On Android, once you have created a GPS track, you can stop any further drawing in the Options panel. When you turn it off, you’ll get a message: Do you want to keep the GPS track displayed. If you answer “yes", the track will stay there.
You can open other apps and the track will still be there when you come back to the SailTimer app. You can take a screenshot to email that track or save it for posterity. Even if you reboot the tablet, that track will remain on the map the next time you open the SailTimer app.
To remove the track later, you should be able to go to Options, turn off Draw GPS Track, and select Clear Track. But that may have a bug, and may only clear a new track not previous. If you force-quit the app, that will remove a previous track.
If you change the screen size setting under Display back to “default”, you should see the full app including all of the controls.
The Navionics vector charts have no seams, quick download, small file sizes and fast display. Just zoom in to download the area you want to view, with no pixellation. The features were announced here, including how to activate, and the symbols for tides and currents. (Note that as of early 2023, Navionics charts are available in the Android version of the SailTimer app, but not in new downloads of the SaiTimer app on iOS, due to a Navionics update. That is on the list to correct for the iOS app.)
In the Android version, you can set waypoints and create routes when using Navionics charts. We’ll be updating the iOS app to be the same, but for now you should set the waypoints using aerial photos, land maps or raster charts on iPhone/iPad. Then you can view them with the Navionics charts.
Yes, there is a small in-app purchase to cover the development costs. It is not easy to display Navionics charts in an app (especially a free app). For Wind Instrument users, you can't bring wireless wind data into the Navionics app -- but you can bring Navionics charts into the SailTimer app, and use wind data and optimal tacking there. It took about a year of programming and testing, and several years of arrangements before that, to display the Navionics charts with the tacking and other functions in the SailTimer app.
The excellent-quality Navionics vector charts have worldwide coverage and are available in the Android and iOS versions of the app. But raster charts for certain countries are available in the iOS app. Please go to this page for the FAQs on how to use raster charts in the app.
iPhones and the 3G/LTE iPads all have actual GPS receivers in them (not just cell-tower triangulation). The iPod does not have a GPS antenna, and the wifi iPad (i.e., without cellular data capabilities) does not. But for those, it may be possible to add a GPS accessory (either plug-in or Bluetooth) from companies such as Bad Elf, Dual and GNS. (However, in April 2015 several companies noted that iOS updates to 8.3 and 8.4 may disable GPS accessories: see explanations from Bad Elf and the FAQ on this page from Dual.) Other customers have also reported success using the Garmin 72 handheld GPS connected to a wifi iPad via a serial cable, serial to USB cable, then USB to Lightning cable. The GPS data must be brought in for Location Services on the iOS device (in Settings), not as NMEA data.
Although your GPS track can be displayed, if you email it or shut it off, only what has been saved will be used. Make sure to save the track if you want to keep it or email it. *Note also that displaying a current or previous GPS track could slow down your screen panning (especially on older devices with less ram). Unselect it if you are not using it, by turning the tracking on/off.
You can turn on the GPS tracking when using any of the charts, maps and aerial photos. In the Android version, you can see the GPS track with Navionics marine charts, land maps or aerial photos. We will be making the iOS version the same, but currently on iOS you can only see the GPS track when using land maps or aerial photos. It cannot be seen when using Navionics charts on iPhone/iPad.
No, Apple prevents this. You must do the in-app purchases with the same account you used to get the app.
Yes, use the Tacking Routes button (upper left corner of screen) to make waypoints -- either a single waypoint, or a route with multiple waypoints. On both Android and iOS you can set a Tacking Route and see your optimal tacks as you move through a series waypoints, as in this screenshot. You can also paste in a list of lat/long coordinates to create a Tacking Route.
Yes, the results are the same whether you do the port or starboard tack first (or whether you do 10 small tacks on those headings or two large ones). On iOS you can switch to the other tack using the "< >" button in the bottom-left of the screen when optimal tacks are displayed. As you will see, this button lets you display the port or starboard tack first. It also has an automatic mode, where if both tacks are the same length, it displays the tack first that is closest to your current heading. Setting a closer waypoint will also let you control your course to go around obstructions.
