Sailonline manual

revision date 18 march 2010 by Jeroen

Welcome to Sailonline

In this guide we will try to explain all the elements you need to start sailing.
We will give a step by step walk through of the registration and introduce you to
many of the tools you are going to use when racing.

Introduction

Sailonline is a strategy simulator for ocean sailing which challenges both the novice and the expert. It lets
you sail your boat over oceans around the globe easier than you can imagine. But, as in real life, in order to
sail fast and to ultimately win races requires full dedication, extensive practice, knowledge and working
skills.

The simulator runs in real time which means that a race can be ongoing for days or even weeks. Luckily,
there are autopilots installed in all boats so that you do not need to steer manually all the time. Small
adjustments of your autopilot setting a couple of times per day is often sufficient. To enable realistic
sailing the weather in which the boats sail is authentic along with both the charts and the boat performance.
Hence, Sailonline lets you race the boats you otherwise just see from a distance.
Table of Contents
Welcome to Sailonline..................................................................................................................2
Introduction....................................................................................................................................2
1 Setting up....................................................................................................................................4
1.1. Create a user account....................................................................................................................4
1.2. Register a in a race.......................................................................................................................5
2 The interface ..............................................................................................................................6
2.1 Map:.............................................................................................................................................6
2.2 weather.........................................................................................................................................6
2.3 Boat:.............................................................................................................................................7
2.4 Other boats: .................................................................................................................................7
2.5 Measured values:..........................................................................................................................7
2.6 Weather bar:.................................................................................................................................7
3 Boat control................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Steer tab: ......................................................................................................................................8
3.2 Setting a course on the map .........................................................................................................8
3.3 Polar.............................................................................................................................................8
3.4 Performance.................................................................................................................................9
3.5 Delays ..........................................................................................................................................9
3.6 Ruler tool......................................................................................................................................9
3.7 Delayed tab:..................................................................................................................................9
4 Social tools................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Boats tab:......................................................................................................................................9
4.2 Chat tab:.......................................................................................................................................9
5.0 Racing ....................................................................................................................................10
5.1 Starting procedure ......................................................................................................................10
5.2 The course, rounding buoys and the finish ................................................................................10
5.3 The chart and the race bounds......................................................................................................10
5.4 Race types....................................................................................................................................10
6 The actual sailing ...................................................................................................................10
7 Dictionary ................................................................................................................................11
8 FAQs .........................................................................................................................................11
9 Good links.................................................................................................................................12
10 Contact information...............................................................................................................12
1 Setting up

1.1. Create a user account

To create a user account and to register in race go to www.sailonline.org

Your user account will be used in all races in which you choose to participate. Press the Create Account
in the menu bar and you will be asked to provide an email address in order to continue. After filling in an
email address, you will receive an email to enable you to continue registration. Check your mailbox for the
verification email, and follow the link given. You will then be taken to the following page to complete the
set-up of your user account.

Choose a user name for you and your boat. This will be the boat name that you will be sailing with and
your signature in the on-line chat.

Note: You are only allowed to have 1 one user account and one boat per race!

Congratulations! you are now all set to start sailing with your account! You will be logged in on the
left side of the screen. Here you can also setup up any additional profile information.
1.2. Register in a race

Next step is to register yourself in a race. On the right hand side of the
homepage (www.sailonline.org) you can find the races that are currently
available.

Look for races that have Registration Open!

A short description of the race, along with the start time is provided. You can
register only one boat in each race but you can have boats in 2 or more different
races at the same time.

New races which are not yet open for registration will have the status
Registration will open soon.

Races which are still running but are closed to new boats will have the status
Registration Closed.We will keep races open long enough to allow the boats that
are still active to complete the race.

Press the Go To Race button of the race you want too enter and select a boat.
Most races have only one boat available but we run mixed races too.

Note: If its the first time you enter a boat, you are also required to select your
country. Select your boat and press the Register in race button.

Once you have selected a boat you will be directed to the race area and can start to sail.

