yep.... when the tracker is working on the main website, you can search by boat name, but its off line at present....
Quite agree.... good fun..... but frighteningly addictive!..... been at the office all day, and can't install app on my work machine, so been worrying all day about where I was laying and wondering how i'd sort out a tack if it became neccessary.... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
no, I mean TWA.... if you look at the polar diagram, it'll show you the combination of boat speed, and VMG..... fast is good, but not if its in the wrong direction!
You ideally want to maximise VMG.... if you open the polar diagram, and then click on the course adjusting icon at the top, you can see the effect on VMG as you move the mouse around...
In these fresher winds you want to be sailing between 39 and 42 degrees TWA (or obviously -39 to -42 if you are on the other tack)
another factor to consider is that a course of a few degrees either way may give you the same VMG, but different boat speeds..... useful if you want to get across to more wind quicker, or stay around in wind where you already are longer, but not at the expense of sailing a poor direction wrt VMG
I don't think the % performance is much of an indicator Brendan - you need to look at your VMG .... but only when your course is either direct upwind or downwind .. if it is a reachy course then you have to make your own calcs....
I think my software is broken. Doesn't matter what direction I choose with the direction icon (do you mean the one that lets you put a red line on the chart?) pretty much nothing happens on the perfomance plot to TWA and boat speed. Though the little circle on the plot shows the direction change.
How do the real Volvo navigators calculate these things? Surely sometimes, going for a more direct route, and not tacking all over the place, and taking the hit on speed would actually be better. Do they use software? Gut instinct, both?