Set up

Sign up, log in (or not)

Before you can share a scored series, you'll need to log in. Before you can do that you'll need to create an account . Signing up is totally free and takes only a couple of minutes.

Alternatively, clicking 'record race without logging in' allows you to do just that. You can even record multiple races and score them as a mini series on the one device. You can not save them, or automatically echo them to your club website in this way. If you are not logged in, races will only be stored on the device, not our server, so there are fewer protections against data loss.

Record now, save later

If, for some reason, it is not possible to log in, you can go ahead and time a race, or even a whole regatta, and then log in afterwards. Once you do sign in, you can change the name of each race's series from untitled series to the correct series name so that the points are counted with the other races in that series.

Competitor password

The competitor password allows digital entry to a scheduled race. For very small clubs that struggle to get a race officer, we could even look at creating a downloadable app that uses the phone's GPS to record a boat's position in a race. Let me know if you want this. Due to the accuracy of GPS*, such results would be unreliable, though what a competitor loses one week, they may gain the next.

* GPS is accurate within 7.8m with 95% confidence, but could be as bad as 30-40m up to 2% of the time.

Fleets

Fleet results can be seperated from general results whether or not they share a start.

Multiple starts

By default, all fleets start together. If you wish to give each fleet its own start, you can do so by clicking ≡ above the race entrants, to the left of the timer. Starts are set by giving each fleet an offset (i.e. a start after x minutes time) from the first start time.

General recall

In the event of a general recall within a start, the offset for that fleet needs to be set to a new value to resume the countdown. Doing it this way allows the OOD maxiumum flexibility to change the start order, combine fleets into one start, etc etc

If the first fleet starting is being recalled, the OOD can click reset all timers (in ≡) or can give that fleet an offset to start them after the better behaved fleets have started.

Viewing results

After the race, to view the individual class fleets within the timer, or to view separate fast and slow handicap results, click the ≡   button, in the top right hand corner of the series results. If viewing the results on your own website, there are separate links above the mixed handicap results.

Any members who have signed up for a race online will see the fleet they entered under by default, when they view the results.

The administrator can add or remove fleets, and divide the handicap racing into fast and slow handicap fleets.

If required, fleets can be changed after the race has been sailed. This will doubtless result in moaning if the fleets did not share a start, but it is technically possible.

There are three types of fleets, the results for which can be calculated separately:

1. Class fleets. These can be selected if the fleet is based on individual classes. Simply choose the classes (on the settings page), and each boat of that class will automatically be entered into that fleet.
2. The main fleet / new fleet drop down can be used to differentiate fleets further (i.e. Juniors, or one design classes (such as J24) within a yacht fleet)
3. Fast / slow handicap setting this in settings allows entrants to be automatically entered into the appropriate fleet

Why enter fleets?

Clubs have their own way of doing things, but strictly speaking, fleet series results can NOT be be simply lifted from the mixed handicap results. Consider the following example, with different winners:

The mixed handicap results are as follows.

		Race 1 29 Jan, 8:38	Race 2 29 Jan, 8:40	Race 3 29 Jan, 8:41
1 3.5 pts	Optimist   1 1655	4	2.5	1
2 4 pts	Laser   3 849	3	1	7 DNC
3 4.5 pts	Optimist   2 1655	5	2.5	2
4 6 pts	Laser   1 849	1	5	7 DNC	≠ a8.1
5 6 pts	Laser   2 849	2	6	4	≠ a8.1
6 7 pts	Optimist   3 1655	6	4	3

Laser 3 appears to have won the Laser fleet and is perhaps feeling a little smug, giving tuning tips to Laser 2. However, separated out into their own fleet, the order reverses entirely!

		Race 1 29 Jan, 8:38	Race 2 29 Jan, 8:40	Race 3 29 Jan, 8:41
1 3 pts	Laser   2 849	2	3	1	≠ a8.2
2 3 pts	Laser   1 849	1	2	7 DNC	≠ a8.2
3 4 pts	Laser   3 849	3	1	7 DNC

Incidentally, the above notes ≠ a8.1 and ≠ a8.2 are the tie break rules used to determine the tie break .

Scheduling races

Races can be timed (or entered) ad-hoc, or through a schedule.

