Today’s Sailing Skills Class featured Mothgirl Dibou, who gave sailors a special Valentine: Her personal discussion of tips and tricks for the Flying Fizz sailboat as well as a fascinating peek at the features that will be included in the upcoming 2.00 upgrade.

In case you were busy with other Valentine’s Day activities, SLSailing.com is publishing Mothgirl’s comments as a public service. Here you go:

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[11:03] M1sha Dallin: Hi Mothgirl
[11:03] Mothgirl Dibou: is there something I could possibly teach you?
[11:04] M1sha Dallin: always
[11:04] Mothgirl Dibou: Ok, I’ll try
[11:04] Mothgirl Dibou: First of all: Fizz sailing is not difficult
[11:04] Mothgirl Dibou: You can capsize, but that only happens when you sail in a lot of wind or when you pull the sheet too tight for too long
[11:05] Mothgirl Dibou: it really doesn’t happen that easily
[11:05] Mothgirl Dibou: First of all you need to have a substantial heel for a longer period
[11:05] Mothgirl Dibou: 45 degrees heel for 3 seconds to be precise
[11:05] Mothgirl Dibou: And the boat warns you, the display will read “HEEL: 42 DEGREES!!”
[11:05] Mothgirl Dibou: not allowed I know, but still I baked it in
[11:05] Jane Fossett: grin
[11:06] Mothgirl Dibou: but there is nothing wrong when you see that
[11:06] Mothgirl Dibou: but when it says: “HEEL: 45 DEGREES!!” and does this for 3 seconds in a row you get wet
[11:06] Mothgirl Dibou: So there is really nothing to worry about. Simply release the sheet a little when you see this in the display
[11:06] Mothgirl Dibou: it really is dead easy
[11:06] Mothgirl Dibou: You don’t have to deploy the gennaker yourself
[11:06] Mothgirl Dibou: You don’t have to set the centerboard yourself
[11:07] Mothgirl Dibou: and the boat warns you even when you have the sheet wrong
[11:07] Mothgirl Dibou: it will say: “SHEET: 10 degrees!!”
[11:07] Mothgirl Dibou: And you can always use fun mode where you only need to steer.
[11:07] Jane Fossett: [wish the Tako did this stuff]
[11:07] Mothgirl Dibou: The only reason I can think of that people find it difficult, is that it is more sensitive.
[11:08] Mothgirl Dibou: It is absolutely not difficult to sail, but it is hard to sail a Fizz fast
[11:08] Mothgirl Dibou: So I will try to explain a little of how the boat works
[11:08] Mothgirl Dibou: and maybe with that background information you can sail faster as well.
[11:08] Mothgirl Dibou: Many sailors skip fun mode and think this is for wimps but actually: fun mode is the most optimal way to sail the boat.
[11:09] Mothgirl Dibou: there is no way to beat a boat sailing in fun mode; you can learn a lot from doing that.
[11:09] Mothgirl Dibou: First of all, you can use it to study the boat’s behavior when you steer around the buoys:
[11:09] Mothgirl Dibou: When does it start planing…
[11:09] Mothgirl Dibou: what’s the most optimal angle upwind…
[11:09] Mothgirl Dibou: what’s the best way to sail down wind…
[11:09] Mothgirl Dibou: when does the gennaker kick in..
[11:09] Mothgirl Dibou: and most of all: what is the fastest way to sail a certain race course?
[11:10] Mothgirl Dibou: Sail a course a few times in fun mode and try different approaches
[11:10] Mothgirl Dibou: the boat will sail constantly and always optimally.
[11:10] Mothgirl Dibou: Bea uses it to set a reference time for each course, then she tries to get as close as possible to that time.
[11:10] Mothgirl Dibou: But I will save you some time and tell a few things now.
[11:11] Mothgirl Dibou: First and most important is the sheet handling.
[11:11] Mothgirl Dibou: we all knew already that sailing in SL is math for the most part.
[11:11] Mothgirl Dibou: Simply keep your sheet at 0.5 times the apparent wind at all times.
