Free race routing for offshore sailors. Every forecast model, the tide, your boat and your sails, worked out on your phone, with a route you can trust and a plan the crew can read.
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Each route sailed in its own forecast: time on each point of sail, the most wind and sea it meets, and the work for the crew. Upwind is under 60° true wind angle, downwind over 120°.
For a delivery, a qualifier or your own course: the chosen route's models, routed from starts every 6 hours across the forecast. A quick route for each start, so allow a few minutes either way.
For the route selected under Decision. Sails from the crossover chart in Settings.
For a plotter (Zeus, Axiom, Garmin): the plotter cannot take the route over the internet, so it goes on a memory card.
For a chart app on a phone or tablet (GeoGarage, C-MAP, Navionics): tap Open in chart app and pick the app. This button only shows on phones and tablets.
The file is a planning aid, not for navigation. GPX carries the route as waypoints at each turn plus the marks; KML shows the whole track in Google Earth and most chart apps.
Menu names change with software versions; if yours differ, look for Import in the plotter's user data or routes menu. Sources: Navico Waypoints & Routes guide (software 2.1), Raymarine LightHouse help, Garmin GPSMAP help.
Every boat you are racing, sailing your chosen route at its own TCC from its own start: who should be near you at the slider time if they went the same way. Ranked on corrected time.
No entry list for this race yet. Add the boats you are racing below, or tap Race boat on an AIS target.
One boat per line: name and TCC, for example Jolly Jack, 1.021. Copy it from the race entry list or a spreadsheet.
Sizes are compressed download sizes, already cut to the course band and race hours. Seabed depth is sent only where it is shallower than 20 m, and only needs downloading once per race area. Forecasts refresh every six hours.
Shout, point, throw the danbuoy and lifebuoy, press the DSC distress button on the VHF, call the Coastguard on channel 16. Keep a crew member pointing at all times.
Route helpEach topic has its own Listen button. Route is a planning aid, not for navigation.
FirstShift's generic polar, scaled so the boat sails at its TCC. Use Boat type or Own polar for a truer shape.
Your own data: ORC rating data (JSON) or the polar table copied from your ORC certificate, an Expedition, B&G, OpenCPN or qtVlm polar, or any table with TWA down and TWS across. Paste it below or load the file; edit any number in the table.
Below 100% for a light or new crew, tired sails or a sea the forecast misses; above it for a strong, heavy crew. Upwind runs to 55° TWA, reaching 70° to 110°, downwind from 130°, blended in between.
Applies to every route, over the whole race or an area you draw. Wind and tide arrows on the chart still show the forecast as published.
Local knowledge: the changes apply inside the area and fade out over 3 nm beyond its edge. Use it for a sea breeze that the forecast misses, or a headland where the tide runs harder.
Optional. Polars measure the wind angle against the boat's track through the water, so the route already allows for leeway and this does not change it. Enter your boat's leeway close-hauled (from your instruments, Polar Live or the sailmaker) and Route shows a Steer heading to windward of the track, tapering to none on a beam reach. 0 leaves it off.
On: Route takes the tide out of the forecast wind, so the boat sails on the wind it feels. Wind against tide blows harder, wind with tide softer, and a cross-tide shifts it. Off: the forecast wind as it is.
Only downloaded models can be used. Choose what to download under Results, Data.
The router keeps out of water shallower than this, shown red on the chart. EMODnet depths relative to lowest astronomical tide; no tide height added. Not for navigation.
After From here has found the boat by GPS, Route routes again from the new position on this timer, while the screen is on. It stops if the GPS fix is lost or the position leaves the forecast area.
The router treats the lanes and separation zones near the course as no-go, as most sailing instructions require; the race's own keep-out boxes always apply. Source: OpenStreetMap and Shom. Not for navigation: check the sailing instructions.
Copy each sail from your sail log or your sailmaker’s crossover chart: the true wind angles and true wind speeds you use it in. Route names the sail and the reef for every stretch of the route. Rows are checked from the top and the first that fits wins, so put the special cases first.
The true wind speed at which each reef goes in. Reef earlier upwind, where the apparent wind is stronger. Leave a box empty if you do not carry that reef.
Starting points from John Jourdane’s Pacific Cup guide: “Reefing begins sooner upwind than downwind because the apparent wind is greater sailing a beat or close reach.”
Tap the chart to see which sail it picks for that wind.
One sail per line: name, TWA from, TWA to, TWS from, TWS to. You can also paste a grid from Expedition, PredictWind or SailGrib (first line the wind speeds, then one line per wind angle with the sail for each speed) and Route turns it into rows.
Mainsail, the same way.
Test fleet: eight race boats sailing near your route and ships crossing the area, sent as real AIS sentences through the same decoder the boat's feed and the online feed will use. They move with the replay time. CPA is worked out from your position: the phone GPS when it has one, otherwise the boat on the chosen route.
Auto follows the phone or computer. Light for bright sun, Dark for dusk and the nav table, Night red keeps every colour at the red end, at low brightness, to protect night vision on deck; turn the screen brightness down too. The Night button on the chart switches between Night red and your day setting.
Barbs: the staff points into the wind; half feather 5 kn, full feather 10, pennant 50. Tide arrows point the way the water flows, rate in knots (atlas arrows in tenths).