A decision needs to be made as to whether each fleet needs to be entered as a separate event. i.e. Spring series - Asymmetric, Spring Series - Slow handicap etc. The number of scheduled starts must be no higher than the number of people (and certainly devices) who will be recording the race. Alternatively, if entered as one event, one device can record all fleets but this burden can still be shared. Therefore, unless you're running a huge regatta, I would lean toward scheduling all starts as one event.

The administrator can add races to the calendar in the admin area. Each new series will appear on the calendar in a different colour.

Races that are scheduled allow competitors to directly sign up for races online, so the OOD will not need to enter them on race day (though they can). However, for a pursuit race, only sign-ups from before the OOD clicks time this race are counted; this is because a late entrant in a slow boat may alter the starting times already given to competitors. Non-pursuit races allow entrants to add themselves right up to the start. After the start, the OOD can still add competitors.

Impromptu (unscheduled) races do not allow competitors to sign themselves up, so boat details must be entered by the OOD

You can add the calendar to your site and from that calendar allow online sign in for races, or sign up through our site on the link provided in settings.

Results on your website

Under settings, in the administrator's area, (here) you can see the code which can be copied and pasted to your website to echo the results there automatically as soon as races are complete. By default the series containing the most recent race result is shown. Others are available by selecting the series name from a drop down. Your members can click any race in the series table to see the race timings for that race.

The code given is such that your own website's style rules (fonts, sizes, colours) ought to make it look like the results belong there.

Any races with the series name of '_trash' will not show up on your website, but will be available in the administrator's log in, under Add / Edit Results.

Race Timing

Adding boats to a race

You can add boats to a race either before or after the start.

I'm hoping it's obvious, but for PYN (and eventually other class based handicap systems) what you need to do is click the first letter / number of a class. Once the class has been selected, you will then be shown previous entrants from that class and prompted for the rest of the boat's details. The sail number is the only compulsary field. It doesn't actually have to contain a number but it can't be blank. (i.e. a name might be more appropriate for members using club boats where sail numbers vary from week to week.)

For IRC, simply begin typing either the sail number or the boat name and relevant matches will appear underneath (once the first two characters have been typed).

After the first race, recent previous entrants will have a shortcut 'add to race' button next to them.

Alternatively, competitors can add themselves to a scheduled race with the competitor password. This has the added advantages that:

• After entering the boat details first time, competitors can enter races in two clicks.
• Competitors can see the handicap time difference between themselves and other entrants
• Each competitor sees their boat highlighted in the results.

For a normal race, competitors can sign in online right up to the start. For a pursuit race, competitors can sign up right up to the point the OOD clicks 'time this race'

Naming the race series

You can make the race score count alongside other race scores by giving the series a name. Provided you have data at the time of logging in, series names used previously are shown in the drop down. If the series name is not listed, selecting 'New Series' will enable you to give it a name. If not included, the current year (i.e. 24) will be appended to the series name. If it is a pursuit race, and the word pursuit is not part of the name, it will be added to the name.

Renaming a race (changing series)

An OOD can change the name of a race by clicking the pencil icon (✎) next to it. An OOD can only change the names of races (s)he has entered. The administrator can change the series names of other races.

Deleting (and undeleting) a race

Races can be changed to the _trash series to delete them. The trash can be viewed (and retrieved) by the administrator. To do so, go to add/edit results, select _trash as the series name, and then click Enter / edit race(s).

Entering times manually

You can enter times manually as follows:

1. Log in as administrator
2. Choose the series the race is to be part of and press 'Go'.
3. Add competitors, just as you'd do for a race timed on the device.
4. Choose how you'd like to enter the race timings. You can enter them in elapsed minutes and seconds, elapsed hours minutes and seconds, or as the time of day. Be warned that entered times will change to match the format when it is changed (i.e. do this before entering times, not after).

Time offset

If the OOD sat on the stop watch, or a mixture of timing devices that weren't cross-calibrated were used, you can enter a time offset to add or remove time from all entered results. Adding time in this way affects all boats in the list, not just newly entered ones.

Timing a race

Multiple Starts.

Different fleets can be started at different times by setting a fleet start time offset for each fleet.

Adjusting the timer.

