Become a Virtual Regatta specialist

You can send your orders in 4 different modes plus the auto mode that will pick the one we find the best. Activate the "Expert Mode" in the Settings to access these modes.

• Wind: the angle between the boat and the wind is constant between 2 orders. In VR, the lock is closed. This is the preferred mode if you are offshore.
• Compass: the heading of the boat is constant between 2 orders.
  In VR, the lock is open. This should be used if you are offshore in light variable winds.
• Mixed: if your boat is sailing upwind or downwind, the order will be sent using the Wind mode, otherwise, the Compass mode is used.
• Waypoints: the boat will sail  from waypoint to waypoint using their coordinates. This is the preferred mode when close to shore.

The calculation of weather forecasts takes time!

We use the American forecasts from the model called the GFS 0.25°. They are calculated by the NOAA, the weather service of the United States.

They are, of course, the same forecasts that Virtual Regatta uses.

These forecasts are calculated 4 times a day and the outputs are identified by the time of the beginning of the calculation in GMT time, also called Z.

So we have the outputs of 00Z, 06Z, 12Z and 18Z.

For each calculation, the first 12 hours of forecast are available after 3h40 of calculation, that is 03h40Z for the 00Z model. This makes 4h40 in La Rochelle in winter time and 05h40 in summer time. Then, (+48) indicates that the first 48 forecasts are available and so on.

Here is a small summary table where you will find the update times of the weather forecasts.

Note that the granularity of the 18Z run updates, the one that comes in the evening, is finer. This is so that you can go to bed earlier...

WARNING: The NOAA is sometimes late and in this case the files are not updated. It doesn't matter because they are not updated in the game as well.
What matters is that we are synchronized with the game.

the NOAA delays can be due to the production of the model or its distribution.
You can check how the production is going by following this link https://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/nwprod/prodstat/index.html#TARGET

You can check how the DISTRIBUTION is going by following this link: https://nomads.ncep.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/filter_gfs_1p00.pl

Now, at what time to do the routings?

The best compromise seems to be (European Central Timezone) :

• winter time: at 05h15 or at your alarm clock, 11h15, 17h15 and 23h15.
• summer time : at 06h15 or at your alarm clock, 12h15, 18h15 and 00h15.

In Expert mode, you have the possibility to adjust the routing calculation parameters. Here are some guidelines on how to do this best. Note that you always have the possibility to reset the default values by pressing the "Reset routing parameters to default" button under the settings. We recommend using these defaults in the vast majority of cases.

Max duration (15 days)
This is the maximum duration of the routing. One may want to reduce it to understand when a route decision should be made. This can be seen during the routing calculation when the best route switches. For example, if we are sailing on the North Atlantic from Brittany to the West Indies. We can have a routing that switches from a northern route to a southern trade winds one in the middle. We calculate a routing with a 15 day max and another one with a 8 day max. We then analyse the 2 proposed routes. If the routes over the first few days are similar, there is no decision to be made immediately. If they are different from the beginning, you have to choose right away.

Sweep angle (220°)
This is the scan angle over which the algorithm will search for routes. The larger the angle, the longer the calculations, but the less chance you have of missing the best route.
As a general rule, 220° is more than enough. If we notice that our routing passes by the edge of an isochron (places accessible in a certain time drawn in blue), we must increase this angle. This happens most often in areas of light wind or for very fast boats like Ultims which can lengthen their route considerably to find favorable winds.

Step angle (Auto)
This is the angular increment used in the routing calculations. The smaller it is, the more accurate the calculations are, but the longer the calculation time. In auto mode, it is initially at its minimum of 1°. The router can increase it if the processor is slow and the calculations take too long.

VMG max tolerance (0°)
The VMG (Velocity Made good) is the speed the boat towards or from the direction of the wind. The best VMG angle is the angle for which this VMG is maximum. In general, it is around 40° to 45° upwind and 140° to 150° downwind. When you are offshore, far from the coast, you rarely sail beyond the angle of best VMG. For us, this can be considered very rarely as never. On the other hand, when you are close to a coast, to avoid making two tacks or two gybes in order to clear a cape, you can sail a few degrees beyond the angle of best VMG. This will avoid 2 penalties and a loss of energy. To conclude, we always do a first routing with a tolerance of 0° and we only put a tolerance higher than 0° to avoid 2 manoeuvres when clearing a cape.

