Live Mode: GPS Tracking & Streaming for Competitions

Live Mode turns every entry's phone into a GPS tracker for the race, streamed in real time to a live map and results table — no one has to stand at the finish line with a stopwatch, and anyone with the link can follow along from shore.

Starting a live race (race officer)

From the SailingMetrics app, a race officer picks which competition classes are racing and the course, then taps Start race. This runs the same 5-4-1 starting sequence countdown as regular time tracking, indicating flags and sound signals at each step. Once under way, the officer can Abort race at any point, or Mark race as complete when it's finished. The officer can also opt in to sharing their own live location if they're on the water for the race.

Sailors' live tracking (participants)

Each sailor opens their entry in the app and chooses whether to share their live location with spectators before tapping Start race mode, which begins GPS tracking in the background. A status badge shows whether they're "Streaming live" (visible on the map to everyone watching) or "Tracking (private)" (GPS is still recorded and used to help detect their finish, but their position isn't shown to spectators). Once assigned to a race, the same starting countdown as the race officer sees is shown. A Share watch link button generates a link anyone can open to follow the race live, without needing an account. Tapping Stop race mode ends tracking and automatically uploads the sailor's track to their competition entry.

Recording finishes

For entries streaming their location, the app detects when a boat's GPS crosses the finish line and offers it to the race officer as a candidate finish time. On the officer's finish list, each entry shows one of three actions depending on its state: Finish now to timestamp it on the spot, Take GPS time to accept the automatically detected crossing, or Edit finish to correct a time or set a finish code (DNF, DNS, DSQ, etc.) after the fact — the same finish codes used throughout SailingMetrics' competition tools.

Watching live

A competition's Live tab on sailingmetrics.com — or a spectator link shared from the app, which doesn't require an account — shows a live map with every streaming boat's current position and recent track, alongside a table of sailor, sail number, time since last GPS update, speed and course over ground, elapsed sailing time, and finish code. Both update automatically as the race progresses, with no page refresh needed.