Tactical information on your wrist, readable in all weather. The Pebble watch's e-paper display, used in e-book readers provides a clear display that is visible in bright sunlight and runs for days on a single charge. more↣
- Wrist mount Having the data displayed on a wrist watch makes it accessible at all times, whether you are behind the helmsman, on the wheel, hiked out on the rail, off-watch below deck or on the bow setting a kite. The Pebble watch is waterproof, so is ideal for yacht racing.
- High visibility The Pebble watch uses the same "e-Paper" display technology that is used in Kindles and other e-books, providing a clear black and white display that is visible in bright sunlight; a feature that is indispensible when you are reading through salt-encrusted sunglasses on a bright sunny day. It also has a backlight that ensures visibility on an overnight race.
  Given the inherent challenges presented to displaying a lot of information on the small Pebble screen, we have expended considerable time and effort to make the displays as bright and readable as possible in the harsh bright environment of the yachtsman. The text is displayed in large bright fonts and information is grouped onto task-specific pages with a simple single-press button page navigation system.
- Power management The e-Paper screen of the Pebble watch is far less power-hungry than the LCD displays of smart phones and tablets and enables the Pebble to run for days on a single charge.
Innovative tactical information Tactician is ideal for round-the buoys, windward-leeward or short ocean passage races. It uses real-time data from the yacht's navigation computer (wind, speed, heading etc.), the yacht's performance targets (Polars) and the location of the marks of the course to get you to the best position for STARTING, provides ongoing analysis of your racing PERFORMANCE and provides indispensible tactical information for COURSE TRACKING. more↣
- Getting round the watch app
  The watch app consists of around 15 pages that you navigate by means of the four watch buttons (up, down, select and back) which take you through the various menus and information pages of the app. Some of the pages contain more data than can be displayed on the screen, so the up/down button allows you to scroll through to the information you want. Most of the information on the pages is updated every second or so with values refreshed with new data from the yacht's computer or GPS. more↣ ↢less (App navigation)
- Starting
  Races are not won by a good start, but are lost by a poor start. Tactician provides tools to improve your chances of being at your preferred position on the line, at full speed on the gun. Once you have pinged the ends of the line, it displays the length, bias and preferred end of the start line, and once you have started the countdown timer it provides a race-proven starting solution with Time & Distance to hit the line at full speed. more↣
  - "Ping" the line
    To locate the starting line, StarTraX Tactician provides the Ping the line feature to locate the two ends of the start line, traditionally identified by the Committe Boat on the starboard end and a floating marker (the pin) on the port end. more↣
    This menu allows you to select the Boat or Pin end and then Ping the line when the yacht's GPS is close to the appropriate end of the line. You would normally do this when you run down the line in the pre-start.
    The POI (Point of Interest) option allows you to record the time and location of events of interest during the race, such as the finish, when your rival rounded a mark, or when a whale was spotted. These points will display in the Tracker for post-race analysis. ↢less (Ping start line)
  - Start the timer
    There is a menu from which you can start the countdown timer at 10, 5 or 4 minutes. Once the timer is started, the Time & Distance screen will start to monitor your progress to the start. more↣
    
    It also shows the time from the GPS to assist you to prepare for the gun if your Committee boat is also running on GPS time.
    
    Once the timer has been started, you can monitor the time remaining on the Time & Distance display below.
    
    Once the time has expired and the yacht is across the start line, the timer stops and Tactician starts to track to the first mark, as displayed in the Next Mark display (below).
    ↢less (Start timer)
  - Start line
    The start line details are recalculated in real time as the wind strength and direction change, and provide the tactician with valuable advice on starting tactics, particularly the choice of starting end and the significance of that choice. With only a slight bias, either end would be equally favoured and may make the pin end a choice for clear air. more↣
    - Len (m): line length in metres
    - Bias: the line bias in degrees
    - Pref: the preferred end (BOAT or PIN)
    - By: the amount by which that end is preferred in metres
    - Time: the reaching time of the line (at current TWS)
    - At: The reaching speed in knots.
    ↢less (Start line detail)
  - Starting Solution
    StarTraX Tactician has adopted the highly successful but challenging "Port Approach" satrting technique, by combining access to real-time data and complex computing power to guide you through every step of this manœuvre, not otherwise achievable without years of trial and error. more↣
    The "Port Approach" start relies on a precisely steered port reach towards the start boat and then a precisely timed tack onto starboard in the dying seconds of the count-down. It provides the tactician with the chance to select a clear spot on the line and to hit the spot at full speed on the gun, but presents the challenge of perfecting the right heading to hit the spot and the time at which to execute the final tack to the line.
    