Once you have named a race, use the + and - buttons next to the number at the top of the screen (by default 3:00) to increase or decrease the countdown as required. If you've fired the starting gun without starting the timer, you can set it to a negative number to catch up with the stop-watch. Each - takes a minute off. Each + adds 3 seconds onto a whole minute, or to the next whole minute. The 3 seconds is to allow the OOD enough hands to hold a hooter and a flag.

Press start to start timing. Initially, the option next to each boat is to apply a start-line penalty. After a minute or so, this will change to record lap. Simply clicking this every time a boat crosses the start line will record both the number of laps, and the finish time.

To reset the timer and start again, press ≡ and then Reset all timers

If preferred, a start time can be set as a time of day, either by scheduling or by clicking ≡

Recording a lap

Simply click the green 'record lap' button each time a boat crosses the start/ finish line. If it is pressed in error, you can click the pencil icon (✎) next to each boat to edit a time or remove a lap. To stop laps being recorded by finger bounce, laps will not be recorded within 3 seconds of a previously recorded lap of the same boat, even if the laps were recorded across multiple devices.

Arguably, on a multi-lap race, the timing of the non-final laps are not critical. Only the number of laps and the total elapsed time are used to calculate finish times. However, you will be needing to record how many laps each boat completes, so press the button.

The lap time will be shown next to the boat. The corrected time for each lap is displayed in smaller text beneath the recorded time, until the race exceeds 3 laps, when lap times will rotate - this is so the boat, the existing laptimes, and the record lap button are all visible.

You can remove eroneously recorded laps (or edit the recorded time) at any time by clicking the pencil icon (✎) next to each boat.

Recorded laps faster than 75% of that boat's mean lap time are shown in red, to highlight to the OOD that an error may have been made. An early slow lap (such as a capsize) may make the other laps appear in red. Variable winds may also cause this.

Hidden sail numbers, too many boats, etc

For situations when recording laps at the click of a button won't cut it, try the timed dictaphone. If two boats cross the line at exactly the same time, you can copy the time from one boat to another by clicking on the time you wish to copy.

Correcting mistakes

Timing a lap against the wrong boat can be easily corrected by cutting and pasting the lap.

Times can be edited by clicking on the pencil icon (✎) next to the boat.

Recording finishing times

The finishing times will simply be taken as the last recorded lap time of each boat. On a passage race, there are no laps, but you'll still need to click record lap to record each boat's finish time.

Precision

Times are recorded to the nearest whole second. As a matter of interest, a difference of one point between PYN handicaps represents about 3 seconds on a fifty minute race.

Restarting / cancelling a race

If everybody is over the line, or the OOD has fat thumbs, you can restart the race by clicking the restart button. It will ask you if you are sure. Confirming 'yes - restart' will entail losing the start time from the existing race, across all devices that are recording the race.

Finding a boat

Before the countdown is commenced, boats appear in the order they have been entered into the race. By default, once the race has started, boats are ordered in order of handicap (fastest first, or slowest first in a pursuit race) and then by (ascending) sail number.

Clicking ↓ will reorder boats so that they appear in the order they are expected to lap in. Initially this is ascertained on handicap, with series ranking being a secondary factor. After the boats have completed a lap, their minium lap time is used to forecast a predicted time. As you click a boat, it will move to the bottom of the list, with some exceptions (i.e. a 49er could be expected to complete 2 laps before an Optimist has been round once).

Reordering boats

Next to each boat is a ↑; clicking it will move that boat to the top of the list of boats. Clicking ↑ on a 2nd boat will move that boat to 2nd position in the shortlist and so on. Clicking ↑ on a boat already in the shortlist will move a boat up the shortlist by one place. This is so you can make an ever revolving shortlist of boats approaching the finish line. Recording a lap or clicking ↓ will remove a boat from the shortlist.

Boat search

The search in the top-right allows for entry of a sail number or sail number fragment (i.e. if you can only see the last three digits of the sail number, you can enter those) by typing in the text box next to the search icon that will be in the top-right hand corner of the screen during a race.

By default there is 🔎 ↑ next to the search box. In this mode, click the sail number suggestion to shortlist a boat, or if you keep typing so there is only one boat that matches, that boat will be moved to the bottom of the shortlist. Searching for a sail number that is already included in the shortlist of approaching boats will move that number to the top of the shortlist

Reordering boats is specific to the device in question, and not shared across devices. This is to prevent the order changing suddenly just as a time is about to be logged, resulting in the wrong button being pressed.