After the initial registration in a race the same Go To Race button takes you directly to your active boat.
Use this to check up on your boat or make a bookmark of the race page to resume control.
If needed you will be prompted for your login information.

Sailing of the boats is handled at the sever side, so you keep on sailing even when you are not logged in.
2 The interface

Most of the graphical user interface in the client software is intuitive even for novice sailors. Here is a brief
introduction to the basic parts of the interface you need to use. You can run it on any system with a web
browser and a version of flash installed.

2.1 Map:
In the map, the land is shown as green and the off-white is sailable water. Across the map there is a grid
with the latitude and longitude. You can scroll across the map by holding the left mouse button and
dragging inside the map area.
Zooming can be done with the plus and minus buttons below the map.
If you loose focus on your boat or want to reset your view, press the boat icon on the left
side (pictured here). The focus will snap back to the boat and a general zoom level is set.

2.2 Weather
The blue arrows are showing the wind direction and speed and the blue continuous iso-lines show points
on the map with equal wind speed. The blue color on the map gets darker with increasing wind speed and
the wind arrows increase in size.

State of the art high resolution forecasts by Weathertech is used as the sailing environment. The resolution
in both time and space varies depending on the race. The forecasts are true in the sense that we are in the
simulation, sailing in authentic weather. All boats sail in the wind forecasts at the 10 meter level. Usually,
the client gives you access to sea level atmospheric pressures also. The forecasts are typically updated 4
times in a 24 hour period. The transition between updates is smoothed out in the first hour to make the
change gradual. Note that in some races new forecasts show up in the middle of the night...
2.3 Boat:
Your boat icon is the little icon you see below and has a bright pink color. In front of your boat is a
"predictor" showing where your boat would be in 6 hours. This line now takes into account the changing
conditions along its path. The open dots are hour markers and the filled dots give a 15 min scale.

This is a example of a boat on TWA course at night, see how it bends when the weather changes.
When on CC the line will not bend, but the length will correspond with the conditions.
(TWA and CC explained later on)

2.4 Other boats:

All participants are shown in the map. The boats close to your position get a boat icon and boats further
away from you current position are shown as dots. If you place the cursor on an other boat you see name
and track. You can not see other boats data (Speed, TWA, etc).

2.5 Measured values:

This bar gives you the required information about the current conditions of your boat.

There is a readout of the SPEED the speed your are doing in knots
COURSE the heading your boat is sailing
TWS the wind strength in knots
TWA the angle your boat is against the wind can be + or -
TWD the angle of the wind on the compass
VMG velocity made good against the wind (explained
later)
PERF performance decreases for some time after a
maneuver
CLOCK displaying the time in UTC

2.6 Weather bar:

Looking at the weather forecasts is done by sliding the forecast-slider in the lower part of the screen. You
can drag it with the mouse or use the arrow keys after you selected it. Try the slider and notice how the
weather changes. When new forecasts are available the new weather automatically appears in the window.

The text below the slider gives you information on the date of the forecast and the position the weather
slider is in. The example above tells us: the forecast is issued 08 feb 2009 21:57 UTC. The slider is
currently at the +0.0h position and the displayed winds are for Monday Feb 9th 10:20 2009. The slider
automatically stays at the position you set it. The forecast will continue to show the current weather if you
leave it at +0.0h even if you leave the client running for a longer time. You can also set it 2h ahead of your
time and it will remain 2h in advance.

Normally the weather is updated 4 times a day around the following times:
6:45, 12:45, 17:45, 23:45 all UTC.
In some races the update frequency is different, we will try to inform you if needed.
3 Boat control

3.1 Steer tab:

The basic way of steering is to either set at constant compass course (CC) which simply means that the
boat will go in a "straight line". The other steering mode is to set up the boat to keep a constant angle to the
wind, to keep the true-wind-angle (TWA) constant. This means that if the wind changes in direction, the
boat will change its heading to maintain the wanted TWA. You can set any TWA in the range from 0 to
180 degrees where TWA=0 means that the wind comes from straight ahead, TWA=180 means that the
wind comes from behind and TWA=90 means the wind in from starboard side. Negative TWA means
wind in from port side (port=left).

