Layline Sailing Course

This app is used to set windward / leeward sailing courses.

The courses may be set relative to the Start Line Pin buoy (touch the Pin mark icon when at the desired Pin location), or relative to a selected existing Windward Mark (selected from a drop down list).

New Windward Marks can be added or deleted - Southern latitude or Western longitude coordinates are entered as -ve numbers.

The app has 3 main screen pages which are accessed by swiping left/right between them:

1. Reference Settings page

2. Main Course setup page

3. Countdown Timer page

The course axis Distance can be entered in nautical mile or m, and Bearing can be entered in true or magnetic degrees. The 'Toggle Units' button can be used to convert the entered units to the other option. This is particularly useful for the Bearing where this may be entered in true degrees when obtained from Now-casting or Predict Wind but where you want to present this in magnetic degrees for the start boat display.

When the course and mark options have been selected / entered, touch the Generate Course icon to plot the course on Google Maps display. The 'Copy Course links to Clipboard' icon on the Map display can be used to Copy the course data which can be sent to race support boats by Pasting into a Group message on WhatsApp, email or similar. The support boats can click on the links to display the selected mark in Google Maps on their device (iPhone or Android) and navigate to these to drop the mark.

Although your device will update its system time periodically when connected to the internet, the Countdown Timer incorporates a GPS timestamp correction to very accurately synchronise the time. This synchronised local time is displayed on the Countdown page to assist start timing. The -/+ icons can be used to subtract / add 1 minute to the timer.

The Timer resets to the last starting time used. The Timer automatically cycles back to the start time when reaching zero (to handle multiple starts).