I am new to all this and you have done a very good job of explaining things. The one question I have is with regard to the polars. How do you use the dotted lines that radiate from the centre?
Good question JAMMIN! There is a long list yet of things to cover in future entries, and those lines are a big one for sure… they trace the points of maximum VMC for a given target angle relative to the wind. You can probably see that the heavy lines up and down are showing the VMG tacking and gybing angles (0 and 180deg targets)? The other “spokes” are the angles in between, so heavy lines are 0-90-180, solid lines are 30deg apart, and dashed are 10. These give you an alternative way of finding VMCmax directly from the polar.
76T… this is GREAT stuff. I am grateful for the terrific explanations and would like to know if more polars are on the way. As you can tell from rankings, I could desperately use IMOCA60!! Alternatively, is there an easy way to turn Brainaid’s polar into the “butterfly” of your polars. I have tried printing and taping them together but it is not as elegant.
Car shopping is stressful. Now that there are hundreds of makes and models to choose from, not to mention promotions
and payment options, it’s easy to become frustrated and stressed out. The information here will help make buying a car as easy and stress-free as possible.
(VO70 with speeds in even 2 kt inc.)
76trombones
SO76TP "Routing for Non-Routers" 
Hi there,
I am new to all this and you have done a very good job of explaining things. The one question I have is with regard to the polars. How do you use the dotted lines that radiate from the centre?
Good question JAMMIN! There is a long list yet of things to cover in future entries, and those lines are a big one for sure… they trace the points of maximum VMC for a given target angle relative to the wind. You can probably see that the heavy lines up and down are showing the VMG tacking and gybing angles (0 and 180deg targets)? The other “spokes” are the angles in between, so heavy lines are 0-90-180, solid lines are 30deg apart, and dashed are 10. These give you an alternative way of finding VMCmax directly from the polar.
76T… this is GREAT stuff. I am grateful for the terrific explanations and would like to know if more polars are on the way. As you can tell from rankings, I could desperately use IMOCA60!! Alternatively, is there an easy way to turn Brainaid’s polar into the “butterfly” of your polars. I have tried printing and taping them together but it is not as elegant.
Thanks again for this great peice of work!
SP
Car shopping is stressful. Now that there are hundreds of makes and models to choose from, not to mention promotions
and payment options, it’s easy to become frustrated and stressed out. The information here will help make buying a car as easy and stress-free as possible.