Select CC or TWA by checking the box in front of the text. Set your
desired heading or angle in the text box and press send to issue the
command. Notice that the game fills in the other text box as you change
the value. It takes a while for your command to reach our servers and
the boat will change course after a couple of seconds.

3.2 Setting a course on the map

Click on the steer tool. Place the cursor on the map. As you move the cursor around
you see that “Compass Course” and “True Wind Angle” in the steer window changes.
When desired “CC” or “TWA” are displayed, left click to lock the values. Press the
“Send Command” button to issue the command to the crew.
Note: Using the steer tool is a good way to avoid confusion on using plus or minus
signs. You get a good indication of your new heading you are about to set. Remember
to click to fix the heading.

3.3 Polar
One of the most important information besides the weather can be found by understanding the polar graph.
This graphic shows you how you boat will perform under different conditions you will sail in.
The polar curve state the boat speed as a function of wind speed and TWA.

Take time and study the plot to learn how to sail the boat efficiently.
Different wind speeds are shown with different colored curves. For a
certain wind speed follow the corresponding colored curve for all
various angles you can sail your boat.

Notice how the polar diagram shows different values for each of
those angles at a given wind speed.

In Irons (into the wind) — 0° 0 knots

Close Hauled — 30-40° ~ 4,5 knots @ 9 knots
Beam Reach — 90° ~ 6,2 knots @ 9 knots
Broad Reach — ~135° ~ 5,5 knots @ 9 knots
Running — 180° ~ 4,3 knots @ 9 knots

For a certain wind speed and TWA you can read the corresponding
boat speed as represented by the distance from the origin to the
colored curve. The plot does not differ negative from positive TWAs
since our boats are symmetric.

A dot is drawn at your current true wind angle your boat is sailing
on. (Example on the right 43 deg)

When using the steering tool to pick a course on the map, you will see a black line showing the angle your
new heading will be. Additional information is displayed in the lower right showing the predicted boat
speed and the velocity made good (against the wind).
3.4 Performance
Your boat generally performs at the polar curve boat speed (=100% performance in the polar window) but
there are two ways of losing performance. If you hit land you lose quite a lot of performance. After
changing TWA you also lose some percentage of performance. Performance loss is always temporary.
Depending on conditions you will regain 100% after a while.

3.5 Delays
If you want the command to be delayed for some time just enter the desired delay-time (in hours) and
check the box to the left of the text "Delay command" before pressing "Send Command". Delayed
commands is a neat feature that lets you attend business meetings and wedding dinners while helming a
60-foot single handed catamaran in a full gale!

Use the forecast slider to see wind pressure and angle in the coming hours. Use the polar diagram to
estimate your average speed. Use the ruler to measure distance to the position where you want to turn.
Divide distance with calculated average speed. Tick the “Delay Command” box and enter the calculated
delay time. Go to sleep and pray that the delay gods are with you.

3.6 Ruler tool

You can use the ruler tool for a number of things. Basic use is to work out a distance
and a direction between two points. As well as the length of the line in Nm it will also
show the compass heading the line is drawn in. The ruler tool takes into account great
circle navigation, this leads to a curved line on the map but is actually a representation
of the shortest route.

Example: you can use the ruler tool during a race to work out the heading after a tack, or to avoid a piece
of land. With the measurements of the ruler tool and some geometry you can also work out if it pays off to
sail a longer distance but higher speed. Compare the difference in speed with the extra miles.

3.7 Delayed tab:

The delays you have set will be available here. You can use this to
double check the commands you give and make sure a delay is set
correctly. You will have to press the reload button to see the
commands currently available. You can also use this tab to remove
commands that you no longer want to use. Select the command you
want to remove and press the red button.

4 Social tools

4.1 Boats tab:

In this tab you can look up and track your friends and fellow sailors. With nothing in the search field it
will display the current leader board of the current race. When you start to type in the search field you get
a list of boats matching the search. Once you click on a boat in the list it will refocus on the boat and show
its track.