Clicking the 🔎 ↑ so it changes to 🔎 🏁 will change the mode so that a lap time is recorded when a sail number is clicked or there is only one number that matches what's typed. Clicking it again, changes the mode back.

A boat will be selected (i.e. moved to the top of the list, or given a lap time) as soon as there is only one boat which matches what's typed (i.e. if only one boat has a number 7 in its sail number, that boat will be shortlisted / timed as soon as 7 is pressed and all other boats are ruled out.)

Pursuit races

A pursuit race can be timed by clicking the appropiate menu link. For a scheduled pursuit race, online sign-ups only count before the OOD clicks time this race; this is because a late entrant in a slow boat may otherwise alter the starting times already given to competitors. The OOD can still add late entrants, right up to (and beyond) the start.

Each boat has a timer element next to it. In a scheduled race, there will be a countdown to the scheduled start time. For an unscheduled race these times are relative to the time the start button is pressed. With the default 0:00 countdown for a pursuit race, the times are also relative to the first starter (i.e. the slowest boat.) Unless you add a countdown, start should therefore be pressed exactly when the first boat(s) should start.

Once the start button has been pressed, each boat will have it's own countdown timer. The border of the timer of the next boat(s) to start will turn from yellow to red.

Once a pursuit race has commenced (i.e. one boat has started) the duration can no longer be edited. Other than that, the system remains flexible; or to put it another way, the OOD has enough rope to hang himself and caution must be exercised. Boats can still be added by the OOD, but not by competitors. The OOD can also edit individual handicaps, which may in some circumstances be useful, but editing the handicap of, or deleting the slowest boat, or entering a new slower boat, will alter all other timings, which some competitors may have already taken.

Laps can be recorded using the appropriate button. These are for the OODs own benefit and are not used in recording finish order. Finish times will not be recorded as they are meaningless for a pursuit race. In other words, the boat order as entered by the OOD will be used regardless of the number of recorded laps for each boat.

Before the finish, boats can be reordered using the ↑ link next to each boat, so the OOD can keep the list of boats in the app in the same order as boats on the water.

Start times can be viewed by competitors using their smart phones on the given link.

Finishing

Once the stated duration has elapsed, a link will appear next to each boat saying 1st. Once this has been clicked for one boat, the other links will all say 2nd and so on. Positions clicked with these links override the lap counts (i.e. once you click 1st, that boat has won, even if she has less recorded laps than other competitors.) The positions can be deleted or corrected afterwards, either by the OOD on the same device the race was recorded on (before reloading the page), or by the administrator on any device, at any time.

Corrected Times

By default, for each recorded lap, corrected times will be shown under recorded times, in smaller type, every time the record lap button is pressed. A range of other options are available in the race settings (corrected lap time, corrected overall time, lap time)

Additionally, once the race is over and the Finish Race button is pressed, an overall corrected time will be shown, including corrections for a shortened courses where appropriate.

Corrected times are calculated to the nearest second, as per the RYA spec. Slow (PYN>1000) class fleets are still shown to the nearest second but are calculated without rounding to avoid the circumstance where one boat crossing the line shortly before another results in a tie.

Shortened Course

It will be assumed that boats completing fewer laps sailed a shortened course, and their times will be increased accordingly. However, a 'Retired?' option will be shown to the OOD next to such boats. Simply clicking this marks a boat as retired. If clicked in error, you can remove it or add other penalties by clicking the pencil icon next to the boat

Scoring

Long Series or Regatta

If a penalty has been applied, and it is not ZFP, SCP, RDG or DPI, the score is either the number of finishers +1 if it's a series longer than a regatta (either as a manual setting or by having dates spanning more than 7 days), or the number of entrants +1 for a regatta. If you run a regatta lasting longer than 7 daysyou can set it manually as a regatta in the race settings.

Tied times

It's probably as well to mention here that the official resolution of a handicap race is one second. The practical resolution is likely to be even greater - on a fifity minute race, one point of PYN covers whole 3 seconds.

The following argument may arise from this. Two slow (i.e. PYN>1000) boats of the same class may cross the line one second apart and yet, due to their times being scaled down, may draw on handicap. This is the RYA spec. At first sight it seems unfair until it is considered that a third boat of a different class may also be able to get the same corrected time and it is entirely indeterminate whether that boat's position is in front, behind or between.

