I use to race sailboats on a recreational level and know a little about VMG. Its definitely a science, and serious racers are very into the science of it.socommk23 wrote:Ok. So as i understand it. Vmg is the best angle/speed to get to a turn point. Im assuming this generally in racing is only really important when a few turns are needed to make it upwind, otherwise direct to each turn will always be better (other than directly down wind where a series of chained together suiside turns at speed are best)
While on the move, how do we know what is the best angle/speed to use to get to that upwind turn point?
Is there a real science to it?
More importantly could a device be made to how you should be traveling?
but I guess that the average 10+ is thanks to a high downwind VMGKitefoil racing being the fastest sailing class after the ACs is very different than a classic dinghy racing. A kitefoil racer can go around a 1.2 miles windward-leeward course twice in less than 10 minutes, thanks to an average VMG of 20+ knots.
Look like a nice tool but unfortunately, I couldn't use this when the wind was very changing (I'm not sure how it calculates the wind direction but see my polar diagram from this session: http://regepe.com/showmap/f7013744d7f37) I don't think that my VMG was ~19 knots. Or is this the downwind part? How can I see only the upwind part then?
evan wrote: ↑Mon Apr 19, 2021 6:20 amFrom what I can see is that the wind is shifting around 20deg between different Upwind runs. This makes a polar based on the average wind direction utterly useless, especially if it only shows the maximum values like on this website.
You want to look at average vmg on a stable wind or you need to pick sections and adjust the wind direction / Upwind angle yourself to calculate the vmg.
Current racers are doing roughly 15-17kn vmg Upwind and 25-30kn vmg Downwind
Thanks for the idea, all clear. I'll do some experiments.evan wrote: ↑Mon Apr 19, 2021 6:20 amFrom what I can see is that the wind is shifting around 20deg between different Upwind runs. This makes a polar based on the average wind direction utterly useless, especially if it only shows the maximum values like on this website.
You want to look at average vmg on a stable wind or you need to pick sections and adjust the wind direction / Upwind angle yourself to calculate the vmg.
How do you know this? What is your source? Can you share some .gpx files of current racers?
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