Starting app

I built an app to help get to the starting line right at the gun. We used it tonight and got a very good start. We were second at the first mark to a boat that owes us 75 seconds a mile so can't complain. We won the race by a couple of minutes but the really important thing about having a good start is that we were able to tack onto port and cross in front of the fleet to get to the first mark. That allowed us to start toward the favored pin end. Anyway, using the app you set the pin, cb, boat speed, and approach angle to the line (all measured by the app) and the app tells you how long it would take you at that speed to get to the line. It tells you how much time you have to burn so for example with 1:30 minutes to go and a position that would take you 0:30 minute to get to the line that means I had 1 minute to burn so I did a pair of tacks, went down the line a bit, then went for it. It does not substitute for judgement and you need to know how long your boat takes to go from where you are to full speed toward the line but it certainly helps. It does not suffer from the problems of all the other apps on the market that say they give you time to the line. It also has a GPS based timer so all I have to do is set the race start time at 18:15 and I can watch and see if the committee boat blows the horn at the right time or not as they are setting off their signals off GPS time as is typical these days. I am looking for beta testers. You need an android phone or tablet and be racing and willing to give it a try. You also have to promise not to give the thing away as eventually I will charge a few bucks for it but it is not ready for that yet. There are still some things to do, mostly cosmetic. I will probably start slow with the first responders. I typically find that the first users will have changes they want and the later testers will have the benefit of that. Let me know if you are interested and I will fill in some more details. Allen

You've been working on this for a while now. I'm not racing any time soon or would take you up on your offer. However, I am rootin' for you and hope you get the positive input these things need to get the bugs fleshed out. Cheers, Mike M. -- Allen Edwards <al… [at] gmail.com> wrote: I built an app to help get to the starting line right at the gun. We used it tonight and got a very good start. We were second at the first mark to a boat that owes us 75 seconds a mile so can't complain. We won the race by a couple of minutes but the really important thing about having a good start is that we were able to tack onto port and cross in front of the fleet to get to the first mark. That allowed us to start toward the favored pin end. Anyway, using the app you set the pin, cb, boat speed, and approach angle to the line (all measured by the app) and the app tells you how long it would take you at that speed to get to the line. It tells you how much time you have to burn so for example with 1:30 minutes to go and a position that would take you 0:30 minute to get to the line that means I had 1 minute to burn so I did a pair of tacks, went down the line a bit, then went for it. It does not substitute for judgement and you need to know how long your boat takes to go from where you are to full speed toward the line but it certainly helps. It does not suffer from the problems of all the other apps on the market that say they give you time to the line. It also has a GPS based timer so all I have to do is set the race start time at 18:15 and I can watch and see if the committee boat blows the horn at the right time or not as they are setting off their signals off GPS time as is typical these days. I am looking for beta testers. You need an android phone or tablet and be racing and willing to give it a try. You also have to promise not to give the thing away as eventually I will charge a few bucks for it but it is not ready for that yet. There are still some things to do, mostly cosmetic. I will probably start slow with the first responders. I typically find that the first users will have changes they want and the later testers will have the benefit of that. Let me know if you are interested and I will fill in some more details. Allen

Allen I'd be interested. Do I need functioning instruments? Right now all I have is a chartplotter that works. All my Navman instruments are on the blink. I have a Droid Razr 4G phone btw, no tablet. Thanks - Paul pw… [at] aol.com From: Allen Edwards <al… [at] gmail.com> To: Cal_Boats <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wed, Jul 25, 2012 4:00 am Subject: [Cal_Boats] Starting app I built an app to help get to the starting line right at the gun. We used it tonight and got a very good start. We were second at the first mark to a boat that owes us 75 seconds a mile so can't complain. We won the race by a couple of minutes but the really important thing about having a good start is that we were able to tack onto port and cross in front of the fleet to get to the first mark. That allowed us to start toward the favored pin end. Anyway, using the app you set the pin, cb, boat speed, and approach angle to the line (all measured by the app) and the app tells you how long it would take you at that speed to get to the line. It tells you how much time you have to burn so for example with 1:30 minutes to go and a position that would take you 0:30 minute to get to the line that means I had 1 minute to burn so I did a pair of tacks, went down the line a bit, then went for it. It does not substitute for judgement and you need to know how long your boat takes to go from where you are to full speed toward the line but it certainly helps. It does not suffer from the problems of all the other apps on the market that say they give you time to the line. It also has a GPS based timer so all I have to do is set the race start time at 18:15 and I can watch and see if the committee boat blows the horn at the right time or not as they are setting off their signals off GPS time as is typical these days. I am looking for beta testers. You need an android phone or tablet and be racing and willing to give it a try. You also have to promise not to give the thing away as eventually I will charge a few bucks for it but it is not ready for that yet. There are still some things to do, mostly cosmetic. I will probably start slow with the first responders. I typically find that the first users will have changes they want and the later testers will have the benefit of that. Let me know if you are interested and I will fill in some more details. Allen