The timer follows this spec for handicap fleets (i.e. the caluclated resolution is 1 second). If the tying classes are viewed in a class fleet (either with their own start or starting in the handicap melee), their positions will be in the order of their exact finish times (ie the order that their finish was recorded. The corrected times will still be shown tied, but the elapsed times will be different.

Tied scores

Where two boats have the same series score, their order will be determined by the yacht racing rules appendix 8.1, or 8.2, i.e:

• A8.1.
  If there is a series-score tie between two or more boats, each boat’s race scores shall be listed in order of best to worst, and at the first point(s) where there is a difference the tie shall be broken in favour of the boat(s) with the best score(s). No excluded scores shall be used.
• A8.2.
  If a tie remains between two or more boats, they shall be ranked in order of their scores in the last race. Any remaining ties shall be broken by using the tied boats’ scores in the next-to-last race and so on until all ties are broken. These scores shall be used even if some of them are excluded scores.

The tie break rule used to separate two or more boats will be displayed to the right of any boats separated by that rule, (ie. A8.1 or A8.2)

Penalties and redress

After starting a race, there will be a red 'add penalty' link next to each boat for any start line infractions. After one minute, these will change to green and offer the 'record lap' function. If you want to record laps before then (really?) you would need to press switch to timer under the list of competitors.

To apply penalties after this, click the pencil icon (✎) next to the boat. Redress can be applied manually at this stage too.

Penalty points incurred are added automatically; you do not need to do anything other than record the penalty.

As a courtesy to disqualified sailors (or if you may later want to remove a penalty) you can continue to record times, so they know where they would have come if they hadn't holed the committee boat and pretended they hadn't.

Penalties can be removed by clicking the pencil icon (✎) to the left of the boat class. The OOD can remove a penalty from races (s)he has recorded once the race is finished, or the race officer can remove any penalty using the administrator's log in.

Boats with no entered times after pressing finish race will be given DNC. If necessary, times can be added manually for one or more entrants.

Using multiple devices

Multiple phones (or other devices with a browser) can record the same race simultaneously. This is useful to spread the work in large fleets, or as an insurance policy, allowing one phone to take over the recording of a race from another.

First click the Collaborate link at the bottom of the timer screen.

Choose a secret 'collaboration word' - this is a temporary password. If another user logs on with the OOD password, and enters the same (case sensitive) collaboration word, both devices can add and view results.

Where two phones record different times for the same boat, both results are entered into the race as separate laps. The OOD, or administrator, can then delete the erroneous lap by clicking the pencil icon (✎) next to each boat.

Ensure that both phones are using the (default) network provided time. This is found on your phone (i.e. not in OOD2) in settings > time and date. If the displayed times on all the sharing devices are the same, then they are safe to share a race together.

You may notice that the times displayed on the timer on two phones recording the same race are a fraction of a second apart. This is because the timer updates the display only every half a second, from when that device joined the race, and so the displayed time can differ from the actual time by up to half a second. However the recorded times will be precisely synchronised across phones. i.e. there is no advantage in its finish time being recorded by a phone that appears to be fractionally ahead. However see the note on using tablets

You can choose to collaborate before a race begins, or once it's started, but while a race is in progress, you can not change the collaboration password for that race.

The phones will 'sync', via the internet every few seconds. In the event our server, or your phone is struggling, this time will increase.

Once the race is finished on one phone, other phones will finish the race also.

If the page is reloaded, the phone will stop polling the server for updated data from other devices. That device can then rejoin the share by re-entering the share word.

Not quite a glitch, but a feature of sluggish data coverage. Consider the following:

• Phone A records the finishing time for the last boat.
• Phone B declares the race over straight away, before receiving the update from phone A.
• Phone B will then stop receiving data from phone A, so will not have the finishing time of the last boat recorded on it. Consquently, the results shown on phone B will not be right. The complete results will be on the server (which B will see if they refresh the page), and on phone A.

Data use is relatively small, typically about 4-5k per minute. For most phones no data is transferred while the phone is asleep - which it ought to be when there are no boats approaching the line, otherwise the battery may not last the course.

