| HZ | Do you sail in real life and if so please tell us a bit about it. |
| AG | No, I always wanted to but I've been on call for one reason or another since about umm..1998 so I never really had time. |
| HZ | Have you ever sailing a RL boat even for an hour or so? |
| AG | Only the ferries in Sydney and then as a passenger. |
| HZ | lol, not quite the same then. Has sailing in SL given you the desire to try sailing in RL? |
| AG | Yes, definately. Actually I've been looking at whats available around now that I don't have to worry about being away from a computer for a long time. |
| HZ | Your profile photo looks like you are sailing a Tetra 35. Is that right? Do you sail or race any other boats in Second Life? |
| AG | Well, I'm a bit of a boat junkie. I actually have been in tako and big boat races. I've run the passages course on my own several times and had a ball in a beach cat but most of the uncommon boats don't really have convienient sailing times for me. I can get to a big boat race if I have a Monday off. |
| HZ | Excellent, so a bit of everything. But you find it difficult to race them at suitable times then? |
| AG | Yeah, I'm tempted next holidays I take to move myself onto US time for a few days just to see what it's like. |
| HZ | Self imposed jet lag kind of a thing then? |
| AG | Yeah |
| HZ | I can imagine that being the only antipodean skipper in the Big Cat Cup has it's challenges. Tell us about your Friday morning schedule. |
| AG | Well last week it was up at 5:00, have a cup of tea, hower and basically wake up, then make the Cup race by 6AM, then hang around a bit after that and head off to work about 8:00. We've just gone off daylight savings so this week it all becomes an hour earlier. |
| HZ | So when the American clocks change then the Aussie clocks change that means that you have to get up to race 2 hours earlier than you would need to in our winter? |
| AG | yep |
| HZ | There's commitment for you! |
| AG | They usually change within a week or two of each other. Impatience... If I had any brains I'd wait until your next winter series, but I like the big cat cup and wanted to participate |
| HZ | I understand. In the meantime I am sure you would like someone to run Asia/Pacific Big Cat Race times? |
| AG | That would be nice, but I can just picture myself racing in a feild of...1. Ther'd probably be a better turnout if there was a US freindly cup time. |
| HZ | Yes, the long term plan is to have 3 slots on a Thursday with all times being pooled. |
| AG | ahh nice |
| HZ | How did you find out about the Big Cat Cup? |
| AG | Actually I can't remember... when I was new to slsailing I went though all the links, one of which was your website and I remember the TYC (at the time) sent a notice when the winter series was running. |
| HZ | It seems that the veteran skippers in the Cup are helpful at teaching new skippers the ropes. Has this been your experience? |
| AG | Yes, I've had great conversations with Bea and Skipper and been talking to Johnnie a lot. |
| HZ | From what I can see this series has been the best for skippers helping one another. |
| AG | All I can say is it's been a good experience, we've all run into each other practicing and all been happy to talk about how were doing. |
| HZ | Have they given you any tips that have helped you? |
| AG | Nothing specific... just talking times and course thoughts has helped a lot. Bea actually picked up I was sailing the wrong mark at one point and skippers been very helpful in general. |
| HZ | Great. On that subject have you tried the new BCC6 course? Bea is sailing both the laps in under 7:30 in practices. What kind of times have you been logging? |
| AG | Alone.... my best has been 6:48. I've been trying different things so I've been getting around 7:30 ish on average. |
| HZ | That is exciting, we should see a good battle when you all try it together for the first time on Thursday (or Friday if you live life upside down). |
| AG | Lol. I actually think it'll be interesting going though that gap with a few boats. |
| HZ | Yes, the BCC6 map was designed to give more options to skippers and to be easier for spectators to watch. |
| HZ | In your first two weeks of racing you have been coming consitently second place in the races which is an excellent achievement. Are you content with this or are you itching to win your first race? |
| AG | I'm actually surprised I'm coming 2nd... I was expecting 4th or worse. Winning would be nice but I'm quite happy with how I've done so far. |
| HZ | It is a great achievement to be putting in such good times. I am sure that it is more than just waking up before your ISP gets laggy. |
| AG | Yeah... it could be no-one else here is awake so I don't have lag at this end. |
| HZ | ahh, so modest! I think it is more than that :o) |
| HZ | What do you like the most about sailing big cats? |
| AG | That their different..which sounds odd. |
| HZ | In what way? |
| AG | Lol... sorry hard to explain... every boat is different of course... the big cats because they move wider, have different information, have a spinnaker that works a little oddly..all make it unique. I have fun with them. |
| HZ | Great, that is the most important thing. |
| HZ | What feature would you would like to see added to the Zinnemann 40 the most? |
| AG | Hard to pick, I mentioned a luff indicator in the forum about sail angles..I'd at least like to see if something like that would work. A spinnaker recentre button? |
| HZ | Great, we can do both of those for you. At the moment the thinking is that the best way to do the luff indicator is to darken the sails slightly if the boat is pinching. |
| AG | Could work.. oh that reminds me of another thing I really enjoy about the big Cat... the modification system for textures and the web integration. |
| HZ | Great, I am glad you like the way that works. We have just added more sailing log information to the profiles so people can view the skippers who have sailed the furthest. |
| AG | oh hadn't noticed that...thats a great idea. |
| HZ | You sailed 956km in March which is pretty hot! |
| AG | all those practice laps...when we were leading up to the cup I tried all the BCC courses at least 2-3 times |
| AG | Apart from that, I'm still not sure it's reading racewind right. |
| HZ | We can also make sure that race wind is working correctly. What trouble have you had with it? |
| AG | Thanks...its just an impression so I might be right off. |
| HZ | What tips would you give to new skippers who want to sail their cats faster? |
| AG | Take the boat out on some open water and play with the sails and see what happens. Play with the spinnaker...it seems to work a little differently than it looks. |
| HZ | Is there anything else that you think will be of interest to others? |
| AG | Not really...I'm pretty boring :) |
| HZ | and modest! |
| AG | thanks |
| HZ | Thanks for that interview, it was really interesting. |
