SLSAILING.COM – The Portal Magazine for SL Sailing.

A number of USS owners (along with Dale Irata of Island Yacht Club), AND and old time sailor, Pixeleen Mistral, attended the Second Life Community Convention in Oakland CA this past weekend.  It was the first time most of us had meet one another in RL. We had a GREAT time. Get Chad to tell you about the French cutie he ran into in  Jack London Square. Let him tell you his side of the story, then Aislin and I will tell you what REALLY happened.

By the way, SL isn’t the only “service” that loses inventory. United Airlines lost Chad’s luggage. It showed up a couple of hours after the convention was over. Too bad RL isn’t immune to body odor like SL is.

The Blake Sea Community Issue

As far as USS/Blake Sea and SL sailing community issues go,  the highlight of the show was a face to face meeting with Viale Linden, Directory of Integrated Marketing at LL. Basically Viale is in charge of Acquisition Marketing and Retention Marketing. Another hat that Viale is wearing at the moment is Director of Communities. That will likely change when LL hires at new person for that role. At this point we have no more information on the timing of that hoped for event other than I can tell you that at least two residents from the SL Sailing community have applied for that position. We have no idea how many others have applied nor when a decision will be made.

While Viale is keen on getting NEW residents into SL  (e.g. “what can you guys do to help increase the interest and bring new residents into the SL sailing scene?”) we  also had a chance to talk about how the relationship between LL and the USS and the resulting Blake Sea Community Partnership ought to emphasize the RETENTION side of his responsibilities. With the continued decline in the performance of sim crossings LL is in danger of  losing more residents all the time.  In this regard we had a very productive meeting with Viale on the very simple topic of getting the Blake Sea  and USS regions back on the same colo (server farm) and hopefully on the same version. This was something that worked well for a number of months before Keira Linden was let go. Now no one is watching the farm on this issue. He is working to help restore that arrangement.

Requests for some interface between Viale and the overall SL Sailing community have not progressed very far (e.g. “office hours don’t scale well.”  ”Lets leave that issue  the back burner until we get a community person in place”). More information will be shared as it becomes available.

Pixeleen Mistral

Any oldtimers out there will remember Pixeleen Mistral and her epic battles with yours truly over just about anything going on in SL Sailing. Pixeleen and I finally met, in the flesh as it were. We had a GREAT time. By the way, I suspect some of you old timers might be surprised than Pixeleen and I have pleasant IM chats about once a month these days on one topic or another.

USA 76

The day after SLCC ended a number of us went for a sail on the AC Boat, USA 76 (winner of the Moet Cup against Alinghi in 2003, 2nd boat in the BMW Challenge in the 32rd America’s Cup in 2007). Thanks to Dale Irata (commodore of the RL Island Yacht Club in Alameda, CA and the SL version of the same yacht club)  who coordintated the event. I will begin working on a video of the day as soon as I get the video files from Chad (we used his camera). In the meantime here are a few shots.

One thing that struck me was the sound of the wind whistling on the main. That’s something the on-board mics don’t pick up during television coverage of  an AC race.

 

 

Most of these shots are courtesy of Chad Sawson. You can see more here: https://picasaweb.google.com/101577248260922323688

 

 

 

 

 

Starboards Yacht Club finally has its own web site.  We especially encourage you to go to the website for an important announcement for tomorrow night!

It has finally happened. The long anticipated invasion of the pirates has begun in the southeastern portion of the Blake Sea. With the pirates come the fighting sail navies to try and keep them under control. Ironclads are expected to be patrolling the waters as well. Those of you wishing more details about fighting sail activities in the Blake Sea region would do well to drop by Sanctuary Rock in Blake Cove and check out the information center there.

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As promised, the racing mark in Blake Sea Cannonade has now been relocated in Blake Sea Hawser. SLSailing.Com caught the event on camera.

While Tig Spijkers of the Second Life Coast Guard provided security in an SLCG ‘copter, Gemma Vuckovic and an unknown skipper looked on, and Nber Medici of Starboards Yacht Club, provided the proverbial eye candy shot and MarkTwain White lowered the new mark in place.

The new yellow mark position was a joint operation of Nantucket Yacht Club leadership and MarkTwain White, the Captain of the Blake Sea. The final positioning was with the assistance of NYC Head race director Gemma Vuckovic. All other yacht clubs in the USS and around SL were there in the spirit of community as they all agreed (or so says MTW), that it is a good thing to make room for SL pirates and ironclad navies, who are now more or less clear to use the four contested water Blake Sea sims (Kendra, Thunderer, Cannonade, and Beufort) for pirate and ironclad battles.

Starting with the move, pirates and ironclad sailors need only to make sure that no present race is going on from the startline in Blake Sea Arabian. They can check the SL Sailing Calendar (on this site and on a prim at Sanctuary Rock in Blake Cove sim). Santuary Rock is a neutral meeting ground in Blake Cove where pirates and ironclad sailors can meet on neutral group to set up battles. Blake Sea Battles Battles group is the official group to cordinate such affairs.

We have moved the old black/white mark that used to be in Lost Isle to the southeast quadrant of Blake Sea China (200,70). This Sunday, January 3, we will move the yellow mark currently in Blake Sea Cannonade westward one sim into Blake Sea Hawser. Race Directors should note this change and change race courses accordingly.

The PHRF course will be changed to use the small island in Blake Sea Indian. See Jane Fossett for details.

The first change replaces a mark often used in courses to direct boats down the eastern Blake Sea Spine.

The second change effectively moves races out of the Blake Sea Cannonade and Blake Sea Thunderer sims so as the reduce the chance of encounters between racing boats and pirates using the for contested waster sims of Blake Sea Thunderer, Kendra, Cannonade, and Beaufort. The only courses that will used those sims now are those from the Arabian line. Therefore pirates will be free to hold battles in the contested water sims except during times of calendar scheduled events from the Arabian line.