Hi everyone,
Im glad that this sub-forum is here because I did want to share some good hints and tips for ACCEES here. Endurance Racing at least in my mind requires a whole different approach to that in which most players of VSK may be used to. Most VSK hosts, host games of between 10-20 minute races, these are what I like to call "Sprints" these courses are often only between 3-6 NMI events and players mostly play this type when logging onto online servers.
They are often NPC and are hard and fast races and most players drop out early if their pen hunts dont come off as well as they had hoped or if they feel as thought the race is not going well and these players will often drop out and quickly join another server and hope to have a better race than last time. This is fine and a vast majority of players seem to play this way and enjoy the experience of hard and fast racing.
Endurance Events such as ACCEES (ACC Endurance Events Series) requires a different approach and this seems hard for alot of guys to come to terms with, so here are a few pointers that may help you to better come to terms with this type of racing.
1. Firstly, understand that it "IS" an endurance event, so there is no need to try and win the race by the first mark, penning guys and being overly aggressive will "NOT" serve you well in an endurance event. Try to relax into a rythm, have a good awareness of what is going on, where other players are, win the race by using your knowledge of the tracks and playing the shifts, use your skills and leave your aggression at port.
2. Be patient, with yourself, with others, learn the courses, "race your own race".
3. Race the clock - this is the primary aim to ACCEES events, it does not matter who wins each race, your race position is meaningless "only your time counts" in the end. Yes we all celebrate the podium getters but consider this, if the fastest time for a course is 1:03:45.02 for example, what difference does it matter if you finished first with a 1:04:55.82? There may be 5 guys with faster times than you, what difference did it make being forceful with others and penning everyone you passed to achieve this single races victory? Ill tell you......ABSOLUTELY NONE. Only the top 10 "Best Player Times" receive "Championship Points" so "Race the Clock - Not the Other Players".
4. Probably the most important tip I can give everyone is at the backbone of ISAF Rule 14 "avoid contact". This is paramount to achieveing fast times in my view. By simply avoiding contact you are never brought to a complete stop at any time during a race. So allowing room at the marks and throughout the race is of utmost importance, OR SHOULD BE to all competitors. Sometimes it is better to "Duck-Under" rather than to force "Starboard" and running into a player that may not have heard you hail or may not have seen you. Once again race your own race, you be the one with the brains. Stay on Starboard, be aware of who is around you. "DONT TOUCH", It is against the rules.
5. Rule 14 is a very important ISAF Rule, to understand it completely you must understand what is at the backbone of "all" ISAF Rules, namely to enforce "Safe" and "Fair" racing for all competitors. We here at the ARC have a good understanding of this rule and it is paramount that it is observed by all players. "Avoid Contact" understand that you have two responsibilities while racing, one to achieve the fastest possible times, and 2 that you are "NEVER" permitted to
slow other players during the course of a race. This in itself prohibits you to "Crowd", "Barge" or "Hunt" another competitor during the course of an ACCEES race meeting.
6. It is a long season, there are 10 rounds to the series and each round venue is raced for a period of 1 week. This should give every player the best opportunity to learn the courses and get the very best out of their boat. It is "NOT" necessary to race at all ACCEES events to gain points. Race when you can. Thats the other reason I host the races for this period so everyone gets the chance to race at each event. Dont throw your season away by being overly aggressive and breaking the rules, its not worth being disqualified from the competiton just to win 1 race. Its an Endurance Series in every sense of the word, its a long season full of long races.....pace yourself.
7. DONT QUIT - This is the one thing that I have been wanting to impress on all players, unless you are going to be in the way of other competitors, dont quit. Chances are that somebody has a slower time than you do, even if you have had to conduct a penalty spin and dont feel as if you are going all that well. Try and think about it in these terms:
"If the race leaders are on a hot pace, or record breaking pace, and you can see them, that means you are within perhaps 3 minutes of that time. That means that even though you may not have the pace to win that particular race, you may still be on a good time regardless. So stay in the race. Clock a time....you can always beat it later. You may surprise yourself as to where you sit on the leaderboard.
I hope they are a few helpful pointers to racing in the ACCEES Endurance Events Series.
Cheers guys...above all, try to have fun.
Dan