Sailing situational awareness

Sailing Situational Awareness

Sailing Situational Awareness is changing as sailing software systems develop. Classical sailing instruments use numeric displays to provide those vital readouts that are necessary for sailing effectively. But with the advent of waterproof sunlight readable color graphics, that is changing. Instead of a screen-full of numbers, your current sailing situation can be more effectively displayed as a graphic. This graphic can provide much more complete information and sailing situational awareness at a glance than is possible by the interpretation of numbers.

Starting line situational awareness

A good example of graphical situation awareness is our starting line display. It shows

• The current state of the wind relative to its left-right and up-down history (the ‘wind oval’).
• Times to the line ends, where you’re pointed and the dogleg starting point.
• A stopwatch with controls, and an adjustable predictor showing where you will be in 10 seconds.
• The option to show line times in elapsed time or ‘burn time’ which is what the stopwatch will read when you get there.
• The favored end and by how much in terms of time.
• Line bearing and length in distance and sailing time, and the two tack headings.

 Learn more about the starting line…

Racecourse situational awareness

A second example of graphical situation awareness is our racecourse display. It shows;

• The current state of the wind (‘wind oval’), and wind statistics which aid in the decision whether or not to tack on shifts (see Break-even tacking).
• Time to the laylines and ETA. For those that can take it, the laylines can show min and max times and your current times in relation to them (see Laylines).
• The current; the numbers, a vector at the boat, and ‘dCur’ which is the amount of current going with or against you.

There are many other graphical sailing displays available.

 Learn more about the Ockam graphics displays…

With our graphical displays, you learn more in less time, including stuff you didn’t think to know, and can spend more time concentrating on sailing without having to interpret the meaning of numbers. The key to genuine sailing situational awareness is today’s graphic displays, and Ockam software’s ability to push that out in an easy to understand visual display.