    There are five phases to the starting plan:
    - Initial Approach At around 3 minutes from the gun, depending on the wind strength, you position the yacht below the line at the pin end, reaching on port tack towards the start boat.
    - Steer for line position From this point you can make a final decision as to where you want to cross the line, and steer a course (see below) to get you there.
    - Reach to tacking point Keeping a good lookout for other craft, you steer a straight course until you reach the tacking point.
    - Tack onto starboard Harden up and smoothly tack onto starboard tack.
    - Beat to the line Trim the yacht for best upwind speed and head for the line.
    Tactician guides you to the correct heading for the reach and calculates when to tack.
    On completion of the tack, it reports time and distance to the line to provide fine tuning for the perfect start.
    In this screenshot, we are 1 minute 32 secs from the start on the port reach.
    - IN THE ZONE : We are in a position to reach to either end of the line if we wish.
    - Tack in 69 secs: is the time from now when we should tack to reach the line on the gun.
    - Middle: is the line position our current heading will put us. Possible values are: Below Pin, Pin end, Mid pin, Middle, Mid boat, Boat end, Above boat
    Here, having tacked onto the final beat to the line, we are 32 seconds from the start. Tactician has calculated, using your target boat speed in this the current TWS and TWD, that you will be 18 seconds early for the line, so reports that you have 18 seconds to burn.
    
    From your current position, at your target TWA to the TWD, the bow of your yacht is 2.7 boats from the line in the direction you're headed.
    