An additional point to be aware of is that only one device may start the race because unless your fingers are perfectly synchronised that would result in multiple start times. Consequently the start button is only shown on the device that started the share. Once it is pressed, all devices will start with the same start time. If it is necessary to show the start button on another device, the page should be refreshed before the start, and then a *new* secret shareword entered, which other devices can then refresh and sync to if necessary.

Using a tablet

Using the phone mast network, (by default) phones synchronise themselves with an atomic clock. The time recorded across different devices is therefore the same. However, tablets generally do not syncronise the time reliably. Therefore the time on a tablet is not accurate. If the race is being recorded on one tablet only, this will not be a problem. However, if a race is being shared across devices, this is something that will need checking.

Aborting race starts

Clicking ≡ above the race and then reset all timers will cancel all ongoing races on the device. It may then be restarted as necessary. If it is not to be restarted, refreshing the page at this stage will remove all entrants and all record that there ever was to be a race. If it is not restarted, the Race Officer can mark the race as cancelled under add / edit results

General recall

If only one fleet start of many is to be recalled, see the instructions under fleets.

Cancelling a race

Two cancel a race, click ≡ at the top of the timer (or pursuit race). There are two types of cancellations offered:

• Cancel and forget
  These cancellations are to be erased forever. Typically these would be dummy races that the OOD has set up to familiarise themselves with the system.
• Cancel and record
  These cancellations (or abandonned races) are to be recorded in the appropriate series results. Typically these would be real races that were not run or were abandonned part way through. A cancelled race needs a start time so this option is only shown once the countdown has commenced.

Timed dictaphone

You can click 🎙 to start the dictaphone. The red dot will begin to flash. This will record (approximately) what you say and (exactly) the time when each word was said.

You can click the word to assign the time it was recorded to a boat. If there were multiple fleet starts, it will record the time appropriate to the fleet the chosen boat is in.

Words associated with the boat (i.e. the sail number, boat name or the name of one of the crew) are linked automatically to a boat but can be edited before submission. Words the app does not have associated with the boat (i.e. yellow spinnaker) can still be linked by clicking the time the word was said.

This feature is currently only available in Chrome, and the level of support may vary between versions and operating systems. Consequently, it is important to test it before it is needed in earnest. If nothing appears to be happening, most likely you'll need to allow this site to access your microphone (in settings (top right icon) -> site settings -> microphone).

This feature uses a lot of processing power, which in turn means it uses a lot of your battery's energy, so if the record / fireball sign is flashing, and you're not recording a finish, you'll want to click it again to stop it recording. Alternatively, you can leave it on and use your phone as a pocket warmer.

Depending on the age of your phone, this feature may require a fast internet connection (many newer phones don't).

GDPR note: Google may use recordings of what you say to improve speech recognition but OOD2 have no interest in it. Once you have assigned times to boats and marked the race finished, we will permanently and irretrievably delete anything you have said.

Wrong boat

If you accidentally record a lap or finish time against the wrong boat, simply click the time (before the race has been marked as finished). You will then get a pop up with the option to reassign a time to another boat.

If the two boats are in different fleets, the reassigned time will be appropriately adjusted. eg, if the optimist fleet started 10 minutes after the laser fleet, and a time is reassigned from a laser to an optimist, 10 minutes will be substracted from the laser time when it is applied to an optimist.

Exporting Results

You can click download in the bottom-right hand corner of a displayed race or series to download it as a csv file.

If you require more / less / different information, please let me know.

Reliability

Changing device mid-race

If you need to restart your phone, the raced data should be intact when the phone resurfaces.

Alternatively, if you want to pass recording to a different device, the OOD can easily do that, if a collaboration word has been set.

If you haven't set a collaboration word, the race officer (i.e. the administrator's log in, not the OOD's log in) can go to Add / edit results and click resume to continue timing that race using the information saved to our server. The previously used device will no longer be able to save or edit that race. If two (or more) devices want to collaborate on a race together, you'll need to set a collaboration word.

If you make a note on paper of the start time (it appears in a narrow black bar at the top of the screen), you can record the finish times as times of day and enter them later under the administrator's log in.

Poor / no data reception

The app has been designed to work with a bad or non existent internet connection. So long as the app is open (and prefereably*, but not essentially) logged in to your club before going to the internet void, you can time any number of races. The results will be stored on your phone until such time as a data connection becomes available to send them to our server.

