King George Sailing Club

USING THE  ‘SAILRACE DINGHY RACE TIMER’

INTRODUCTION:

If you’ve ever been a Race Officer or seen it done, you’ll know how frantic it can be at the finish.  Sounding the hooter while simultaneously recording sail numbers, positions and times of multiple boats etc all in quick succession.  Well, following on from the Auto Horn starting system, we now have a new timer system to help with lap timing and finishing too. 

Instead of pen & paper, you can now use the tablet provided in the Race Office, loaded with ‘Sailrace Dinghy Race Timer’.   The app is relatively simple to use, however it has lots of features, so does require a bit of setting-up which is best done before you start the race.

Why not download a copy of the app from Google play or the App Store to your smart phone or tablet (it’s free) and there’s an example series you can explore to familiarise yourself with it all before race-day.  Search ‘Sailrace’.  Find and download ‘Sailrace dinghy race timer’.  This is the same app that you will be using as race officer to run the races.

The other ‘Sailrace’ app (same icon but with a broken halo around) is for competitors to view the results from the ‘cloud’ after racing – Down load the app and log-in with our King George SC id - Jtlaj0vLkCSrfUmppSUW.

Don’t panic, you can still do it all with the old pen and paper method instead if you feel more comfortable that way.

ON RACE DAY:

Turn up early and allow plenty of time to get organised.  Holding the tablet portrait style is best, double tap the screen to wake, or use the small button at the top to switch on.

NOTE:  Always monitor the power level (small Icon at the top right corner of the screen) and connect the power lead as or when required.  You should get a warning when things are getting low.  There is a charger lead in the race office drawer if needed.

BEGIN BY SETTING UP THE RACE:

Tap the blue ‘Sailrace Timer’ icon at the top left of the home page.  The ‘Series’, ‘Competitor list’ and ‘Races’ should be pre-loaded for you to simply select what you need for the day.

Tap the series we are running today – ie ‘2024 Summer Series’, and you will see a list of all available pre-loaded competitors, sorted by Class / Helm / PN, via the tabs near the top of the screen.

Tap the ‘Races’ tab at the bottom right of the screen, and select the next race from the race list.  Races are listed in sequential race number, date and time (11:00 for the morning race, or 12:00 for the afternoon).  Races at the top of the list with a ‘ticked’ icon have already been completed and can be ignored.

You should now find you’re in the start sequence page, pre-set to 3-minute countdown with a 10 second prestart duration.   You will see that you can easily change the ‘pre start’ delay period (0, 10, 20, 30 or 60) if you wish.

SET UP THE ENTRY LIST – Tally-On:

Tap ‘Timing Sheet’ tab at the bottom right and you will see all those available competitors again, sorted by Tally / PN / Class / Helm, via tabs near the bottom of the screen.  ‘Tally-ON’ all competitors taking part in this race, non-tallied competitors will be hidden during the race so won’t clutter the timing sheet screen while you’re recording laps or finishing.  Try to include everyone, as it is easier to do this now before the race is started.  A useful search of sail numbers can be used with the boxes at the bottom of the page, and a helpful tally count is shown near the top of the screen.

Note that many helms are listed with multiple classes or rig variants, ensure you ‘tally-on’ the correct one relating to the class they are sailing today, so that they are awarded the correct PY in the final results.

If you have missed anyone, or they weren’t on the list, it is possible to add them, even after the start, by typing their sail number in the boxes at the bottom of the screen.  If they are in the list (observing the class they are sailing today), you can simply tap ‘Tally ON’.  If they aren’t on the list, tap the ‘+’ tab at the top and you can ‘create competitor’ by filling in the simple form, then tap ‘Create’ and clear the number boxes to go back to the timer sheet.

Or perhaps, if necessary, you could just record them manually (pen and paper) but they won’t be included in the summary.    

NOW YOU’RE ALL SET TO START THE RACE:

Tap the ‘Start Sequence’ tab near the bottom left of the screen to go back to the start sequence page, then when you’re ready, tap the big blue ‘Start Sequence’ tab in the middle to begin the countdown - You’ll need to synchronise this with the hooter timer.  You’ll love this part, a 5 second voice prompt alerts you to the next signal and it even shows you what flags you should raise.

At the start signal, you will see options to confirm a ‘Clear Start’ or an ‘Individual Recall’ or a ‘General Recall’.  Tap the appropriate tab and you should be taken to the Timing Sheet.  However…..

If you have decided on a ‘General Recall’ the countdown will re-start automatically, but you might need to abandon this and start again so you can re-synchronise other timers ie the auto horn etc.

Selecting ‘Individual Recall’ will take you to a screen where you can award OCS to any competitors who were ‘On Course Side’ and do not exonerate themselves.  You can edit this code later if they eventually do return.  When you have done, tap ‘FINISH OCS’ near the top right of the screen.

Hopefully, you were able to tap ‘All Clear’.  The ‘tallied’ competitor list is now shown, sorted by Predicted / Corrected / PN / Class, via the tabs near the bottom of the screen.

NOW YOU’RE READY TO START RECORDING LAPS – All that setup effort will pay off:

Sort the list as you wish, however ‘Predict’ is recommended as this will initially put fastest classes at the top (PN order), these are likely to be the leaders when they come round to complete the 1st lap.

Tap the blue ‘LAP’ tab against each competitor each time they complete a lap.  This will record their lap time and send them to the bottom of the list.  Their icon on the left will change colour and indicate the number of recorded laps.

The little emergency ‘clock’ icon, top right of the page, can record a time stamp which can be assigned to a competitor later.

As you record the rest of the fleet completing their laps, they in turn will each be sent to the bottom of the list, gradually pushing the leaders back up to the top again in ‘predicted’ order.  In this mode, the list order will be continually updated each lap, so by the finish they will likely be very nearly in order, and easy to find.

If someone retires, tap the little pen icon next to their number and you can assign, or clear, a RTD or OCS code etc.

WHEN YOU’RE READY TO FINISH OR SHORTEN COURSE - Be sure you want to do this, you can’t go back:

Tap ‘START FINISHING’, near the top right of the screen.  You can now record finishing times instead of laps as each competitor crosses the finish line.  Average lap times will be calculated, so no problem if you’ve already let the leaders go round again, just finish them next time.

When all boats are recorded finished, tap ‘COMPLETE RACE’ near the top right (Be sure you want to do this, you can’t go back).  Any boats ‘not finished’ will be recorded as DNF and you can view the race results straight away as a list already corrected to PY.  Swipe left for a detailed summary chart, and left again for interesting analysis graphs.

YOU’RE ALMOST DONE:

From the results list, or summary page, tap the menu tab at the bottom right of the screen.  Select ‘Publish to cloud‘ to upload the race.  The results can now be viewed by anyone via the ‘Sailrace’ app as detailed in the introduction.

Thank you for performing your duty today, and I hope you found this system helpful and easy to use.

Oh sorry, I forgot, you’ll need to do it all again for race 2 ………………….

One little shortcut here, you can copy the tally assignments from the previous race via the little blue tab at the top of the screen, so you should be good to go.