Short introduction to sollog

The principal idea of sollog is really simple. It fetches every hour the positions and headings of the boats in a sailonline.org race from the server and stores them. Then it can show this information and also all kind of performance statistics which can be calculated using the fetched information.

Before this I have never got into writing any manual or documentation for it. If you are experienced in sailing and especially virtual sailing most of the features are pretty easy to figure out by yourself. But even if most things can be easy to understand, there can be features that you haven't discovery by youself so here is a short list of features in sollog.

1. Races list

The first page lists all the races sollog has stored information from. Select here the race which you are interested in and you will be taken to the race information page for that race. The newest races are on top.

In the bottom of the page you can also search for all races participated by a certain boat. Type the name of the boat and press "Find races" to see them.

2. Race information

The initial page for a race (like Leg 2 of SOL's Global Challenge 2012-2013) shows some real basic information about the race, like waypoints and start time.

After that there are search boxes for two boats. If you are interested in showing information about one single boat (like yours), you can type the name of the boat to the first search box and then press the button "Show statistics" for numeric display of the boat's hourly statistics in the race so far (i.e. "boat history") or "Show map" for displaying the course sailed by the boat in google maps.

3. Hourly race standings

Here we get to the actual race data. You can see here how the race standings look for any full hour of the race (like Leg 2 at 16.12.2012 11:00 UTC).

Description of the data available for each boat:

• Rank - ranking of the boat at that hour *
• DBL - Distance behind leader *
• DTF - Distance to finish *
• Distance - The distance between this boat's location has moved during last hour
• Course - The course from boat's last location to this hour's location
• 24h - The distance boat has traveled during last 24 hours
• Speed - The speed of the boat at the moment
• Heading - The heading boat was pointing to at the moment of this hour *
• TWA - True wind angle of the boat at the moment of this hour
• TWD - Wind direction at the position where the boat was at this hour
• TWS - Wind speed at the position where the boat was at this hour
• Waypoint Name - The next waypoint this boat is aiming to in the race
• Waypoint Bearing - Heading to the next waypoint (great circle)
• Waypoint Distance - Distance to the next waypoint (great circle)
• Lat - Latitude of the boat location *
• Lon - Longitude of the boat location *

The ↑↓ columns means difference in that data during the latest hour. In rank and DBL positive number means that you have gained, negative number is loss.

The columns marked with * are values which are taken directly from the server, others are calculated if the information is available. Especially the boat speed and wind values are not exact but should give a pretty good indication of the real values.

Map view

You can also view the hourly boat positions in google maps (like Leg 2 at 16.12.2012 11:00 UTC).

Boat lists

As the ranking page lists all boats participating in the race finding the ones you are interested in is quite difficult. You can create a list of boats which you only want to be shown like your friends or boats you are in close racing. 

Boat lists must be created for each race separately (like here for leg 2) and they show only the listed boats (like here latest positions of sol Admins boats).

4. Boat history

This is same information as in the hourly race standings but instead of displaying all boats at a certain time, the numbers are all hourly data for one boat (like here for for my boat in leg 2).

The boat history can be accessed either from the Race page using "Show statistics" or by following a link from the hourly standings.

Map view

Here you can view the approximate course your boat has sailed in this race in google maps using the hourly positions (here is my track from leg 2). The detailed track is the track available from sol server.

5. Compare two boats

Here you can compare two boats hourly data to each other (like here me and ITA_4_Aaron). You can get to the comparison either by entering the boats names in Race page using "Compare stats" or from Boat history when you enter another boats name and press "Compare".

The numbers here are Rank, DBL, Distance, Course, TWS and TWD from both boats histories displayed in the order the boats are listed in the page header. The ↑↓ fields are calculated differences in each field.

Additional values are Boat positions Distance and Bearing which are simply the distance of the boats at that hour and the (great circle) direction from the first boat to the other one.

Map view

Here you can compare the two boats courses on google maps (like here for me and ITA_4_Aaron).