Switch the chart app to race mode and you’ll see the race bar appear at the bottom of the screen. Tap the bar and it will open the race panel on the right-hand side of the screen, and it’s here that we’ve grouped all the controls for setting the startline, quickly inputting your race route and controlling the race timer together so that with one touch you can get your race off to the best start:
Race routes
The race panel offers the chance to input the route using the waypoints already stored in your device and to add a rounding indicator. You can either search each one by name, sort alphabetically, or by proximity, and quickly add a rounding indicator to each one.
Once your course has been read out over the VHF, put on the side of the committee boat or sent via WhatsApp and you have put the course in, the sidebar will be populated with the waypoints and will show rounding information and basic leg info – leg bearing and leg length. Tap on each leg and that leg will be highlighted on the chart. But more importantly, the race bar will show you distance and estimated times, the True and Apparent wind angles for that leg, meaning you can make a quick and informed decision on spinnaker hoists and sail selection.
If you have a startline set (see next section) then Leg 1 will be from the start to the first mark, showing you any bias to the leg, which may influence whether you need an early tack after the start.
Startline
Tap the startline tab to open the startline controls – this allows you to ping each end, or set it at a waypoint or on the chart.
Race Timer
The Race Timer tab then allows you to set, reset and sync the race timer across your instrument network. It also allows you to set a GPS start time if this is specified in the Sailing Instructions, which will ensure you are on the ball when it comes to start time.
Back to the race bar
Back to the race bar. With the timer running and the startline set, the race bar shows the time to go, the distance behind line and the line bias.
When the timer reaches zero and the gun goes, the race bar will freeze your distance behind line at start time, colouring it Red if you were over the line and green if you were behind, for a useful snapshot of your startline position.
After 10 seconds, it will switch to showing you Time to Tack and Distance to Tack – as we all know there is nothing worse than hiking hard off the line to discover that the first beat was skewed and you are about to over-stand the windward mark on the first leg.