If you try to switch tacks and the green lines do not move to the other side, it means that with the given wind andbearing to the waypoint, the other tack will not get you there as quickly. The tack switches from one side to the other when either side is equally good.
Yes. The most useful thing with all of the different platforms that SailTimer has run on has always been planning out the tacking route before you cast off. You have to be moving to use VMG (Velocity Made Good) or telltales on your sails. But with the SailTimer app, just enter the wind direction, wind speed and a waypoint, to see how long it would take to sail to different possible destinations, and the optimal tacks to get there.
If you want to continue to update your optimal tacks and perhaps document your GPS track, you can shut the screen off to reduce power consumption. Audio Navigation works great to give you feedback on wind conditions and boat speed while the screen is off. If you are marking a GPS track, it will continue when you shut off the device, or while the app is running in the background. Unselect it in the Options if you want to stop it. *For the best overall power savings on your device, shut off Location Services (the GPS) when using the app for other purposes.
Yes, on iOS (but not Android) this may be an inexpensive way to get wind data into the app to calculate tacking results, if you already have a legacy anemometer in an onboard network. (Although updating to the wireless SailTimer Wind Instrument RB™ may be more cost-effective if you still need to buy a multiplexer to transmit on wifi.) In the iOS app there is an in-app purchase in Input\Setup\Onboard Network that allows you to receive wind data using wifi (UDP) with the MWV sentence in NMEA 0183 format. You may be able to transmit this from a GPS chartplotter with wifi, a computer running a chartplotter program, or the NMEA multiplexer from Digital Yacht. The SailTimer app (and CE) can also now receive wind data in UDP wifi transmissions from the iKommunicate device, which can receive and convert between NMEA 2000, 0183 and Signal K formats.
The app is currently not compatable with multiplexers from DMK, Shipmodul or Brookhouse. With the DMK Box, the reason appears to be that with our wireless anemometers, the app is the server and the wireless sensor is the client, but that the DMK Box may also be set up as the server. With Shipmodul, the Miniplex uses an IP address that is different than the one expected by the SailTimer app (or Charts Edition). But there may be a workaround... If you are having trouble connecting through a wifi multiplexer and have a wifi router on board, you may be able to send wind data to the app through the router instead.
In his 1948 book Yacht Racing and the Aerodynamics of Sails and Racing Tactics (originally published in 1928), Dr. Manfred Curry describes the strategy to "tack in a header" when racing to an upwind mark. In a header, the wind shifts, causing your heading to move away from the destination. If you tack then, you can take advantage of a more direct line to your destination on the other tack. Although he documented that racing tactic in the previous century, with GPS and digital calculations SailTimer continuously evaluates and displays your optimal tacks (especially if you have real-time wind data coming in from the wireless SailTimer Wind Instrument™). You can toggle the port and starboard tacks in the SailTimer app to see how the other tack looks. You can also stay on those headings in lots of small tacks close to the rhumb line. The SailTimer app doesn't assume that there was an average wind direction over some previous period, and then try to warn you about a header; it just continuously updates the display of your optimal tacks. This is clear and effective, and you can still use his original strategy to go onto the other tack in a header if you see the green tacking lines move in a header.
Yes on iOS; for Android you'll have more choices for wind parameters in the SailTimer Wind Gauge™ app than the charting app. On iOS, click on our unique wind speedometer to make it larger, and you'll see a button in the top right to switch the wind speed and directin between True and Apparent. Whichever one you leave on the big wind speedometer is what is also displayed on the chart, for the wind speed and the grey wind arrow for wind direction around the yellow boat icon.
Yes - the table can't show every value, but the software does use in-between values, the same as they are shown on a polar graph or plot. The table such as in this screenshot is used for simplicity and for exporting. But the software actually uses a continuous function. You can actually see this yourself during polar learning. If the wind angle is at e.g. 40 degrees, in-between the 22.5 and 45 degree wind angles, you may see the polar learning influence the boat speeds on either side.
To edit a polar on Android or iOS, email it out of the app to yourself. Then edit it in a text editor, to add values for your boat for the wind angles and speeds in the table. The software will look after the in-between values automatically. Then email it back to yourself, to receive on your phone/tablet. Then copy and paste your own polars in the app.