4.2 Chat tab:

In here you can contact your fellow sailors and discuss tactics, ask for help or just general chit chat.
It is also a great place to ask for additional help. There are a lot of friendly people around who can help.
Mainly the conversation is in English but we have a lot of other languages too.
We have people from all over the globe and you might find sailors in the same town as you!
Join in and meet a lot of interesting people all having an interest in sailing in some way or another.

Keep the chat clean and take in to account the large age differences there might be.
5.0 Racing

5.1 Starting procedure

All boats are towed back to the starting line 1 hour before race start. From 1 hour before the start, until the
start, the boats are held at the starting line. Active courses of the boats are reset. A new command executed
during this period can be used to start “at the gun” as soon as the server allows the boats to start. This can
be a manual as well as a delayed command.
Example: Race starts 18:00 UTC. If a player sends a command, TWA 55 degrees at 17:32 UTC, the boat
will sail TWA 55 degrees at 18:00 UTC when the boats are released.
Please note that you can also use a delayed command to be executed during the pre-start phase -it has the
same effect. You can for example set it the day before if you are on line during the start.
5.2 The course, rounding buoys and the finish
The course is defined by a starting point, a number of rounding marks (buoys) and a finish line. All boats
start at the starting point. The sequence of the buoys are numbered and shown in the leader board which
you can reach by using the link in your client. Then, simply sail around the buoys in the correct order and
cross the red finish-line as soon as possible. Rounding of the buoys is registered automatically by the
server and immediately announced in the leader board. The rounding is registered when your boat is
"in-the-middle" of last leg and the next one (a leg is the distance traveled between two buoys).

The mark rounding is directional, you have to follow

the arrow on the lay-line when rounding a buoy.
If you sail round the wrong way you are required to
head back and sail round the correct way as shown in
the diagram.

At the end just cross the finish line anywhere you like.
Once on the line your boat will be "glued" to the
position where it crossed the line.
Your finish time will also be announced in the leader
board.

5.3 The chart and the race boundries

The shorelines are supplied by the US National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). Resolution may vary
depending on the race type. Important to notice is that what you see is what there is. Be aware of small
islands but all water is deep and sailable. Your boat can naturally only sail on water. If you collide with
land the boat will stop, be pulled out from the coastline some distance and be somewhat damaged. The
damage is expressed as a certain drop in boat speed (performance). This loss in performance is temporary
and will vanish in a number of hours. Since the boat has stopped you need to send a new command to set
the boat on a new course. Due to the implementation on the server, a boat may actually cut a little land
corner at special occasions. It can happen to all boats but is nothing to calculate on.

5.4 Race types

There are basically two kinds of races, fleet-races and timed-races.

Fleet race: In a fleet race you typically register a boat during the registration phase in which practice
sailing is allowed. One hour before the start all boats are suddenly automatically towed back to the starting
point, stopped and moored there during this last hour before the start which we call the pre-start phase.
During the pre-start phase you can send commands and chats but the boat will not move. At the time of the
race start all boats are let go simultaneously. The last command will be the one controlling the boat. First
boat completing the course is the winner!

Timed race: In a timed race you may (within limits) start at any time you like. The time of your first
command is your start time. A start using a delayed command is possible. Complete the course and your
total sailed time will be compared to others in the leader board. Once you have finished the course you
may register a new boat and go for another try.
6 The actual sailing

The boat's actual sailing is done in the central server at Sailport and NOT in the user's computer.
The webclient is only used for viewing and manipulation of your boat. Hence, you can disconnect and
shut your computer down and your boat will still sail. The boats are moved forward (integrated) stepwise.
The length in time between the steps varies dependent on the server workload etc but is usually kept under
30 seconds.

7 Dictionary

Port: Left side of the boat.

