I made a race tracker for my local club

Posted by foilrider@reddit | sailing | View on Reddit | 38 comments

The image is just a fun screenshot where almost every boat is up over 10 knots, but [you can watch the entire race playback at this link](https://tylerkaraszewski.com/hryc/track.html?2024-06-12). I know these things are usually more interesting to those who participated but I thought a few people on here might still think it was cool. We’ve been using this for all our Wednesday nights this season and it’s been good info to have for debriefing after races.

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38 Comments

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ykmike@reddit

This is really interesting. I’ve been trying to figure out an app for boats to self track and self report results, best I’ve landed on is SAP Sail Insight but haven’t tried it for a race yet. How’s your system work? Every boat provides their own gpx file?

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foilrider@reddit (OP)

Every boat sends me a GPX, CSV, or VKX file and I add them. It is slightly more work for me, but gets better participation, because the hardest part is getting individual skippers to do anything. Whatever is lowest effort for them is most likely to happen. This way they can use any app they like that generates GPX (Strava I think is most common), or several different types of sailing instruments (Velocitek and Vakaros).

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barnaclebill22@reddit

Is your app on Github?

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foilrider@reddit (OP)

Not currently, although I guess it would be easy enough to add.

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barnaclebill22@reddit

Would love to see it. What language?

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foilrider@reddit (OP)

It's all JavaScript except for a single simple python script for looking up which tracks exist on the backend.

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LTshaw@reddit

I'd also love to see it. This is something I've discussed with the race committee before and maybe this could be a an opportunity to show what others are doing and how valuable it can be.

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foilrider@reddit (OP)

Maybe I will put it up. It needs a little bit of organization to make sense, though it's pretty small and simple so if someone wanted to copy it and knew a bit of javascript, it would probably be easy to get working.

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ykmike@reddit

Hey I'd be interested in taking a look too. I have tried rolling out the SAP Sail Insight app but the issue we're having is it's a few years since the last update and people are getting errors that their version of Android OS is too new to run the app.

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LTshaw@reddit

I know someone club side who has more programming experience than me and would look at it if you shared. Let me know!

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proptrader123@reddit

I'd very much like to see this on github as well. Would be super useful for debriefs at our local club. I'm sure you could get a group working on it and contributing features back upstream!

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ShootinBlankz@reddit

Is this for fleet 7?

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foilrider@reddit (OP)

Fleet 7 of what? This is for our local YC and not any particular one design fleet.

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ShootinBlankz@reddit

Ohh ok. I thought it may be the cal 20 fleet 7

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Nagosuka@reddit

Are cal 20's going that fast?

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ShootinBlankz@reddit

Idk about the racing versions. I’m told they hit 6-7 knots but I am not sure!(yet)

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foilrider@reddit (OP)

At the moment of the screenshot, every boat in this race is going over 8 knots and the fastest is doing 14.0 knots.

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ShootinBlankz@reddit

Wow lol. That is crazy. I’m sure it was a great day to be out there

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ShootinBlankz@reddit

I just got a racing cal 20… been taking the deep dive into learning to sail before I go out that way and do anything serious lol. I am lucky to have help from an experienced sailor, but I am equally fortunate to just have an opportunity to learn on the cal 20.

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MambaGoose@reddit

Way to come back after the first windward rounding. Also, hell yeah for thumper holding her ground with the Js. How did the express finish corrected? Awesome job on the program.

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foilrider@reddit (OP)

That first half of the first downwind leg sucked for us, hah. We put the kite in the water on the set, and then rounded up on the first two gybes. There were actually 11 boats racing. I only have tracks from 7 of them. On corrected times, the top three boats were Awkward Turtle, Spitfire, and Thumper (the Express).

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wrongwayup@reddit

I just rewatched it. You guys clawed back from a couple of early setbacks well. Would have been yours by a mile otherwise. That is some really tight weekday nigh racing man, looks like a lot of fun.

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foilrider@reddit (OP)

We would have won if only we had a good first half of a first downwind leg! But woulda, shoulda, coulda, every other boat has some mistake they could have fixed too. I was glad we had a good second lap and made up a lot of ground. I was happy with our result after the way the race started. And planing conditions are always fun in a competitive fleet.

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wrongwayup@reddit

Very cool. And of corse a well chosen screenshot with your boat at the top speed ;-P

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YouFirst_ThenCharles@reddit

Half the fleet just banging corners 😂

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8AndAHalfInchNails@reddit

Have you guys tried RaceQs?

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MSgtGunny@reddit

I've been using Waterspeed and it works well. Even has a countdown mode for race starts with buttons to re-synch if you miss the initial countdown flag.

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foilrider@reddit (OP)

Yes, in the past, but it kinda sucks and is effectively abandonware at this point.

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8AndAHalfInchNails@reddit

We use it. Definitely could be better and isn’t even remotely mobile friendly, but I haven’t found anything better.

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kev-lar70@reddit

I have 3.1.51 on my Android phone, and I can preset a start time, then after the race it auto-uploads to their site. Just checked, and it's no longer on Play store. Bummer. I use it on my watch, and it also auto-uploads. That app is getting updates, though.

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foilrider@reddit (OP)

It does some stuff that my tracker here doesn't do, for sure, but it also has weird bugs and no support and mobile apps that haven't been updated in the better part of a decade. If it worked better maybe we'd use it instead.

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thehoodedidiot@reddit

Can't even download it on play store anymore. Abandoned.

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pablo_blue@reddit

What class of boats are these? A Turtle's downwind speed on the 2nd lap was very impressive. Thumper's downwind angle is interesting compared to the rest of the fleet but VMG not good compared to AT. Thanks for posting.

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foilrider@reddit (OP)

This is a mixed PHRF fleet with separate one design scoring for J/70s. Spitfire, Jason, Awkward Turtle and Yolanda are all J/70s. Tabasco is a J/80, Thumper is an Express 27, and Morjito is a Moore 24.

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pablo_blue@reddit

That makes more sense now. I had presumed they were all the same class.

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CocoLamela@reddit

Someone named their boat Jason?

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foilrider@reddit (OP)

Jason wont give his boat an actual name so he's just "Jason".

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SailorChic76@reddit

There used to be a J boat in Chicago named Jason. Thought maybe it had relocated.