T/class sailboat

I propose that we develop a one-design racing sailboat derived from the Flying Tako series.

Last night I had the opportunity to test the new chat spinnaker controls for the Flying Tako 3.2 and they make sailhandling a markedly hands-off affair, certainly much more user-friendly with a proper set of gestures. To lose the 'twitchiness' associated with proper trim is a refreshing exercise, one which distills SL sailing to its tactical essentials, and I believe there's definitely a place for it in the sailing community. It's far less frustrating to the inexperienced sailor, to boot, and anything which draws more people into the sport is welcomed.

That said, this brings to light an issue I've raised before, one over which, in a lengthy series of discussions last night, several SL skippers expressed distress. It takes the practiced finesse and thus a large part of the fun and excitement out of SL boathandling.

Presently it's a trivial affair to slave spinnaker trim alongside mainsheet trim gestures. A token bit of HUD coding can in fact yield a point-and-go autotrim system, including centerboard pulls and spinnaker deployment, to ensure that the Tako 3.2 is always sailing at its maximum speed for any given wind direction. Coupled with the recent advent of HUD start watches, SL sailing is reduced to a mostly cerebral exercise, a moving chess match devoid of the thrill of handling one's boat just-so.

Custom textures (which have been recently determined to exacerbate the frequent crashes many of us experience lately, a horrible SL bug amongst players with less video memory at their disposal), custom hulls (different sizes and shapes yield different maneuverability options in crowded fleets or amongst tight obstructions, and different masses yield differing reactions following a collision), custom gestures, all of these various issues which supercede boathandling skills as one's strict performance determinant are analgous to situations raised in RL sailing which were the advent of one-design racing classes. I believe there's room in SL's sailing community for a similar response.

I propose that we develop a one-design specification, T/class (hull length to be determined), for uniform solo racing, and then either commission or derive ourselves a no-mod no-transfer execution thereof. I suggest the following features to commence discussion:

- Coarse-grained trim and rudder controls via arrows and pgup/pgdn (or WASDEC) only, at regular, predicatable increments of 5 or 10 degrees.
- Fine-grained trim and rudder controls through chat gestures only if they cannot be programmed any other way, strictly limited to 1 degree increments.
- All control push-pull analogous to actual boat control surfaces, similar to our current mainsheet and spinnaker guy arrangement. This would mean reversing the tiller controls.
- Chat commands raising/lowering spinnaker and centerboard, and for 'standard' hails.
- No-mod textures, chat-controlled custom tint and boat number only.
- New hull design to distinguish T/class boats, new sails, mast, etcet, to match, all no-mod. Mainsail, spinnaker, rudder and centerboard status should be obvious and easily gauged visually under racing conditions.
- Minimal two-digit sail-number flag, to reduce propensity for invisible-prim collisions.
- Minimal standard HUD only, displaying only wind, sheet, and spinnaker angles. Possibly in lieu of this a visual indicator of luffing on the sail itself, similar to how the current spinnaker goes dark when collapsed?
? Possibly slightly tweaked scripts, to make for a higher performance potential which is much more challenging to master consistently, to level the playing field a bit against tweakable/automatable standard takos?
? Possibly a fixed keel design, rather than a dinghy, to reflect a high-performance racing boat?
? Possibly replace the classic spinnaker with an asymmetric design? Moving a bit toward gennaker territory could nicely bridge the gap between this solo racing boat and the crewed sloop's jib/genoa sail design.

What do you folks think?

Okay, first of all, I think Myrrh's post is really long and my eyes started to glaze over it. Luckily, we had this conversation in-world, so I know the gist of it.

For those not privy to all my in-world conversations, while I understand the request for spinnaker chat commands, I'm not a fan of the change. I am also an advocate of the spinnaker controls not being flipped (using pgdown to increase spin angle, I mean).

This is because I like how similar the Flying Tako can be to real life sailing. The spinnaker controls are difficult to control because spinnakers in real life are difficult. Using pgdown pulls out the spinnaker, increasing its angle like it would in real life. (I think of it like how you pull down to fly up in an airplane.)

So I guess what I'm saying is I totally agree with Myrrh here, that I would love a custom sailboat designed for racing as similar to real world sailing as we can get. Pretty much all of what he proposed I would like to see implimented, though I don't know how difficult it would be to script such a craft.

In keeping with the spirit of the Flying Tako, the T/class will be a high-performance centerboard boat. I propose a modern scow modelled after the Melges 17, scaled down to a single-handed boat.

- One-Design no-mod boat and textures. Chat-controlled custom tint and minimal two-digit sail number only.
- New sailing physics model, including mainsail, jib, and asymmetrical spinnaker, apparent wind, and high-speed planing. Hiking will only be pseudo-accounted in heel calculations, skipper position automated accordingly.
- Coarse-grained rudder and trim controls via arrows/pgup/pgdn and WASDEC only, in five and ten-degree increments, respectively. Fine-grained rudder and trim controls through chat gestures strictly limited to one-degree increments. Rudder controls will require extensive usability testing of any deviation from the Tako model.
- All controls push-pull analogous to actual boat control surfaces, similar to our current mainsheet and spinnaker guy arrangement. This would mean reversing the tiller controls.
- Chat commands for raising/lowering the jib, spinnaker, and bilgeboard, and for hails.
- No HUD. Wind direction will be ascertained strictly via tell-tale, with luffing clearly indicated on all sails similar to the Tako's spinnaker-tint feedback mechanism. Bilgeboard and rudder status will likewise be readily apparent at all times.

This will be a very fast boat, but it will be piloted strictly by feel, not numbers. Hopefully testing can find an appropriate balance between performance potential and challenge to allow fair participation in mixed-fleet races, as well.