Starboard: Right side of the boat.
Bow: The nose of the boat.
Stern: The aft most part of the boat.
TWA: True Wind Angle (ranging from -180 to 180 degrees), i.e. the angle between the boat centerline and
the incoming wind. TWA=0 means that the wind comes in straight from over the boat bow. Negative
TWA’s indicates wind from the port side.
TWD: True Wind Direction (ranging from 0 to 360 degrees)is the angle *from * where the wind blows.
TWD=0 means wind from the north, TWA=90 means wind from the east etc.
TWS: True Wind Speed in either of the units meters/second (m/s) or knots (kn).
Course: The direction of the boat velocity (0 to 360 degrees) which in this game is equal to the boat
heading since no water currents are present.
Distance: is in this nautical game measured in nautical miles. One nautical mile equals 1852 m.
BS: Boat Speed is measured in knots. One knot equals one nautical mile per hour.
VMG: Velocity Made Good is the velocity component parallel to the TWD. By convention, positive VMG
means that you are sailing towards the wind.
Time: Is throughout the game measured with reference to Universal Time Coordinated UTC.
Performance: The percentage of boat speed you have in relation to the performance polar. You will have
100% if you haven’t hit land or just made a course change, your performance will go down for some time
if you have hit land.
Great circle: A great circle constitute the shortest route between two locations on the globe. In the map
projection we use a great circle may appear to have a curvature, however on the globe the path is straight.
See Wikipedia, Great circle. In Sailonline you can choose to navigate using great circles.
Loxodrome (Rhumb line): A loxodrome, or rhumb line, is a route between two locations on the globe
with the feature of having constant true compass course. See Wikipedia, Loxodrome. In Sailonline you can
choose to navigate using Loxodromes.

8 FAQs

Q: Can me and a friend "share" a boat although we do not share the same computer, or even live in the
same country?
A: Yes, no problem. Just share your login details and you are all set to share the boat. Only question is -do
you trust your friend?
Q: Why is it not allowed to have more than one boat?
A: We like to give all players a fair chance, multiple boats is considered cheating and therefore not
allowed.
Q: Can my boat collide with other boats or the buoys?
A: No, the only thing you can collide with is land.
Q: Is "my wind" affected by the presence of nearby boats?
A: No, such effects are not included in the simulator.
Q: If i loose my Internet connection while playing, can I still steer my boat and wait for the connection to
reconnect?
A: No you cannot manipulate your boat while you are off line, your boat will keep sailing in your current
direction.
Q: Is leeway (sideways drift) included in the game?
 A: This is a tricky and somewhat philosophical question actually. As a user, you do not see any leeway and
you do thus not have to account for it. Leeway is here defined as the angle between the ship longitudinal
axis and the velocity vector. This, however does not imply a hydrodynamic simplification since our boats
are equipped with fins/keel blades which produce the necessary side force by their non-symmetric cross
sections and/or mounting angles (non-parallel to the ship longitudinal axis).
Q: Are currents and tidal effects included?
A: No, we have tried that but have chosen to leave currents out.
Q: Are effects from ocean waves on boat performance included?
A: No, mainly since reliable methods for calculating this effect are not available.

9 Good links

A lot of our friends are helping out with additional information, blogs and rankings. Here is a quick
selection of some of the tools you may find useful.

Wiz rankings: A great site with additional rankings and leader boards

Wiz rankings

Brainaid resources: Providing rankings, polars and grib files

http://team-yacht-treff.de

GribUS: A great tool to import and view Grib files, witch are actual forecast weather files.
(registration needed)

http://www.grib.us/

Wiki page with a lot of additional information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing

A nice blog from one of our users SWE54 with a fun insight in some of the previous races.

Blog from SWE54

10 Contact information

If you have a problem or a question you like to ask, feel free to ask around in the chat and check our forum
area on the site. You can find a lot of answers there.
If you still cant find the answer or have a different question to our team, email us at: crew@sailport.se

If you spot mistakes in this manual please let me know at jeroen@sailport.se

We are also looking for people who are interested in translating this manual to different languages.
Email to jeroen@sailport.se with some additional information and you will receive the original text files.
Thanks to the complete crew at Sailport for providing us with this great game
Tomas for the original cheat sheet which is still part of this one
CG for helping screening the text
And all the other virtual sailors out on the SOL waters.