[11:11] Mothgirl Dibou: 1 degree off will mean immediately that you are slower.
[11:11] Mothgirl Dibou: The apparent wind will always change, so you are constantly busy with that…
[11:11] Mothgirl Dibou: And I mean ALL the time.
[11:12] Mothgirl Dibou: A Tako has a relatively long time when it simply ‘floats on’ at the same speed,
[11:12] Mothgirl Dibou: But a Fizz will stop dead within meters when you don’t treat it like you should.
[11:12] Mothgirl Dibou: So for instance, when you round a mark..
[11:12] Mothgirl Dibou: you should be adjusting the sheet at the same time. Don’t do it afterwards!
[11:12] Mothgirl Dibou: Don’t wait until you put the boat in the right direction! By then you’ll be stopped!
[11:13] Mothgirl Dibou: You pull the sheet or release it at the same time you are rounding the mark so the sail will be powered during the turn.
[11:13] Mothgirl Dibou: The best way to do this is by using presets stored in ‘gestures,’ and to use your head while sailing.
[11:13] Konradin Kappler: Are there gestures available already?
[11:13] Mothgirl Dibou: Don’t push the wrong preset buttons like I often do!
[11:13] Jacek Antonelli giggles
[11:13] Mothgirl Dibou: you can make them yourself and I will give you the ones I use after this
[11:13] Glorfindel Arrow: lol
[11:14] Mothgirl Dibou: press the preset of the next course, with a sheet a few degrees looser than it should be when the boat gains speed
[11:14] Mothgirl Dibou: then as the boat accelerates again you see the apparent wind angle diminishing and you gently pull it 1 degree at a time
[11:15] Mothgirl Dibou: the winner of a race is usually the one that handles the sheet the most optimal
[11:15] Mothgirl Dibou: Bea told me that she can sail a course 30 seconds slower than when she uses fun mode
[11:15] Mothgirl Dibou: the only difference between those 2 times is sheet handling
[11:15] Mothgirl Dibou: and believe me, Bea is good at this

[11:16] Mothgirl Dibou: The speed is also largely dependent on heel.
[11:16] Mothgirl Dibou: IN RL your boat will not move when you don’t sail it flat
[11:16] Mothgirl Dibou: currently I don’t think this works very nicely in the Fizz but I will improve this.
[11:17] Mothgirl Dibou: I will make the boat more stable when the speed builds up so as the speed increases you can make the sheet match the optimum.
[11:17] Mothgirl Dibou: the optimum sheet angle in that case will not be 0.5 times the apparent wind anymore, at least not when you are still accelerating,
[11:18] Mothgirl Dibou: and the heel upwind will be much more that it is now
[11:18] Mothgirl Dibou: so brace yourselves; we’ll see a lot of capsizes
[11:18] Jacek Antonelli:
[11:18] Mothgirl Dibou: I will make the speed much more dependent on heel so you really need to find a balance between optimal sheet and keeping the boat flat.
[11:19] Mothgirl Dibou: Then there is planing.
[11:19] Mothgirl Dibou: for those of you that doesn’t know what this is: Each RL boat has a certain waterline length
[11:19] Mothgirl Dibou: and this length determines the length of the waves, because there will be a wave top at the bow and a wave top at the stern
[11:19] Mothgirl Dibou: The speed at which a wave travels depends on its length
[11:20] Mothgirl Dibou: And since a boat cannot travel faster than its own waves it can go faster than what is determined by its length unless it climbs over its bow wave and starts planing.
[11:20] Mothgirl Dibou: The speed will suddenly increase once that barrier is broken.
