FAQ/en

The french FAQ is much more complete, please help us to translate...

Does the game take current and tides into effect

No tide, no current, no sail adjustment... only the wind and it's usually enough to be interesting. But there are ideas floating around about currents...

Why did it take me so long to find this site?????

• Q: Virtual sailing is pretty sweet... my campaign is a hell of alot cheaper on the computer then in real life... why did it take me so long to find this site ?
• A: Maybe because it's basically a french site, even if there are players from many countries. Please add english content here, so it's going to be better known by search engines.

What the ortho stands for ?

Ortho stand for orthodromic route or "shortest route".

What the loxo stands for ?

Loxo means Rhumb line route or constant angle route.

Is there a way to withdraw the boat from a race ?

yes, the link is now on the home page. (Home link)

Is the weather the current weather until the next update or is it the forecasted weather in 3 hour blocks ?

Weather GRIB files are downloaded from NOAA every 6 hours, at 3h35, 9h35, 15h35 and 21h35 UTC, these forecast are not continuous but in steps of 3h between the various forecast (0h (observations), 3h, 6h, 9h... 24h). And VLM makes a simple interpolation between two time stamps.

New forecast is used by VLM a few minutes after each download ... and, as said by Jawa, there could be small or even big jump in wind info at that time.

GRIB files used by VLM are available here: http://grib.virtual-loup-de-mer.org/

I'm looking forward to the release of the source

the sources are here : http://source.virtual-loup-de-mer.org

Is there any way to see the tracks of the real boats on the map?

No, there no way to get track of real boats. We only have their position (eventually you could use saved pics with their positions to create you own tracks).

What happens when we cross the date line (meridian 180) ?

Grib files are in GMT, so no problem with that. Beware of the bvmg, as it has an issue with the date line (well the meridian 180).

What is the difference between Best VMG and optimum road (as seen in VMG for VLM) ?

• Optimum road take in account the fact that sooner or later you will have to "Tack" or "Gybe" to reach your WP.
• Optimum road could be = to direct road (but this happens not very often)

Note that the VBVMG buton compute the optimum road (as seen in VMG for VLM).

I am having trouble figuring out how to enter waypoints. Just typing the values into the boxes doesn't seem to work

Coordinates of waypoint should be in a decimal format ... e.g. 5°30'S 45°15'E = -5.5 45.25 (here a tool for conversion: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/DDDMMSS-decimal.html )

Attention! S & W have a negative value and N & E a positive one.

What is an Ice Gate ? What to do with it ?

Ice gates aim (in real life sailing) at preventing skippers to sail too near of Artic or Antartic. Your boat has to be seen north (or south, depending of the hemisphere) of the ice gate. This doesn't mean you have to cross the gate (but of course you are allowed to).