    All these calculations have factored in the values you have previously set in the Settings page for the length of the yacht (to provide distance in boat-lengths), the distance that GPS is behind the bow and the starting performance factor to be applied to target speeds during the starting phase.
    ↢less (Time & Distance)
- Performance
  It continuously re-calculates your actual VMG (velocity made good) and compares it with the target VMG for the current wind speed and leg of the course. it assists your helmsman and trimmers to see the to get the best out of their steering and trimming.
  It uses the current TWS and TWA to the current leg of the course to calculate your actual VMG to the mark and compares it to the Target VMG at that TWS from the pre-loaded yacht's targets. It reports your performance, upwind, reaching or running as a percentage of target, like 85%. 100% means you're spot on the target performance.
  more↣
  Normally the helmsman has to check his Log speed and TWA plus the TWS from the mast displays against the appropriate plackarded Target BTV and TWA for that TWS to monitor his upwind performance. This single %age figure is much easier and far less distracting to monitor than checking three display numbers and looking up the appropriate row on the Target plackard.
  Taking up considerably less concentration and distraction leaves the helmsman with much more time to concentrate on fine tuning his steering.
  - GPS time
  - Point of sailing (Beat, Jib reach, Kite reach, Kite run) and performance %age of target VMG
  - Log: speed through the water (kts), from the hull sensor
  - Tgt BTV: Target boat speed (kts) from the Polars for this point of sailing.
  - Act TWA: Actual True Wind Angle (degrees) from mast-head unit
  - Tgt TWA:Target TWA from Polars for this point of sailing. When beating and running it uses the best upwind and downwind targets; when reaching it uses the TWA to the mark.
  - Act VMG: Actrual Velocity Made Good (speed towards the mark)
  - Tgt VMG: Target VMG
  - TWS: True Wind Speed (kts)
  - TWD: True Wind Direction (magnetic)
  ↢less (Performance detail)
- Course Tracking After the start, it provides continuous time and distance to the lay-line to assist your tactician to choose the best route to the the top mark. It uses the pre-loaded club race courses and the location of the marks, the specific course that you selected before the start from the list of courses and the yacht's GPS location and heading to monitor its progress along the legs of the course. It then uses the current TWD and the yacht's Target TWA for the current TWS, it calculates the lay-lines for the next mark and uses the yacht's current GPS location and its Target speed and TWA for the current TWS to calculate and display the time (minutes:seconds) and distance (Nm) to the lay-line. more↣
  - Next mark (this leg)
    Useful tactical information to meke tactical decisions on the current leg. The bearing, time and distance to the next mark, lay-line distance etc. more↣
    This is a scrolling screen with data updated every second.
    - GPS Time
    - 1: MB :First mark "MB"
    - Dist to mark 1739 metres
    - Dist: Distance to lay-line 0.8 Nm
    - Time to lay-line: 8:46
    - BRG C: Reltive bearing to mark (clock) 12:30
    - BRG D: Relative bearing to mark (degrees) 018
    - VMG to mark: 6.6 Kts
    - BRG(M):Magnetic bBearing to mark 333.
    - ETI: Estimated Time Interval 8:32
    - ETA: Estimated Time of Arrival at the mark 13:05
    The select button takes you to the Mark Menu described below.
    ↢less (Next mark detail)
  - Next Leg
    The next leg information assists in sail selection and rigging after the next mark. more↣
    Tactician uses the current TWS and TWD and the next leg's bearing to calculate the TWA and AWS on the next leg. Using the previously loaded performance Polars, it can determine the next leg's point of sailing, and as a bonus, for a downwind leg it will recommend which side to set the pole.
    We use the current True Wind Speed (TWS) and Direction (TWD) and the bearing of the next leg (brg(M))to determine if it is an upwind or a downwind leg. Your sailmaster uses Apparent Wind Speed (AWS) to in his jib selection plus Apparent Wind Direction (AWD) for kite selection.
    As there is more information than will display on a single screen,you can scroll through the information using the scroll up/down buttons.
    
    Kite reach-Port: Point of sailing (see above)
    
    SP: Next mark is "SP"
    
    HDG(M): magnetic heading to next mark.
    
    TWA: True wind angle.
    
    TWS: True wind speed.
    
    AWA: Apparent wind angle.
    
    AWS: Apparent wind speed.
    ↢less (Next leg detail)
  - Next mark selector
    This menu is accessed from either the Next Mark or the Next Leg screen. It allows you override the choice of next mark that has been deduced by Tactician. more↣
    
    Once the countdown timer has expired and your yacht is over the line, Tactician tracks its progress around the course, working out the next mark as you round each mark in turn. Under some circumstances it may fail to recognize that you have rounded a mark, either because the mark was not laid at the location recorded in the marks list or it may have become confused by some unexpected course changes (a penalty turn near a mark will confuse it). This screen provides the tools to remedy situation by enabling you to move forward or back one mark at a time until you get it right.
    ↢less (Mark menu)
  - Speed, Heading etc.
    This screen displays additional information useful to the tactician including current or tide, water depth and temperature, GPS speed and heading. more↣
    - GPS time
    - SOG: Speed Over the Ground from the GPS
    - COG: Course Over the Ground from the GPS in degrees Magnetic, adjusted using the local magnetic variation recorded in the Organizing Club's record maintained in Configuration settings (below).
    - Log: Speed through the water
    - Hdg(M): Compass heading degrees Magnetic
    - Tide/set Speed and direction: The speed of the current or tide set that has been computed by analysing the difference between the GPS speed (SOG) and heading (COG) and the log speed and compass heading.
    - The value of the tide/set and drift is calculated over one minute (1m:), 5 minutes (5m:) and 20 minutes (20m:) to provide you with both the immediate and trend of the tide/set. The direction is given as the direction that the current is moving ("N" indicates a current heading North) and the speed is in knots.
    - Depth(m): Water depth in metres, from the boat's depth sensor.
    - Temp: The water temperature in degrees C, from the boat's water temperature sensor.
    ↢less (Speed & heading detail)
  - Course details
    This screen displays the details of the currently selected course and an option to select a different course from a list of avaliable courses in the currently selected series. more↣
    The scroll up/down buttons allow you to scroll through the data on the screen.
    