[11:20] Mothgirl Dibou: In 2.0 I will make sure you will experience that barrier
[11:20] Mothgirl Dibou: Currently when the boat reaches 5.0 m/s it start planing and the speed increases by 1.5
[11:20] Mothgirl Dibou: that means also the apparent wind increases and you can go even faster
[11:21] Mothgirl Dibou: So it is very important to be planing all the time, even if this means sailing less high upwind or sailing not the optimal course down wind
[11:21] Konradin Kappler: sounds more like a surfboard LOL
[11:21] Mothgirl Dibou: Its a shame we don’t have many course that include a part where you sail at say 80 degrees to the real wind
[11:21] Mothgirl Dibou: you might want to sail a part of it under gennaker
[11:22] Mothgirl Dibou: at 90 degrees and go upwind a bit
[11:22] M1sha Dallin: F4 does
[11:22] Jane Fossett: yes… F4 here does
[11:22] Mothgirl Dibou: well, we should sail that !
[11:23] Mothgirl Dibou:
[11:22] Mothgirl Dibou: The most optimal course upwind is between 48 and 51 degrees to the real wind at the moment
[11:22] Mothgirl Dibou: in version 2.0 there will be a display that reads VMG to improve this
[11:22] Mothgirl Dibou: of course this will only show when you are not in a race
[11:23] Mothgirl Dibou: I sometimes make the mistake to think I can reach that buoy by sailing 43 degrees or something but it doesn’t work
[11:23] Mothgirl Dibou: better tack one more time and keep the speed going
[11:24] Mothgirl Dibou: When you go downwind, the gennaker kicks in at 90 degrees to the real wind and does so until 160 degrees to the real wind
[11:24] Mothgirl Dibou: I will make a small buffer for that in 2.0 to prevent it from switching on and off all the time and to enable you to push it a little further
[11:25] Mothgirl Dibou: I haven’t really measured the most optimal course yet
[11:25] Mothgirl Dibou: Tried once with M1sha but a lot has changed since then
[11:25] Mothgirl Dibou: but it is clear that you need to gybe and not sail 180 degrees to the mark
[11:25] Mothgirl Dibou: I try to keep it as high as possible but below 160 myself
[11:25] Mothgirl Dibou: and enough below that to prevent the gennaker from disappearing when the wind varies a little
[11:25] Mothgirl Dibou: So around 155 degrees to the true wind
[11:26] Mothgirl Dibou: You will find that the apparent wind varies a lot when you sail that course so try to match it constantly with your sheet
[11:26] Mothgirl Dibou: It’s hard work, but it pays off
[11:26] Mothgirl Dibou: I talked a lot about angles and math so far because that’s what it is all about
[11:26] Mothgirl Dibou: the boat is nothing more than an algorithm with simple functions that calculate the speed and the resistance it finds on its way
[11:27] Mothgirl Dibou: this is also why I don’t like huds; never use them myself
[11:27] Bea Woodget: wow
[11:27] Mothgirl Dibou: focus on the digits
[11:27] Mothgirl Dibou: you only need to keep an eye on 3 of them
[11:27] Mothgirl Dibou: the real wind angle, apparent wind angle, and sheet angle
[11:28] Mothgirl Dibou: 3 digits is not much
[11:28] Konradin Kappler: is it possible to reposition the displayed data ?
[11:28] Mothgirl Dibou: and I keep the mini map open to navigate
[11:28] Kip Zabaleta: You don’t use the Fizz HUD?
[11:28] Mothgirl Dibou: the data on the boat yes
[11:28] Jane Fossett: I have five digits… on this hand, anyway
[11:28] Mothgirl Dibou: and the HUD is mod I believe
[11:28] Mothgirl Dibou: lol
[11:28] Mothgirl Dibou: there are may digits
[11:29] Jane Fossett: grin
[11:29] Mothgirl Dibou: and maybe we can make this modifiable at some point
[11:29] Mothgirl Dibou: but after a while you don’t see the irrelevant data anymore
[11:29] Kip Zabaleta: Where do you see the digits without the HUD?
