# Fleet Start — Synced sailing start timer

> Synced sailing start timer (iPhone/iPad app by Mattias Bowallius.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fleet-start/id6802422893 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Mattias Bowallius](https://appshunter.io/developer/1338152686)
- Category: Sports, Navigation
- Price: Free
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.0 · 38 MB
- Languages: British English
- Released: 2026-08-28
- Data updated: 2026-10-07
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fleet-start/id6802422893/reviews.md

## What is Fleet Start?

Fleet Start turns every phone on the water into the same race clock.

The race officer creates a race and shares a six-character code. Everyone who joins sees the identical countdown, hears the same horn signals, and sees the correct signal flags — because the app syncs the schedule to a shared clock rather than streaming ticks. Phones stay in agreement even on patchy marina connections.

FOR RACE OFFICERS
• Run the World Sailing Rule 26 five-minute sequence, or a three-minute dinghy sequence
• Choose the preparatory flag — P, I, U, Z or the black flag
• Postpone with AP, signal an individual recall (X) or a general recall (First Substitute) — with the correct flags and sound signals
• Count down to the gun: start in 5 or 10 minutes, or at an exact time
• Pick the class flag for your fleet — numeral pennants, one-design classes, a flag you type, or your class insignia uploaded from your phone
• Run an evening of starts under one code, and record each finishing order
• Share the race with one tap

FOR SAILORS
• Join from the list of active races, or with a race code
• Big, legible countdown that turns red in the final minute
• Horn signals and a spoken countdown, in your choice of five cadences — from minutes only to a call every few seconds, or a 5-4-3-2-1 count into every minute so you can sync a watch
• Spoken announcements when the officer postpones or recalls
• Keeps working with the phone locked or in your pocket

APPLE WATCH
Follow the countdown on your wrist: the phase, the time to the gun and the next signal, with a tap at every signal and a tick through the last five seconds. It keeps counting if your phone drops out of range.

TRACKS AND THE REPLAY
When the race officer allows it, and only if you choose to, record your own GPS track through a race. It records only while the app is open, never in the background, and nothing is uploaded until the race is finished. Afterwards, compare the fleet's tracks over each other and scrub back to the gun, with speed, VMG and heading for every boat. Published tracks can be seen by anyone using the app.

THE START LINE
When the race officer allows it, ping the ends of the start line from the boat and see your distance to it, the bearing to each end, and which end is favoured. Whoever lays the windward mark can ping that too. Pings are shared with the race, so the replay draws the line the fleet actually started on.

This tool is off by default and only the race officer can switch it on for a race. Many one-design classes prohibit electronic distance-to-line aids, and that call belongs to the officer, not to each competitor.

RESULTS
Standings for each regatta by the Low Point System, with the discard the officer sets, and a season table across a series. Past races stay searchable by name, class, code or club for 30 days.

LEARN THE FLAGS
A built-in reference explains every signal flag — AP, X, First Substitute, the preparatory flags (P, I, U, Z, black flag) and the numeral pennants — with what each one means on the water.

PRACTICE ALONE
Practice mode runs a full start sequence on your own phone, with no network and no race officer. Ideal for training your starts.

No account needed. No ads, no analytics, and nothing used to track you across apps.


## Version history (last 3 releases)

### 1.3.0 — 2026-10-04

Follow the countdown on your Apple Watch. Open a race on your iPhone and the watch shows the same clock: the phase, the time to the gun, the next signal and the flags flying. Every signal taps your wrist and the last five seconds tick, so you can time the gun without looking. It keeps counting if your phone drops out of range, and the race officer's controls stay on the phone.

Record your track. Turn tracking on for a race and Fleet Start keeps a point a second while you sail, on the screen the countdown already keeps awake. It records only while the app is open, never in the background, and nothing leaves your phone until the race is finished.

Compare tracks afterwards. Once everyone is ashore, put the fleet's tracks over each other and scrub back through the race — it opens at the gun. Each boat is drawn where it was at that moment, with its sail number, speed over ground, VMG and heading, so high mode against low mode is something you can look at rather than argue about. Tracks are published to the race, and the race archive is open to anyone using the app.

The start line, and the mark. Anyone in the fleet can ping the committee boat and the pin, and whoever lays the windward mark can ping that too. The replay then draws the line the fleet actually started on, and ranks the fleet by how far up the beat each boat is rather than by who is nearest the mark.

A map underneath it. Where a map is available the comparison draws over the water you sailed on; without one, or with no signal, it draws the same picture on its own.

Standings. A regatta is scored by the Low Point System from the current rules, with the discard the race officer sets, and a season table adds the regattas up across a series. Neither asks anyone to set anything up: give two evenings the same series name and the season table appears.

Regattas. An evening of starts under one code is a regatta holding several races. The app says so now, where it used to say "race" and mean either one.

Past races. Everything the two-day list no longer shows, searchable by name, class, code or club, grouped under the day it was sailed, back as far as races are kept.

Sign on when you join. The starting list is offered as a card when you join a race, instead of sitting three taps down the menu where nobody found it, and your sail number is remembered.

Choose the preparatory flag. P, I, U, Z or the black flag, picked when the race is created — it decides what happens to a boat over the line in the last minute. The picker names the rule, not just the letter, and the countdown names the flag actually going up.

Fixed: filtering the race list to a club that no longer exists showed an empty list under a chip reading "All races".

Fixed: the new race sheet could not always be scrolled far enough to reach its own Create button.

### 1.2.0 — 2026-09-03

Clubs. A race can now be given a club, and the race list filters to yours instead of showing every race in the world. Pick your club once and it is remembered on your phone. If your club is not listed, add it — anyone can, in seconds, with no sign-up and no waiting. Clubs cannot be renamed or deleted once added, so nobody can hijack or remove one.

Finish a race properly. Until now the only way to end one was Reset, which means discard — so a race that had been sailed had to be thrown away to say it was over. A finished race now shows as finished, and keeps its start time.

Several starts under one race code. A club evening is usually three races with the same fleet, so finishing one now offers "Next start": the code, the settings and everyone already joined all stay, and nobody re-joins between races.

Starting list. Sailors can sign on with a sail number so the race officer sees who is out. Entirely optional, sail number only, and you can take yourself off it at any time.

Finishing order. After a race the officer can arrange the order boats crossed, mark DNF, DNS, OCS, RET or DSQ, and share the results as text for whoever does the scoring. It records the order and computes nothing — no points, no series, no handicap.

Start-line tool: ping the ends of the line and see your distance to it, bearing to each end, and which end is favoured. Off unless the race officer switches it on for the race — many class rules prohibit electronic distance-to-line aids.

Race officers now count down to the gun: "Start in 5 min" means the start signal is five minutes away, not the warning signal. Or set an exact start time.

Choose how much the spoken countdown says — five cadences, from minutes only to a call every few seconds, plus a watch-sync count of 5-4-3-2-1 into every minute so the fleet can start a stopwatch on the call.

Class flags for one-design fleets: presets, a custom flag you type, or upload your class insignia.

A race officer can now delete a race outright, which removes the starting list and any finishing orders with it.

Fixed the race screen sitting off-centre for anyone who joined a race they did not create, and added a landscape layout with the clock beside the flags.

### 1.0 — 2026-08-29

No release notes.

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-10-07.*