On 2 January 2021, exactly two years in advance of the next Cape to Rio Race, the Royal Cape Yacht Club will stage a virtual race between these two iconic cities.
Online navigation is a great way to hone your skills, to understand the science of weather routing and the interpretation of data now so readily available due to the advent of cloud computing. This very same data is also available in real time to help with any passage planning that you may be doing, making sailing a lot more predictable, within reason of course, from those heady days of 1971 when the first Cape Rio Race took place.
With the help of a regular Sailonline.org “SOLer” as they are known, we share some insights on how the platform works. This should take your enjoyment of virtual racing to another level.
Registration for the Virtual Cape2Rio Race 2021 will commence approximately six days before the start and updates will be available on our Facebook site. Registration is easy and can be done through the link on our web page www.cape2riorace.com
Numerous races are held on this platform throughout the year in a multitude of locations across the globe, so consider joining this one to Rio while having fun competing virtually against family and friends. The racing boats are all state-of-the art Mark Mills designed 74-footers called the C2R74, and are optimised for the expected race conditions between Cape Town and Rio.
The provided polar is extremely accurate and the boat has been well received in the two races sailed to date. Here is the link to the time lapse video of the recent Cape Town to Port Elizabeth race: https://youtu.be/e3dcDg2hePw
By building interest early in our 2023 Cape2Rio race, it is hoped to enhance the global participation in the actual race itself.
For Tips on using Sailonline, go to the South African Solers Forum via this link: https://rcyc.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=373cbe80775b46627542a0a50&id=71d96c8730&e=44f7268736