* If logged in, you can select from existing series names. If not, each race will have to have a series assigned to it manually when internet reception becomes available.

If lack of a reliable internet connection results in you failing to save the race results to our server, results of finished races will be saved on your phone for up to 2 weeks, until a connection becomes available. If, within that time, you switch your phone off, or accidentally close the tab, no matter; just go back to the timer page and log on again.

Closing the browser tab

Unless you are using an incognito window, refreshing the timer page, rebooting the phone or closing the browser window will not result in a loss of an ongoing race's data, though may cause issues recovering the timing app itself if you are in an area with no data coverage. In Google Chrome, this can be mitigated by clicking the 'add app to home screen' button under the timer.

Additionally, certain internal data will be refreshed with the page. This is, in part, to allow an intuitive way to restore default settings. Consequently, on refreshing, the ordering of the fleet will be lost, as will the ability of the OOD to edit races (s)he has saved in this session - though the administrator will still be able to edit them.

Recovering a lost race

The race should be intact on the device it is being recorded on, even if that device is restarted. Depending on the device, closing the browser may result in the browser requiring internet access to reload the timing program files when the device recovers. Some devices may use a local copy in such circumstances.

If you have internet access, a race can be picked up by the OOD on a different device, provided the collaboration password (bottom of the timer screen) has been set. You simply need to log back in and enter the collaboration password again.

If no collaboration word has been set, the race officer (i.e. the administrator's log-in) can resume a lost race.

Using other phone features

While a race is in progress, you can pretty much use your phone as normal. You can switch to another tab and back again. You can allow your phone to go to sleep between laps, you can use other apps* and answer calls. You can even restart your phone. If you need to hand over to another phone you can do that by using the collaboration word.

* - though maybe avoid apps that claim to clean up your phone's storage.

Comfort for technophobes

What about my privacy?

The timer runs within a browser, even if added to your homescreen as an app. As such, it has no access to your contacts, photos, pacemaker etc etc. Any data not entered into the app is not accessible to us. i.e your privacy is private.

What about data loss?

Every timed lap (and many other actions) is stored on your phone and stored on our server. If you have no data access at the time of the action, it will be stored later, when data access becomes available.

What if the phone dies mid-race?

If the phone dies midrace, another device can take over or the race can be recorded manually.

What about my data allowance?

Data use is very lean. If you have not entered a collaboration word, a typical PYN race can be timed and scored using less than 50k (0.00005 Gb) - about 1/40 the average web page. If phones are synced, data use is likely to be around 300k (0.0003Gb) for the race - still a tiny fraction of the average web page.

Multiple concurrent races

On a device

A device can only record one race at a time. If you open an additional tab, it will mimick the first tab you have open. Consequently, it is not possible to record multiple concurrent races on one device.

Within that race, there can be multiple fleets, with multiple starts if desired, whose results and series standings can be calculated separately.

At a club

Two or more overlapping races (i.e. multiple start times) can be recorded on different devices, at the same club, provided the start times are unique. If two races start at exactly 11:00:00, the first one the server receives will ensure the second one is blocked. However, one race starting at 11:00:00 and one starting at 11:00:01 will not interfere with one another.

Competitor Notes

You can make and save notes on a competitor by clicking the pencil icon (✎) next to a boat. If you are colaborating with another device, these notes will be shared across all collaborating devices. Notes are demarked by a ! to the right of the entrant. Clicking that sign reveals the note.

A note may be added automatically if a boat's handicap is not on the current list, or does not match the handicap displayed on that list.

Such notes will also appear on the club's results page.

Limits

Max fleet size

There is (effectively) no maximum fleet size. How smoothly the timer operates is dependant on the spec of the device doing the recording. If collaboration is enabled, this puts additional strain on it.

The timer and pursuit race timers have been successfully tested with up to 200 competitors on a once average, now old, Sony Xperia M4.

Max laps

There are no limits on the number of laps that can be recorded

Max race duration

There are no limits on the duration of races. The maximum displayed unit of time in hours, so a race lasting 2 days would show as 48 hours.

