OceanVirtuel
User Guide

Principle

OceanVirtuel organizes regattas and oceanic records on virtual sailboats in the real meteo. The characteristics of the virtual sailboats are nearly the same as the ones of real boats, therefore the duration of a regatta is approximately the same as a real one.

The boats are running continuously, 24h/24 and 7 days a week.

Registration

Click on "registration" and fill up the form. Some regatta need some registration fees for which a secure banking system is setup, in this case you pay the fees directly to the bank (Caisse d'Epargne) and OceanVirtuel has no information at all on your credit card number.

Boat maneuver

Before start

OceanVirtuel is display in french if your browser's language is french, otherwise in english. You can setup your prefered language in the preferences of your browser.

Connection

Give the name and password of your boat and then validate. If you forgot your password click on "Forgotten password".

The essential to race

The tunning panel

This is what you get when you are connected (see image)

The course

It gives the angle of your direction with the north, from 0° to 360°. You can change whenever you choose, the boat on the panel will rotate accordingly.

Les voiles

5 different sails can be used depending upon the wind speed :

+ Main sail and spi : for the downwind ,
+ Main sail and genoa : for low upwinds ,
+ Main sail 1 reef and jib 1 : for stronger upwinds,
+ Main sail 2 reef and jib 2 : for much stronger upwinds,
+ Main sail 3 reef and jib 3 : for very strong upwinds.

If the choosen sail is not adapted it appears on a red background.

To improve your sailing

The windpilot

It enables your boat to keep a constant angle with the wind. If the wind rotates your boat too. You can set it up from 0 to 180 if you wish to navigate starboard (wind coming from the right when looking from the rear to the front of the boat), or from 0 to -180 if you wish to navigate on port tack.

The Autopilot

You can plan maneuvers for the times you are not connected. For instance you can ask the boat to change a sail and take a special angle to the wind at a precise time when you are asleep.

The time used

Every date and hours are GMT.

The exclusions

Stranding

If you cross a yellow coast line you get ashore. You can then put your boat back to the sea at a position before the stranding.

Out of the water area

For each regatta you shall remain inside the red rectangle, getting out will exclude you but you will then be able to put back your boat at sea inside the water area.

Running time exceeded

Each regatta shall be completed in a limited time. If you exceeed it you will be definitely out of the race.

Committee exclusion

OceanVirtuel can exclude you at any time with no prior warning if you do not respect the rules or the forum rules. In the forum you shall not insult others neither have revisionist, sexual or discourteous talks.

Departure and arrivals

All the boats are starting from the same geographic spot. The arrival is judged between two buoys and the exact time of the regatta is calculated with a precision of 1 second at the exact place where the boat has crossed the line. The finish line can be crossed in any sens.

The way-points

During the regatta you might have to respect some way points stated in the race instructions. They are visualized as red squares on the map and putting your mouse over will give the information about it. The way points shall be passed in the right order. If you miss a way point your arrival will not be accounted.

Virtual sea fortunes

The virtual boats are computer objects therefore they might be subject to bugs, as real boats can suffer from damages. Despite our efforts to lower them it can happens. By registering to any regatta you accept this fact and to suffer from it. No refund from OceanVirtuel will be due in this case, each skipper takes the departure accepting these possible dysfunctions.
It can happens that OceanVirtuel would change the race rules during the regatta for technical purposes, each registering skipper shall accept this possibility.

The map visualisation

The winds

The winds are issued from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that delivers meteo forecasts each 24h.
OceanVirtuel recieves the new forecasts at 6h FR and interpolates the missing hours in order to get a hourly forecasts over the next 6 days.

It may happen that the NOAA has been optimistic, or pessimistic, about the meteo evolution. In this case the new winds might be severly different locally causing a brutal change for the boats at sea. To avoid this inconvenient OceanVirtuel calculates a smoothig meteo from 7h FR of the old meteo to 13h FR of the new meteo.

How the boats are moving

The boats are moving in real time. Each time you maneuver a new spot is registered in the trajectory file and the database. If no maneuver occurs a new spot is registered each 10 minutes when you are connected. If you are not connected the server calculate your new position at 0 minute of each hour in case there has been no maneuver during the last 10 minutes.

The classification relates these constraints so it is exact at only 10 minutes. However the finish time is the real one at the exact place where the boat has crossed the line.