SailBot Sailing Instrument

SailBot Sailing Instrument is a simple application that turns your phone or tablet into a powerful sailing instrument for sailboat racing. This sailing app provides a cost effective alternative to buying expensive dedicated sailing instruments. The Sailbot sailing app is a simple design with white text on a dark background in order to provide good viewing in a daylight environment and conserve as much battery as possible. Use during practice or in your next sailing regatta to help you get great starts and keep your sailboat sailing fast.

Features:
- Distance to Line
- Adjustable Countdown Timer
- Speed
- Heading
- VMG

During the pre-race and starting sequence, SailBot displays your distance to the starting line and a countdown timer. Once the countdown timer completes, SailBot automatically switches to a view showing your speed, heading, and VMG (velocity made good). You may also select only speed/heading or only VMG/heading by "long pressing" either the top left or top right text display in racing view. A second long press will switch the display back to displaying all three readouts (speed/heading/VMG).

All you need to do is sail by and ping each side of the starting line prior to the start and manually set the wind angle to be used for the VMG calculation. Please note that this instrument provides distance to an infinite line extending through each end of the starting line. This allows the user to ping the line from further away by sighting down the line as you would when getting a traditional line sight without interrupting the starting sequences ahead of your fleet. Also note that the VMG readout displays the absolute value of VMG and you will therefore not see the negative sign when sailing down wind.

A note on battery life: This application can drain the battery quickly in your device due to the use of the internal GPS and the screen continually being on. To extend the length of time your battery will last, a Bluetooth GPS receiver is highly recommended. Battery life can more than double with a Bluetooth GPS. A Bluetooth GPS will also provide a significant improvement in the accuracy of the GPS over a built in phone GPS. Please see the SailBot website for recommendations on Bluetooth GPS receivers. The free "Bluetooth GPS" app (or equivalent) is recommended and necessary to connect your phone to a Bluetooth GPS receiver.

Waterproof case and mounting recommendations are also available via the website.

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. Contact info is available on the website.