Hey Sailors!

So the race season is getting underway. In Toronto the Harbour Master series kicked off last Sunday, and the legendary Friday Night Race Series launches tonight, May 6th!

(How are things heating up in your part of the country? Get in on the Raw Fish action and post videos from your races, results ceremonies, and post-race “socials”!)

Want to get even more fun out of racing? Michael Williamson, CAA Race Chair, pointed me to a very interesting app called RaceQs.

RaceQs installs on your mobile phone, and it allows tracking and capturing all the action.

How does it work? Just start the app before your race, then drop your phone in a dry bag and tuck it somewhere safe. As you race the app tracks your GPS and sail data. It can upload in real time so friends back at the club can keep tabs on your progress. And if you prefer not to use mobile data, it just stores your GPS route and uploads later when you’re back on a wifi network.

Why’s this cool? For starters, you can review your whole race in 3D and see how you made out compared to the competition. Figure out which shifts you caught or missed. Relive the whole event and work out what tactics helped or hindered. And if you enable other app features you can even track crazy details like the heel and pitch of your boat.

And word on the street is, the more people who use RaceQs, the better the post race replays get. More phones = more data = more entertaining replays.

Think you might like to try it out? Download for iPhone or Android and let’s have some fun.