The anchor watch keeps an eye on the boat's position and sounds if it leaves a circle around the anchor. It is on the Safety screen: More, then Safety, then Anchor watch.
Set it
- Set the radius. Use the − and + buttons beside Radius 40 m, in 5 m steps from 10 m to 300 m. Allow for the length of rode out, the depth, and the distance from the bow to wherever the position comes from.
- Drop anchor here. Tap it as the anchor goes down. Offwind needs a position for this; without one, nothing happens.
The center of the circle is the bow. If you have set the bow offset in Race › Setup, Offwind moves the position that far forward along the heading; otherwise the center is the position the phone or boat GPS reports.
While it watches, the panel shows From anchor and the distance now.
When the boat leaves the circle
Offwind does not alarm on a single wild fix. It averages the last ten seconds of positions and allows for their reported accuracy, and it ignores fixes worse than 35 m.
- Outside circle, confirming. The boat is outside but it is not yet certain. A warning, Outside the anchor circle, sounds.
- DRAGGING. The boat has stayed outside for 20 seconds and at least three fixes. Anchor dragging is a critical alarm: it repeats and vibrates until you answer it. A real drag at a knot or less alarms within about half a minute of leaving the circle.
If no usable position has arrived for a minute, the panel says No position: the watch cannot see the boat. and you get Anchor watch: no position, also critical.
Answer it
Tap Acknowledge alarm, then slide to confirm. The sound stops and the watch starts again around the same anchor. If you re-anchor, stop the watch and drop it again in the new spot.
Stop it
Tap Stop anchor watch, then hold for two seconds.
Limits
- Leave Offwind open. Locking the screen is fine, but closing Offwind from the app switcher ends the watch, and it does not come back when you open the app again. See When you close the app.
- The watch is only as good as the position. A phone in a closed cabin may not see enough satellites.
- It is an aid, not an anchor watch kept by a person. Set one anyway in bad weather.