Just noticed Grumps posted an Alpha PB, congrats!!

I got my Alpha PB yesterday, was very happy been trying to break 20 knots for over 2 months.

I find the Alpha category one of the most interesting and challenging of the lot. There is a science to it, anybody worked it out yet, or similarly interested?

Sailquik or TimeMachine for technical response??

i think the explanation Mal gives on his web site is pretty much it..
in a nut shell its an indication of ones speed tight reaching across the wind with a gybe thrown in the middle of the run.
a great gybe(planning) will (usually) result in a higher average.
a high apha speed should not be mistaken for just a great gybe as it is possible to pull high speed gybes at the end of very broad speed runs and not record a alpha speed at all, because you have to pinch your way back up wind-this being a slower point of sail . because of the way Mal has designed the program you must sail back to the starting point of your alpha 'run' to with in 50 meters this part of the program esentially restricts your best runs to being square with the wind as you want to be equally fast on both tacks.
hope this helps more importantly i hope its correct

Personally (and by the way my PB was simply by accident) I think the best way to really complete in an alpha racing sense would be to set up a course consisting of two bouys, which you figure 8 around that way you have to cross over in the middle forcing a so called Alpha.

Could be fun.

I may be wrong but back in May 12 when Seq team got together; Justin explained to me a alpha is a 500m run,gybe, back to the 500 mark. So I worked on that assumption and got over 21knts. If you go a bit longer it may be the bit you need to get a higher speed. The GPS site calls it alpha 500 which could mean 250 each way or 500 each way.

The Alpha distances of 250, 500m and 1000m are the total distance including both legs and the turn. So for an Alpha 500 you would set the marker buoys about 220m apart.

Looking at some of the best Alpha tracks on my site, I suspect a good alpha needs to have a fully planing jybe. One of Andrew Daffs runs managed a minimum speed of nearly 20 knots which is absolutely flying. It looks like the best runs are from a very fast entry into a run turning upwind to wash off the speed then gybe out with a square run back to where you started.

Its about your average speed, not how 'tight' the gybe is. As long as you get back to your original position (or near it) within the prescribed distance, then it might pay to lose a little ground if it means a faster gybe.

Another trick you should explore is to try to judge what the 50m proximity looks like and stay just inside 50m downwind from your incoming track. This will give you a higher average because you dont have to hold your ground so much.

I am also keen to see what guys can do on the waves. I reckon the best Alpha 250s will be on wave gear in strong winds and using the wave as a rebound wall.

oops Mal was too quick as always.

Very interesting Mal,
I was saying to hardy just the other day, flying at a wave from downwind, gybing on it and using the wave to get you back upwind, should get the best alpha.
I was also thinking that a fairly broad reach before a short more upwind stretch just before the gybe, then a square run back to the 50m divergence at the 500m traveled mark would be the fastest on flat water.
It's how to judge the 50m divergence that I find hard, several of my runs cross because I,m not sure where I've come from and don't want to be too wide.

20kn minimum speed is flying, but does that mean a wider gybe?
Could a slower but tighter gybe allow you to go a bit more downwind?

Remember Robby Naish once won a race by doing a slam gybe, getting in front of a guy who did a long wide gybe.

certainly sounds fast! Think you should be very happy!!!

so you don't think going upwind a bit more just before the gybe, say dropping min speed to about 15 or so but a much tighter gybe, and come out more downwind, so you can accelerate faster, would be faster.

Guess I keep thinking 2 people racing, that could be a winning strategy then, bet alpha is average speed, not first to the post, so the fastest min speed is probably the way to go.

That's why it's fun thinking about it, to work out different strategies, to try out.

quote:

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Originally posted by grumplestiltskin

OK, so we are debating how best to perform the 500 metres with the highest overall average ... thats great BUT, its called Alpha Racing, how do you actually race using this concept???

Do you all stand in the shallows, race out to a buoy one at a time, gybe and zip back to the starting point, check your time and then send the next bloke out, check his time etc.
Theres got to be a way of competing at this, on the spot, rather than just posting times onto the speed site .... or is this just the latent competitive side coming out in me???

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Grumps Alpha Racing is the computer generated form of racing, apparently Mal's realspeed can similate a computer generated race with peoples data. The only way to achieve what your talking about is traditional sailor against sailor slalom racing, there's no reason why we can't do that for fun together, or enter a WWA event.

can anyone tell me how to work out or read the alpha run in Realspeed? I got no idea...

thanks Mal, it worked perfectly!

sensational effort from scot with his alpha.

well done.

Scott ,post your Alpha track to Mal at Realspeed and he,ll put it on the ladder.Well done that speed puts you 4th.

Wow that's really setting the benchmark, I'll have to go and try my gybe on a wave theory, and see what happens.

Hmmmm... It's entirely possible Decrepit, easy as pie to do.

The problem is that the competition is slowly migrating away from Hardie's ideal of a completely team-based competition, towards a more individual-based approach.

Talking to some people at the windwanderers there is a variety of opinions on where they see the website headed, some are after a more individual focus, some are completely happy with the team-based idea.

Reading between the lines some people are treating this as an Australian-based version of GPS-SS, which is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your viewpoint. I've tried to talk to the GPS-SS people about having data from our site automatically appearing on their site, but they haven't gotten back to me .

The way I see it, if the demand is there then the niche should be filled. I consider the GPS-SS site to be more world-based than our site, and quite enjoy the way that some friendly rivalry is developing between the various states (and teams!) in our Aussie challenge. I love the way that we're all in contact with each other as well, through Laurie's excellent Seabreeze forum.

Your idea of linking to the best score for each category is a good one, but I'd like a bit more input from other people before I go ahead and implement it.