eh yes, everything happens ! In my entire IT-nautical career I had never played any game on a computer, not even the historic Windows card game that cost businesses thousands of idle office hours… but you should never say : never !
Or donc, 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, who, are all, seems relatively simple for a confirmed sailor. But from there to playing with the big boys, 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 to 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 comrades, Henri Laurent and Olivier Bouyssou, bring for this new competition their routing module developed jointly, integrated from the outset 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 of which he is the weather specialist and referent, 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 West France to provide them with daily weather monitoring and analysis, covering both the actual race (²) and the virtual regatta (³). SailGrib and 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 is found on board of course, with each his own boat, in the Vendée Globe of Virtual Regatta today.
Combined satellite and fronts situation on 8 November 00Z by SailGrib
Two routing options with SailGrib. Safer Cape Finisterre routing sends in weak southerly winds.
The big difference between the virtual and the real is that, in the first case, we do not take into account the state of the sea, essential component in the water strategy. The sea conditions that await the skippers in 48 hours will inevitably influence their choice of trajectory.
For latecomers, update your SailGrib app, and watch this tutorial by Henri Laurent :
–––
(¹) SailGrib 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/
–––