Non-matching results

Suppose two devices are sharing a race. Suppose then either or both both lose their network data connections, or by refeshing the page and not re-entering the collaboration word. When the race is finshed, each will have a different data set, and hence show different results.

Simply refreshing the timer page will restore the correct results.

Handicap system / dual scoring

The handicap system can be changed for a whole club in settings with the administrator's login. Or it can be changed at series level (by the OOD or the administrator) clicking ≡ to the right of the series. Dual scoring options are available in the same place.

Be careful playing about with this. Only entrants with a valid handicap are shown to the OOD. This means that if you play about with the handicap system settings and you are not careful to put it back, you may get oddly disappearing boats. If this happens, check the handicap system in the race settings.

The real-life circumstances where a club would change handicap system mid-way through a race or series are hard to envisage. However, it is not inconcievable that it happens in playing around with the system before using it in earnest. if you do this, you should expect some wierd results (such as boats disappearing because they do not have the new handicap). Changing the handicap system to a related system (i.e. from PYN to PYN-Local) will not cause anything odd to happen.

The times saved in the database are the raw, uncorrected times, so if you do manage to create wierd results in an actual race, please contact me - it is likely your real results can be retrieved.

Personal handicapping

The PYN-Local setting can be used to dual score races under PYN and another system such as a personal handicap. The personal handicap needs to use the same time correction formula as PYN.

For cruisers, the NHC sytem (under IRC-NHC) is an automatically calculated local handicap. If you would prefer to use your club's own system, IRC-Local allows you to use whatever local system you have. If this is not sufficient, please contact me

Passwords

There are three passwords:

• The administrator passsword, which has who has the power to edit all races and change the club policies (number of discards, class fleets, handicap system) as well as set all other passwords and schedule races. The administrator also has all OOD rights, so it is possible to use this log in instead of the OOD password if your OOD can be trusted not to tweak previous results in their favour, play with things to see what happens, etc.
• The OOD password is for recording races. The OOD can also edit lap times, handicaps, crew names or apply penalties for races they have recorded on that device, in that session (i.e. without refreshing the page). Multiple OODs running multiple races can be loggged in at the same time. They will not be able to see or contribute to each other's races unless a collaboration word has been set.
• The competitor password allows digital entry to a scheduled race, saving the OOD from typing, and allowing competitors to sign-in even after the list has been taken out to sea. Once a competitor has entered a race, the boat they entered will be highlighted in subsequent results they view on that device.

Additionally, once logged in with either the admin password or the OOD password, a collaboration password can optionally be set for each race, allowing the OOD to share the recording of the race across multiple devices (where each user logs in as either the OOD or the administrator, and also enters the OOD's chosen collaboration password).

	Admin	OOD	Competitor	No password
Record live race*	✓	✓	-	-
Add boats to a scheduled race	✓	✓	✓	-
Add boats to an unscheduled race	✓	✓	-	-
Generate pursuit race start times	✓	✓	-	-
View pursuit race start times	✓	✓	✓	✓
Post pursuit race results to club website	✓	✓	-	-
Enter race times manually	✓	-	-	-
Declare races finished where the OOD neglected to press the button	✓	-	-	-
Resume a half finished race with a collaboration word set.	✓	✓	-	-
Resume a half finished race without a collaboration word.	✓	-	-	-
Edit a race recorded in that session	✓	✓	-	-
Edit all races	✓	-	-	-
View results of finished races	✓	✓	✓	✓
Schedule races	✓	-	-	-
Set handicap system to use	✓	-	-	-
Set number of discards	✓	-	-	-
Set class fleets	✓	-	-	-
Set the handicap at which fast and slow handicap fleets are split.	✓	-	-	-
* Recording conventional races is also possible without signing in, but the results can only be viewed on that device.

To upgrade from logging in as the OOD to the administrator, click the link in the main menu.

There are no password strength rules.

Legal

Liability

The timer and associated apps are provided without warranty and for use entirely at your own risk. Influenca Ltd shall not be liable for any loss or damages arising out of their use or mis-use.

GDPR

We do not use tracking cookies as such.

We do use cookies for remembering log in sessions, so that results can be assigned to the right sailing club. We do not share this data with third parties. We do not spy on you.

We will (perhaps obviously) display the names of entrants in results tables that will be openly available online. Sailing clubs need to ensure no names are entered for any members who have not given permission for this.