The Helm is the screen you sail by. It shows the chart and your instrument numbers, on a set of pages you swipe between. Everything else on the Sail side is one tap away and one tap back.
The bottom bar
Four items run along the bottom of the screen:
- Helm. The chart and the instrument pages described here.
- Race. The start line and the race timer.
- Route. The project you are sailing, or the router.
- More. Open Plan and Finish passage at the top, then Safety, Link, Log, Settings, Sail trim, Race committee and Help.
Turn the phone on its side and the bar becomes a rail down the side of the screen, with the same four items. See Turn the phone.
Above the area is the status strip: what is reporting, the clock, and the Lock and display mode buttons.
The starting pages
A fresh install starts with four pages, in this order:
- Chart. The chart with three fields under it: BSP across the top row, TWA and TWS beside each other below.
- Data. Six fields and no chart, with Record, Mark and Sync along the bottom.
- Wind. A wind dial showing apparent and true wind, with four more fields under it.
- AIS. Nearby AIS targets, dangers first, then by range.
Settings › Layout names this the Racing starting layout. You can change any page, add new ones, or take them away. See Add and arrange pages.
Change page
Swipe left or right on the fields, never on the chart. The chart keeps its own gestures for panning and zooming. The swipe follows your finger, so you can change your mind halfway. It needs a deliberate drag of a little over a centimeter.
The dots show which page you are on. They sit in the band between the chart and the fields, or just under the page's name on a page without a chart. Tap a dot to go straight to that page.
Each chart page remembers where its chart was: its position, zoom, orientation and declutter level. Going back to a page puts its chart back the way you left it.
Share the screen between chart and data
On the chart page the band with the dots is also a handle.
- Drag the band up or down to give the chart or the fields more room. The page remembers the split.
- Swipe down on the fields to hide the chart and keep only the data. Swipe up to bring the chart back.
Fields that have no data yet
Only fields with data is on to start with (Settings › Cockpit). A field shows up once its instrument has reported. If it then goes quiet, it stays on screen, marked stale, so you can see that a reading has been lost.
With nothing but the phone's own GPS, the chart page shows a single strip of speed and course under the chart. With no data at all, the chart takes the whole page. The Data page says No instrument data yet and offers Connect instruments, which opens Boat.
Turn Only fields with data off if you would rather keep every field in place, empty or not.
MOB
MOB sits at the top left of every Helm page. One tap marks the position and starts the return display. It works even while the screen is locked.