Making the Best of the Storm

Yesterday we got a strong NE storm to battle with. It was almost straight head-on to the next Gate#3 Ko-Jima.


So a play of tacking at the best times to try to surprise but most of all to pass the other boats. 
Well, I did reasonably well , my ranking has improved fantastic from yesterday 209 to this morning 67 ! These ranking places depend also on which side of a tack you are and yesterday I was looking for a favorable location for the better winds; so you loose a little to win a lot. 


For a view on my route see the green line in the Map "Japan_Sprint Route", on right most TAB above . 


Not so long before I will pass the Ko-Jima gate and then it is almost straight to the Finish in Tokyo, be it that there are some islands on route. Also Tokyo is situated in a bay, so some tricky sailing is coming. AND ........this all will of course happen during my following night time, so I have to work out a sharp WP scheduler setting. 

The Start was in Time

The Start was with many boats and all in time . I choose to sail out into the Sea as I had seen stronger winds up there, while the wind direction was more or less same everywhere: head wind upto the Gate#1 at Uku-Shima.
Some boats took the route closer to the coast and gained initialy good places.

A sudden unexpected wind shift occurred at 1200 gmt, but it worked out good for me and by 1500 gmt, I had a placing amongst the first 40 boats.
The night I sailed on the WP scheduler and passed the gate#1 properly.

In the morning however, I see that I took a course to much easterly, which is shorter distance to the next gate#2, but due to a big wind system the winds were weak and I lost considerable places.
Now I try to pick up some speed by keeping more to the South Wets, but it might be too late to stay in touch with the leaders.

For a complete Ranking you may have a look at the LiveSkipper ranking pages  or have a look at the special trending sheets for the boats in the English Fleet on the link Ranking - Japan Sprint (also in the list on right side)

A FLAGSHIP competition is also on-going during the Japan Sprint Race. 

see Flagship competition A Flagship is a sailing boat where several members of a club in LiveSkipper are changing the helm and try to give a round-the-clock attendance on the helm in the hope to gain. 

Target for the next day is Gate#2 Yaku-Shima, which will be the most Southerly point on this route and afterwards it will go Norht East.

How to Sail this LiveSkipper Race

Once you have seen this race and You would like to try sailing in a modern fast IMOCA60 sailing-yacht against some to the world most experienced sailors then you can register for the race for free at this site. 
LiveSkipper - Japan Sprint Sailing Race


Just sign-in with your boats name if you have sailed before. 
If you are not registered in Liveskipper (LS) before then it will ask you to register after clicking above link or you may visit the LiveSkipper site, link on right side in Interested links. 


For new LS skippers, there is still time to sail some practice rounds, just search in GAME menu and sub-menu Race&Challenges and push the button to join.


Note: best is to choose a challenge as it allows you to start anytime, even allows you to abort and start again, for a better weather-front or so. The Japan Sprint will not allow you to sail untill the Starting time has come, but some other earlier races will still allow you to start.