    You can change the current course from the Course Selector (below) by pressing the Select button.
    - "RPAYC": The abbreviation for the club hosting the course that you have previously selected from the Configuration/Settings page.
    - "Wednesdays Series": The series that you have also previously selected.
    - Course: The course number of the that you have selected from the Course Selector screen (below)
    - For each of the marks of the course, the screen displays the mark sequence (1,2,...), mark identifier(MB, SPC, LN,...), the length of the leg in Nm and the bearing of the leg in degrees magnetic.
    ↢less (Course details)
  - Course Selector
    This scrolling menu is accessed from the Course Details screen and lists all the courses in the current series. It allows you to select the course posted for the current race. more↣
    
    With the chosen course highlighted, you press the Select button to activate that course.
    ↢less (Course selector)
- Configuration/Settings
  The Pebble system consists of two significant components: the watch app itself and the Pebble app running on the phone. This phone app provides a "Settings" facility which Tactician uses to enable you to specify the details of your yacht and the marks of the courses that are necessary in the calculations that generate the relevant tactical guidance. more↣
  The phone, being a larger platform then the watch, provides a more convenient platform for entering data into the system.
  
  The first item, "Manage Courses..." is a link to the Course Management sub-system where you document the details of of the clubs, series courses and marks that you will be racing. Course Management id described in the "Supporting Applications" section later in the document.
  - Organizing Club: a dropdown list of clubs for which you have provided details in Course Management
  - Series: a dropdown list from which you select the race series offered by the club
  - Division: a dropdown list from which you select your divisions in the selected series
  - The next three values are used for calculations in the Starting displays:
    - Yacht length(metres): to calculate boat lengths from the line
    - GPS distance...: to calculate the position of the bow from the line
    - Performance value: to estimate boat speed in the pre-start, recognizing that you are unlikely to have the boat at full target speeds before the starting gun.
  The data that you enter or select from this page is stored and retained in the phone when you click the Submit button and ignored if you press the Cancel button.
  ↢less (Configuration)
- Troubleshooting
  To keep the data flowing, a number of components need to be working together, and this is a checklist for you to use when presented with the alert message. more↣
  This window will display when the watch has received no new data for 10 seconds and is prominently presented to ensure that you are not relying on data that may be quite old.
  
