on uneven seas with a deeper v-shaped hull than the foilers who have much flatter bottoms and perform slightly less well in lighter airs.

Also the sailplan and sail shapes will be optimised for downwind sailing.

Nowadays with foiling boats designed with this rave specifically in mind, the time made up going downwind (pretty much the whole southern ocean) with foils more than makes up for any loss of speed / pointing ability upwind.

That's my take anyway.

The vendee news thread makes for really interesting reading.

ddraver

I've no idea, that sounds about right.

Sailing foil boats us just a whole level above what us "normos" can access. To torture the analogy a little more it's like having a motorbike in the peloton...

shirley_basso

Foil boats are accessible like you can buy a pro tour bike - many dingys now are optimised for foiling. The moth class is most well known but 18ft skiffs can too.

Foiling yachts are a whole other league.

Check out the super maxi trimaran armel le cleach raced around the world - 100ft super yacht trimaran up on one hull, floating 2-3m in the air up on a hydrofoil. Think it was called banque populaire.

https://youtu.be/9jyj7bQFSPk

Edmund De Rothschild is the other competitor which is rapid.

ddraver

I mean...I dig your vibe, but I think I've seen one in Plymouth...ever..?

shirley_basso

They usually sail on lakes. (Moths). Lots of them on Queen Mary reservoir in London - high density of accountants and dentists who can afford them

Also the new clubswan 36 is a foiling consumer yacht (£350k).

They are becoming more mainstream, but yes hardly commonplace.

shirley_basso

ddraver said:

I mean...I dig your vibe, but I think I've seen one in Plymouth...ever..?

Do you watch the finish of the fastnet? They competed last year. They were out and back in Plymouth as we were passing it outbound for the first time.

ddraver

It's a lot when you can get J24 for 7,000 innit

Pross

I've never really got sailing on the few occasions I watched it in the Olympics but then I watched a bit of the Americas Cup a few years back which I enjoyed even if I didn't understand it. Of the back of that we went to Cardiff Bay a year or two back to watch the Extreme Sailing Series round there. That was good fun and slightly mental.

My daughter, who is all about singing and performing rather than sport, has been on Ellen MacArthur Trust holidays a few times. The first time was around the Isle of Wight on a larger boat where she had fun but the following two years she went to the Lake District where they did more outward bound type activities including dinghy sailing and she was keen to continue with it. We've got a reservoir near us with a sailing club and I was amazed how cheap it was at that level. Unfortunately she just doesn't have time around college and rehearsals for her various choirs and performing arts groups so never got around to joining.

shirley_basso

That America's cup got everyone into sailing I think! It was an insane edition. Didnt oracle come back 10-8 when previously 2-8 down to new Zealand when Ben ainslie hopped on.

rick_chasey

Obvious point but sailing races make much more sense if you’ve sailed properly....

Pross

The thing I struggled with on Olympic races was boats that were leading seemingly sitting at the back of the pack. I think I now understand that they are trying to mark out their rivals and stop them getting the wind advantage.

shirley_basso

Yes and no. It's a regatta so it's often 'best of xx races' rather than every point counts.

If you are well placed then you can use your discard to disrupt your main competitor by covering them.

That can be done by either stealing their wind as you or using boat positioning and rights of way to disrupt them, cause them delays, cause them to collide with you / markers to force them to do turns (360s usually).

For example: If you don't cross the start line within a certain time of the race start (say, 1 minute) then you are DQ'd. If you can keep your competitor the wrong side for enough time while nipping over yourself, then that's a result.

At mark roundings you can force your competitor to do turns as above.

I agree it is highly tactical though and probably requires following the commentary pretty closely to get an idea of whats going on.

With the newer AC boats it's more about outright speed and not making mistakes at marks as they don't have the manoeuvrability to really disrupt each other as they travel so fast.