[11:29] Mothgirl Dibou: there are probably sailors that don’t agree with me; that’s ok
[11:29] Mothgirl Dibou: I only try to explain how I sail
[11:30] Mothgirl Dibou: Something about rounding the marks and steering…
[11:30] Bea Woodget:
[11:30] Mothgirl Dibou: the boat doesn’t steer at the same speed always
[11:31] Mothgirl Dibou: because certainly you have noticed that once you go very fast
[11:31] Mothgirl Dibou: it is almost impossible to make a course correction of 1 degree
[11:32] Jacek Antonelli nods
[11:32] Bea Woodget: yes
[11:32] Mothgirl Dibou: this should be possible in 2.0
[11:32] Jacek Antonelli: yay
[11:32] Mothgirl Dibou: I got it working but still some lag problems
[11:32] Mothgirl Dibou: but I added a neat trick
[11:32] Mothgirl Dibou: in RL when your boat heels it will try to turn against the wind
[11:33] Mothgirl Dibou: and when it heels the other way it wants to bare off
[11:33] Mothgirl Dibou: I implemented this
[11:33] Mothgirl Dibou: so if you want to go around a mark real fast,
[11:33] Mothgirl Dibou: make sure you induce heel, but not yet
[11:33] Bea Woodget: wow, Mothgirl you are……..mmm
[11:33] Mothgirl Dibou: 2.0 only
[11:33] Kip Zabaleta: roll tacking
[11:33] Jane Fossett: yes!
[11:33] Bea Woodget: simply the best! :))
[11:34] Mothgirl Dibou: when you round a mark you want to go round as tight as possible
[11:34] Mothgirl Dibou: so my suggestion, sail to it a bit further off, maybe wait till you have reached the zone around the mark
[11:34] Mothgirl Dibou: set in your turn a little early and try to get the boat next to the mark when the narrow turning circle sets in
[11:34] Mothgirl Dibou: This is very hard and I haven’t master it myself yet But it can be practiced
[11:35] Mothgirl Dibou: And with the new version coming it will be even better
[11:35] Mothgirl Dibou: So basically, when I summarize it:
[11:35] Mothgirl Dibou: Sailing a Fizz is not difficult at all!
[11:35] Mothgirl Dibou: You simply have to do it and not be afraid to drop dead in the water
[11:35] Mothgirl Dibou: There is always a reason for dropping dead!
[11:35] Jane Fossett: grin
[11:35] Bea Woodget: I have to go, may I just say something?
[11:35] Mothgirl Dibou: either you are heading to close the wind
[11:35] Mothgirl Dibou: sure
[11:35] Jane Fossett: and have at least 3 digits
[11:36] Mothgirl Dibou: lol
[11:36] Bea Woodget: Jane and Mothgirl, feel free to distribute my video or the link if you like it
[11:36] Mothgirl Dibou: yes
[11:36] Jane Fossett: ok!
[11:37] Mothgirl Dibou: uhm, the reasons for dropping dead
[11:37] Mothgirl Dibou: you are heading to close the wind or you have the sheet wrong; nothing more to it really
[11:37] joepie Korobase:
[11:37] Mothgirl Dibou: but still, when I sail at SYC on Sunday
[11:38] Mothgirl Dibou: I see so many spectators… enough to crash the sim
[11:38] Mothgirl Dibou: and so few competitors!
[11:38] Mothgirl Dibou: so I think you all need a little push
[11:38] Mothgirl Dibou: well not all
[11:38] Jacek Antonelli:
[11:38] Mothgirl Dibou: and therefore I’d like to invite you to come over to the start line
[11:38] Tory Micheline: time on the water……..
[11:39] Mothgirl Dibou: and sail a very small and friendly course
[11:39] Jacek Antonelli: yay!
[11:39] Mothgirl Dibou: I will hop on board with someone that will take me
[11:39] Mothgirl Dibou: and try to give some advice
[11:39] Mothgirl Dibou: is that ok?
[11:39] joepie Korobase: nice
[11:39] Mothgirl Dibou: not with you
[11:39] Jacek Antonelli: Ooh I’d love to have you on my boat, but probably someone else could use the advice better
[11:39] joepie Korobase: ;0
[11:39] Mothgirl Dibou: you are too fast already
[11:40] Jane Fossett: Hpathe is really slow!
[11:40] Mothgirl Dibou: well let’s go there now
[11:40] Mothgirl Dibou: lol
[11:40] joepie Korobase: LOL