Smartphone App solves common race management issues in Port Hacking

by John Weidemier on 22 Oct 2014 RMYC Port Hacking Sailing Division has been using 'Race Logger', an Android App to assist in management of the club’s offshore racing programs. The club has a proud tradition for timely production of race results with Vice Captain, John Barter generally uploading the race result to the club’s website before members have returned to the clubhouse.

This has often been frustrated by late receipt of individual results together with the common problem of all yacht clubs, variations in accuracy of elapsed time. 'Race Logger' has put an end to all of those issues resulting in all results being available to the race manager immediately the last yacht has crossed the finish line.

The App is the final result of some years of experimenting, starting with a reliance on a yacht reporting it’s time plus those immediately ahead and following. On shore race checkers were also used and the penultimate stage was using a remote time lapse camera to record the fleet crossing the finish line. All required considerable effort plus added time delays.

With the general use of smartphones, the club realized, the combination of inbuilt GPS recording together with an onboard computer plus SMS and Email communications, allows smartphones to solve many issues in race management. Accordingly the club contracted to Holger Kasten in Germany, the owner of a similar App called 'Ultra GPS Logger', to produce an App that met the club’s specific needs. Hence, 'Race Logger' ('RL'), was created.

The App has now been successfully used for three seasons and all RMYC yachts have an Android 'RL' equipped smartphone onboard.

Once installed on the smartphone, 'RL' is simple to operate, and with the click of one button, skippers download the settings for the upcoming race. On race day App initiation is simply a matter of turning the smartphone on and initiating the GPS. Logging automatically starts at a predetermined time. During the race the App is positioned in a dry spot inside the cabin where a GPS signal is available. A continuous record of the yacht’s GPS track is stored in the phone and, when the yacht crosses the finish line, a calculation of the finish time is made and an SMS and an Email are sent automatically to up to two nominated locations.

The SMS message is simply the yacht’s name, Sail number and finish time for the race together with lat/long of line crossing etc. The email attachments include the GPS track files recorded both in Google Map’s .klm format as well as .gpx format plus additional details of the race finish calculation.

The simple SMS message data is used in the immediate production of the race results and as the photo shows, has been arranged such that the SMS screen conveniently shows all the data on a single screenview.

The more detailed Email data can be used in any later race management issues but in RMYC’s case is regularly used to monitor each yacht’s rounding of offshore GPS marks that are used from time to time in the club’s racing programs. These GPS marks require yachts to turn within 0.1 nM radius of a nominated GPS position and also to provide data to show that the turn has been accurately completed. 'Race Logger' automatically provides this evidence and sends it via Email to the club’s race manager.

RL also has advantages for the skipper as it can be used as an onboard chart plotter and has been used by some of the club’s fleet to assist in locating offshore marks.

A recent RL upgrade now includes track files in the email that automatically bring up the yacht’s track using Google Maps and/or Maplink. Thus skippers and race management can readily review the yacht’s track throughout the race.

RMYC Port Hacking’s Sailing Division Captain Ross Hetherington says…

'Race Logger has completely changed race management in our club. After some initial discussions skippers soon realized the benefits to them and to our club’s race management generally. Many tests have shown that RL is better than individual sighting along the finish line and it results in much more accurate finish times. It also relieves skippers and crew of the burden of relaying results back to race management at a time when crews are all busy with the normal tasks at the end of each race. Frankly, I can’t see why all yacht clubs aren’t using RL.'

Race Logger is available from Google Play. Having contracted for RL to be produced to meet the specific needs of RMYC Port Hacking, the club has no financial interest in further commercialization of the App. Any clubs interested in using the App should make contact with Holger Kasten. To set up the one button download facility an arrangement with Holger will be necessary as the files are stored on the RL web server. Holger’s email contact is race.logger@ultragpslogger.com

Race Logger can be found on Google Play Store.

Ultra GPS Logger can be found on Google Play Store.