Isochronous < 2, 6, 12, 24, 48, 120 hours
This is the time step between 2 isochrons. This time step increases as you move further out in time because the weather conditions will change by then and it is useless to look for too much precision. Near the coast, it can be interesting to decrease the time step of the first isochrones to stick to the coast. The shorter the time step, the longer the calculations.

Have fun changing these parameters to get the best routing. Remember that we spent a lot of time optimizing the default values. These are the best in the vast majority of cases. When in doubt, don't hesitate to press the "Reset routing parameters to default" button.

Depending on your VR options you can use a certain maximum number of orders.

• no option: 2 orders 
• Full pack: 9 orders
• VIP: 15 orders

It is key to use these limited set of orders wisely.
To optimize the sending, we can skip orders if the previous one was close to the current one. The "Skip order tolerance" parameter aloows you to decide how close should be these orders to skip them.
In practice, if you want to send your orders for a long time, like at night, increase the tolerance.

10:56
- the lock is closed, we are in wind mode
- the wind angle is 140°. It is green, we are close to the best descending into the wind angle known as the best VMG down angle.
- the 2 arrows are red, we receive the wind from the left. We are sailing on the port side
- the switch is red or selected. The order will be sent.

11:26 and 11:56
- the switch is grey. The order will not be sent.  The wind angle was the same as the previous order and our "skip order tolerance" is 1°. The order is skipped.

11:58
- the lock is closed, we are in wind mode
- the wind angle is 140°. It is green, we are close to the best descending into the wind angle known as the best VMG down angle.
- the 2 arrows are green, we receive the wind from the right. We are now sailing on the starboard side. We have gybed.
- the switch is red or selected. The order will be sent.

It depends on what type of regatta you race and where you are in the race.
There is one universal principal though : the target should be as much as possible "visible" from the boat position with as little land as possible between them.
This means that you should not put a target just behind an island,behind a cape, at the far end of a bay...

Now some advice for the Route du Rhum.
Remember that most often the winning routes are in the south of the shortest one. To give you a better idea, here is an extract from the Nov 2022 Voiles et Voiliers magazine that shows the wining routes for each edition.

- At the start of the Route du Rhum, try different targets 5 to 6 days ahead in the middle of the Atlantic and 10 to 15days ahead. Then, it is your choice, as the boat captain, to decide where you want to sail.

A pivot point is a point where the boat is forced to sail through.
They can be used in 2 different ways.

1. To do what if scenarios. What would be the routing if I force to sail through this point? Do I loose much time? Is it safer?
   For example, say it takes 5 days to sail towards our target. If the outing calculation finds a fastest route going through a couple of low wind areas and with a pivot point a route 5 minutes longer but with no "danger zones", I would rather sail the second route found with a pivot point.
2. To continue the routing after a waypoint in VR

Start by selecting a routing in the routing pane. The blue isochron lines should be displayed.

1. On a "touch" device like a phone or tablet. When the screen center is on an isochron point, you will see a yellow route from the boat to the center of the screen.
   The picked pivot point will be this point at the center of the screen.
   Press the + button, choose your target and press the routing button.
2. On a device with a mouse like a PC or a Mac. 
   When the mouse is on an isochron point, you will see a yellow route from the boat towards the mouse.
   The picked pivot point will be this point at your mouse indicator.
   Right click on your mouse, choose your target and press the routing button.

Yes, it's very useful for anticipating their route and controlling them.

On a "touch" device such as a phone or tablet
- Select a competitor by short-pressing on the map or in the list of followed players in the fleet tab (the map automatically centers on the boat and its name appears).
- Long press on the boat, the Routing to target menu appears.
- Press the Routing button opposite the target you've chosen

On a device with a mouse, such as a PC or Mac
- Select a competitor by clicking on its boat on the map or in the Fleet tab. The boat's name should appear on the map.
- Point your mouse at the selected competitor's boat. Right-click, the Routing to target menu appears, press the Routing button opposite the chosen target.