How to Use the SailTimer App

SailTimer is a low-cost app for iPhone and iPod. Rather than a complicated instruction manual, just watch this video overview. A picture is worth 1000 words.

SailTimer has a LARGE display of speed in knots that uses the GPS in iPhones. But even when there is no GPS (on an iPod) or no internet connection (for Google Maps), you can get some very helpful tacking information.

Just enter the angles of the wind and your destination, and presto: you get the optimal tacking angles. Add the distance to the destination and you can tell your overall tacking distance. And if you add your boat length, you can even tell how long it is going to take to get there. Even on an iPod, with no GPS.

Standard GPS chartplotters do not account for the obvious fact that sailboats zig-zag across the wind. How can they calculate your correct ETA if they don't know how far you are tacking? Unlike the cost of GPS chartplotters, this is an inexpensive download for a device that you can carry around in your pocket.

To download your own copy, just search in the App Store for SailTimer ($13.99) or SailTimer Lite (FREE). Or get the links and background information on SailTimer and on our new waterproof handheld called The Sailing GPS from http://www.IndepthNavigation.com

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• SailTimer
• sailing
• GPS
• sailboat tacking
• iPhone
• iPod
• app
• navigation