The app remembers boats from previous races (in the "Boat Park") so you can quickly include them in today's race without re-entering the details.Įach box has a finish button so, as boats cross the finish, you can record the exact time with one click (or press, if you have a touch screen). Within each race you can have multiple starts for different fleets and as the race progresses you record lap times for the boats, which means you can easily see who is leading each fleet and check the fastest/slowest time if you need to shorten course. It is not good for phones simply because the screen size is not big enough to be useful (unless you have a very large phone).īoat Timer's main screen is a grid of squares that represent the boats in the race.
#RACE TIMING APP FREE ANDROID#
Boat Timer runs on laptops (Apple Macbook, Windows, Chromebook, Linux etc) and on tablets (there is an Android app but no iPad one). So I wrote Boat Timer to address some of these problems. That is clearly an eight, I have no idea why you thought it was a three. It would be nice to have a list of "the usual" boats from previous club races to avoid all that writing. In any case, the race officer has to get the class and sail number for the boats in the race written down somehow, which can take time. You probably have a sheet to sign on to a race, though some clubs have done away with that.
It would be great to see the lap times and finish times as the race team records them, but if you use a paper-based system that is not going to happen. A fleet of boats with GPS trackers makes it possible, but for club races and open meetings it is difficult to organise and difficult to justify the cost. But if you go to a junior open meeting you will know the parents are desperate to know how their child is doing. Is sailing a spectator sport? Well not usually. What we all want is the results on the club notice board as soon as we have finished changing (if not sooner). But especially for handicap races, results recorded on paper can take hours or days to be published. Knowing that makes your post-race cup of tea with your fellow sailors much more interesting. When I finish a race I want to know where I came. Some clubs have video recording in case results are missed, but it takes time to review more than a couple of finishes so it is not as useful as it sounds. I know some club races that have been abandoned and many results have been estimated because of this issue alone. This can turn into a nightmare with multiple starts/fleets on the course at one time and the pressure of trying to write down finish times and sail numbers when several boats get to the finish line close to each other. The main disadvantage of a paper system is timing finishes. So why not carry on? My own experiences - and what led me to write Boat Timer - was that the simplicity of paper is out-weighed by a number of disadvantages. Many clubs record race entries, lap times and finish times on paper.
#RACE TIMING APP FREE PROFESSIONAL#
I have been a dinghy sailor most of my life and as a professional app developer this is my way to try to give something back to the sport.
#RACE TIMING APP FREE FREE#
The Boat Timer app is free and there is no need to register to use it. My own app Boat Timer has a different focus and concentrates on making tracking and timing of club races easier and therefore reducing the number of people required to run races. Most sailors are familiar with Sailwave for managing results, SailRacer to manage event entries, results and providing GPS tracking services and HAL for results and race management. So some clubs have started to think about ways to automate part of the process of managing a race and the race results. This makes the management of results a rather thankless task at times. Sailors want to know the results of a race as soon as it is over, rather than wait for results to appear on the club website hours or days later. The expectations of instant information on our mobile devices puts pressure on volunteers who collate and publish racing results. This seems to be due to the time pressures of modern life as well as less regular participation in sailing and competition with other sports and interests. There is a problem with providing safety cover as proximity to those needing assistance is inevitable, but the race team is also an issue as it requires a team of volunteers working closely together.Įven before the crisis, most clubs faced a decline in the number of people available for race teams.
As sailing clubs in the UK are opening some of their facilities after the CoronaVirus pandemic crisis, they have also considered a limited return to racing.
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