Route the real race. Sail the real weather.

Race board

First race? Start here

You don't need routing software or offshore experience. The boat is virtual; the weather is real.

1. Create an account below, open an upcoming race, and enter a boat on its page. Entries close at the gun.
2. Draw a route. Click Draw on chart, click a line of waypoints from start to finish, and submit. A straight line is a fine first route. The leaderboard will show you why the leaders didn't sail one.
3. Check the weather once a day. Download the race's on-board forecast (a GRIB file with the same wind your boat sails in) and adjust the part of your route you haven't sailed yet.
4. Try routing software. qtVlm is free. Import the race's course route and polar, load the GRIB, compute a route, export it as GPX and upload it here.
5. Compare afterwards. Download your sailed track as GPX and overlay it on the real fleet's to see where you gained and lost.

The full rules, the weather model and the file formats are on How it works.

Account

Create a race from the Notice of Race / Sailing Instructions

Upload the official race documents (PDF or text). The name, start time and course marks are read from them, and the documents are attached to the race page. Marks are only taken from positions stated in the documents, never guessed. Reading prose needs Anthropic credentials on the server; without them, a pattern parser reads coordinate tables.

Documents (NoR, SIs, course appendix — PDF or .txt, multiple OK) …or paste the relevant text (course table, start schedule) Polar (optional — defaults to the generic 40 ft offshore polar)

Create a race

Description Organiser's documents page Course marks — one per line: name, lat, lon (first = start, last = finish; decimal degrees or degrees-minutes, e.g. 40° 59.2' N) Polar — paste the class polar (TWS header row, one row per TWA; the format your routing software exports)