VR zones and ice limits

The essentials

Some Virtual Regatta (VR) races forbid certain areas: protection zones, traffic separation schemes, ice exclusion zones. eSail4VR reads them in the data VR sends for the race, draws them on the map and goes around them in the routing calculation.

• VR zones are drawn in red: their outline is a closed line.
• Ice limits (the Arctic and Antarctic exclusion zones, AEZ) are drawn in very light blue, to the north and to the south. The routing treats this limit like land: it never crosses it.
• Your zones (the “Zones” tab) are drawn in orange.

These lines follow the race on screen. If the race has no zone and no ice limit, there is nothing to see.

Going further

Which zones, exactly? The names and kinds of zones are those of the race: eSail4VR receives polygons (with an optional name) and handles them all the same way. In the races where they exist, VR speaks of traffic separation schemes (TSS), cetacean protection zones and biodiversity protection zones, and of Arctic or Antarctic exclusion zones (AEZ).

Ice limits also come from the race data. They can change from one leg to the next, or during a race if the real race committee changes them: the app draws and avoids what VR sends each time the state of the boat is loaded. Unlike zones, the ice limit is always respected by the routing: the “Avoid VR and own zones” setting does not apply to it.

The target reticle changes colour when you move the map under it. The colour tells what is under the centre of the screen:

A target placed on land, too close to land (with the safety pixel on) or in an avoided zone is refused when the routing starts, with a message that says what to move. See avoiding zones.

VR zones cannot be edited. You can neither hide nor redraw them. The only way to ignore them in the calculation is to untick “Avoid VR and own zones” in Expert mode, which also ignores your own zones.