  The watch relies on a continuous supply of data from the server device (your Android phone) which in turn receives data from the boat computer and the phone's GPS. Without a reliable stream of data from all the sources, the informaton on the watch will become out of date and so useless for your purposes.
  - Is the phone is running?
    Its battery may have expired. Connect it to a power supply and restart the Tactician components.
  - Has Logger stopped working?
    There may be a message on the phone indicating a problem. You may not be able to restart Logger, so restart your phone and restart the Tactician components. A crash report will have been sent to th, so we will be able to determine the problem and implement a fix.
  - Is the GPS still running?
    Check the phone status page, you should see a notification like
```
StarTraX Tactician Logger
3D Pos Sats: 8, PDOP: 0.9 ideal
```
    with data being refreshed regularly.
    If no signal being received, check that the phone's GPS is enabled and that it can "see" the sky - not too much steel or timber between it and the sky.
  - Is the boat's computer running?
    Check that all the displays are still reporting good data, especially boat speed (log), wind speed and direction and compass. If not, use your boat computer manual to troubleshoot the problem.
  - Is the Bluetooth Dongle still running?
    The blue light should be on and steady. If not on, check the power connection. If it's flashing, that means that it has disconnected from your phone. Restart the Tactician components.
  - Other issues?
    We apologise for any inconvenience and will work hard to resolve your problem. Please contact us at [email protected] with as much detail as you can provide.
  ↢less (Configuration)
Simple installation and setup StarTraX Tactician supplements your yacht's existing integrated display system and requires only minimal additional cabling.
more↣
- Prerequisites (you supply)
- StarTraX Tactician (we supply)
  - The Tactician watch app more↣
    You download and install this free app from the pebble app store which you access from the pebble app on your phone. This has to be installed on all the pebble watches in the system. At least 4 watches can be supported in a single installation, the number is entirely dependent on the power of your server device. ↢less (watch app)
  - The Companion Tactician Android app. more↣
    You download this free app from the Google Play store. Even if you have more than one pebble watch, only one copy is required and which runs on the server device. This app receives the sensor data from your integrated system, combines it with position data from the phone/tablet's internal GPS and sends it to the Tactician app runing on the watches. ↢less (Logger)
  - The Tactician Bluetooth dongle more↣
    This is a small electronic component that we configure individually and supply. It uses our proprietary protocol to connect the NMEA data emanating from your integrated system to the Tactician app. This is the only component that you have to purchase from us. ↢less (Dongle)
  - A free, third-party web server app more↣
    Download Palapa from Google Play and install one copy on the server device. This provides the essential infrastructure to allow companion app to communicate with the the watch apps. ↢less (web server)
- Setup The following checklist summarises the installation and initialization of StarTRaX Tactician. more↣
Supporting applications to enable post-race analysis and to simplify initial set-up. more↣
- Post-race analysis
  By providing a web-based race replay system it offers a powerful post-race analysis platform for crew development. At the end of a race, Tactician uploads the track details to its web site without any need for file transfers or manual intervention. Your race track will be be available to you or your friends in the Tactician Tracker web page on any web-connected computer, whether at home or club bar, to present your race track, overlaid on a map, with a wide range of tools to zoom, pan and check wind conditions, to investigate and review the details of the race. more↣
  Features:
  - Speed colour coding
  - Wind speed and direction details
  - Tide/set details
  - Time display of track
  - Check your starting time
  - Many, many features inherited from StarTraX GPS tracker (gpsanimator.com/StarTraX) customized for yacht racing.
  ↢less (Tracker )
- Marks and courses direct input
  Entering marks and routes into a GPS has always been a messy business, either requiring lots of key presses to locate the entry page on the GPS and then to enter the details, or entering the marks into a desktop computer application and then connecting it to the GPS to download the details. Tactician resolves this issue by combining the simplicity of Google Earth to locate the course marks and then providing a user-friendly web page enabling the simple recording of a the marks of the current race, or all your club's courses.
  Details about the Mark entry and the course entry interface: more↣
  Features:
  - Upload marks from Google Earth
  - Multiple clubs
  - Each club can have many series
  - Each series can have one or more divisions and many courses
  - Each course can have many marks - with Port or Starboard rounding
  - Add, modify or delete clubs, series, courses, marks
  - Easy input of marks lists
  - The marks are on displayed on a map for easy identification
  - Sample files provided to get you started
  ↢less (Manage Courses )
- Yacht Polars
  Many of the tactical information is based on your yacht's performance in different wind strengths, wind angle and sail plan. The Polars maintenance interface allows you to manage toe polars tables for your yacht. more↣
  Features:
  - Simple data entry direct from spreadsheet
  - Multiple tables
  - Graphical image for validating data
  - Color coding of wind angles less than best upwind or greater than best downwind
  - Sample files provided to get you started
  ↢less (Manage Polars )
↢less (Supporting apps)
Software Download All the software is free and downloadable from Google Play and Pebble Apps more↣
- The StarTraX Tactician Watch app will be published for free on the Pebble download site, and its "Companion" Android" app will be published for free on the Google Play service "shortly".
↢less (Software Download)
Race replay Here is the link to the race replay page where you can review your race track on a map. You will need to know the StarTraX Tactician username of your yacht to review the tracks.
User Portal Here are the links to the supporting apps. You will need a username and your registration key to access these pages:
- Clubs, courses and marks
- Yacht performance "polars".

StarTraX Tactician

Installation

Initial Configuration

Race time checklist