# Sail Tactician — Improve racing performance > Apple Watch sailing race tactical instrument with performance analysis. (iPhone/iPad app by Graham Hutchinson.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sail-tactician/id6741540409 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Graham Hutchinson](https://appshunter.io/developer/1794637177) - Category: Sports, Health & Fitness - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Rating: 5.00/5 from 1 App Store ratings - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 17.6 · 21 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2026-05-29 - Data updated: 2026-09-09 - Monetization: free - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sail-tactician/id6741540409/reviews.md ## What is Sail Tactician? A racing instrument for your Apple Watch and iPhone — start-line tactics, live VMG, guided coaching, and a logbook that tells you what to fix. START STRONG Ping the pin and committee boat and the app does the rest: distance to line, time to line, time to burn, and which end is favored, updating every second. The countdown calls every second from 30 out — spoken numbers or beeps, a long tone at the gun — and nothing on screen moves when you start it. Start from your wrist, or mount the phone and run the countdown from the watch. SAIL FAST A live compass with your no-sail zone drawn from your own boat's angles. VMG with a target heading and tack/gybe calls. The app tracks the wind as you sail, tells you whether you're lifted or headed, and labels every reading TRACKED or FORECAST so you know how much to trust it. Ping the windward mark for VMC, distance to mark and laylines at your class's upwind angle, on the watch too. Short distances read in boat lengths. Build your own race screens, 1-up through 8-up, and lock one to stay class-compliant. TRAIN WITH A COACH Pick a workout and drill with real feedback: tacks, gybes, VMG holds, speed runs, race starts, mark roundings, or your own. It counts your reps and coaches as you go — "Big speed loss, carry more turn speed" — and won't call the next rep until you're back up to speed. Ten presets or your own, chosen on the watch and run on the mounted phone. Training is marked beta in the app. KNOW YOUR BOAT Over fifty classes built in — ILCA 7 (Laser), Optimist, Snipe, Melges 24, J/70, Etchells, MC Scow, Nacra 17, Moth and more — each with its own upwind and downwind angles, or define your own. Save the boats you race: sail number, hull length and rigging notes, so the numbers follow the boat rather than the sailor. Mounted, the phone reads live heel and trim from one tap on level water, at any mount angle, and learns how far the mount sits off your bow as you sail. REVIEW EVERY RACE Every session records speed, course, heel, trim and heart rate, fix by fix. Your numbers score the race itself — the pre-start shows separately, with a Start tab breaking down your approach to the gun. Full-screen replay with a scrubber that jumps between maneuvers. Speed and VMG charts, a polar diagram, a heel trace, port vs starboard, upwind/downwind splits and tack efficiency. Beat coaching splits the race into legs and shows how far past the layline you tacked, and how much extra you sailed, on the map. No wind set on the water? Set the windward mark afterwards and the app works it out, or drag a compass rose on the map. Trim a race, or clip a range into its own session — the original is never touched. Coaching Review scores every tack and gybe; Recommended Training turns those gaps into a workout. RACE AGAINST YOUR FRIENDS Share a race with the sailors you raced against and compare boat-on-boat on iPhone: who led when, a scrubable lead chart, where the race changed hands, and a two-boat replay lined up at the gun. FREE TO RACE, PRO TO GO DEEPER Free to download and race with: countdown timer, compass, live speed and heading, your first five recorded races with full analysis, tacking drills, and race import and export. Pro is one yearly subscription — first month free — unlocking unlimited recording, the live tactical suite, every drill, race sharing and comparison, and your full history. Nothing is ever deleted. FOLLOWS YOU EVERYWHERE Sessions sync privately between iPhone and Apple Watch over iCloud, into your own private database, and the app says plainly when it isn't. Sign in with Apple is optional; everything works signed out. Import and export races as STX, GPX, CSV, KML or TCX, and read Vakaros VKX and NMEA 0183 logs. The user guide is built in, and you can send feedback from Settings — never with your race data attached. Capsize and knockdown detection requires the iPhone mounted to the boat. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ ## Key features - Audible countdown with voice cues - Real-time start line metrics - VMG to upwind/downwind targets - Tack and gybe suggestions - Live compass with no-sail zone arcs - Automatic GPS track recording - Standalone watch recording ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **Subscriptions** | Subscription | Price | Period | | --- | --- | --- | | Sail Tactician Pro | $29.99 | per year | ## Frequently asked questions about Sail Tactician ### Does Sail Tactician have ads? No, Sail Tactician is ad-free, allowing for an uninterrupted racing experience. ### What devices does Sail Tactician support? Sail Tactician is designed for both iPhone and Apple Watch, with standalone recording capabilities on the watch. ### How accurate is Sail Tactician's GPS tracking? The app allows recording at 1, 2, 5, or 10 Hz, offering flexibility to match your needs for detailed race tracking. ### Can Sail Tactician be used offline? Yes, the Apple Watch version supports standalone recording, allowing you to leave your phone on shore during races. ### What sailing classes are supported by Sail Tactician? Sail Tactician includes built-in profiles for popular classes like MC Scow, Laser, J/70, and Optimist, with custom options for any boat. ### How does Sail Tactician handle user privacy? Sail Tactician prioritizes privacy by collecting no personal data. Your race data is stored locally or in your private iCloud. ### When was Sail Tactician last updated? The latest version, 1.0.1, was released on June 5, 2026, indicating recent development and support. ### What is the age rating for Sail Tactician? Sail Tactician has an age rating of 4+, making it suitable for a wide range of users. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 2.1.2 — 2026-09-08 Coaching for the beat, and two fixes to what a mounted iPhone measures. Beat coaching (beta): • Open a saved race and the app now splits it into legs and looks at each beat: how far past the layline you tacked, and how much further you sailed than the shortest legal path to the mark. • Extra distance is measured against the angle you were actually sailing that leg, not your class's book number — so it's distance lost to the course you took, not to how high you were pointing. • The shortest beat is drawn on the map. Where the wind had to be reconstructed, or the mark was placed afterwards rather than pinged, it's drawn as a band rather than a line — it won't claim precision it doesn't have. • When it can't support a finding it says why, instead of quietly showing nothing. • Tap any maneuver in Coaching Review and the map opens on that turn with the heading you should have settled on. • The map legend is tappable — switch each layer on and off. Mounted iPhone, heel: • Heel is now worked out from gravity rather than the phone's own orientation. The old method mixed your turning into the reading, so on a mount that wasn't lying flat a tack could show a big spike of heel that never happened. • Correct at any mount angle — reclined, landscape, or a bracket that sits a little crooked. • The live reading shows heel as a magnitude. You can see which way you're heeled; the number doesn't need to spend a character on it. Recordings keep the side. • If you calibrated on an earlier version, Settings will ask you to level once more — the old reference can't be carried across. Your fine-tune numbers are kept. Mounted iPhone, heading: • The app now works out how far your mount is aimed off the bow while you sail, and remembers it between races. Nothing to tap. • It waits for both tacks before committing to a number. The boat crabs sideways, so the bow sits a few degrees to windward of your track — one way on port, the other on starboard — and sailing both is what cancels it out. • Move the bracket and it notices and tells you. • Heading is no longer recorded when the phone isn't mounted, where it was describing your pocket rather than your boat. Also: • Guided training is now marked BETA in the app. It works, but reps are spotted from GPS course — the least reliable thing we measure — so a drill can miscount. Your track is always recorded in full regardless. • Gybes are judged against your downwind target angle, so the cue reads "Too deep" or "Overturned" instead of the opposite of what happened. • A mark rounding is no longer graded as though it were a tack or a gybe. • Edit the wind on a saved race and the summary recomputes. Tack and gybe counts could previously stay frozen against the old value. • Every metric on a race screen shares one type size, so the numbers read as one instrument. • Move a start-line mark on a saved race and the Start tab recalculates on the spot. ### 2.1.1 — 2026-08-19 A tidier race screen, and a fix for start-line edits. • Every metric on a race screen now shares one type size, so the numbers read as one instrument instead of each block sizing itself. • The name of the race view you're on is legible at a glance again. • The small trend traces under each metric are gone. They redrew the number printed above them and made the layout jump. • Move a start-line mark on a saved race and the Start tab recalculates on the spot — line bias, favored end, and how far back from the line you were at the gun. It used to keep showing the old numbers. ### 2.1.0 — 2026-08-18 Live wind, and knowing how much to trust it: • The app now tracks the wind as you sail — on iPhone and Apple Watch — and shows whether you're lifted or headed, with a haptic on the watch when a shift is worth acting on. • Every wind reading says where it came from: TRACKED from your own tacks, or FORECAST from a weather grid cell that may be 20-30° out at a shoreline venue. • Saved races work the wind out from your windward mark instead of guessing from your track. Across nine real races the old method was 155° out and backwards on five of them; the new one was 10° out and never backwards. • Set or correct the wind on any race by dragging a compass rose on the map. One pre-start screen that doesn't move: • The countdown replaces the duration in place — start the sequence and nothing shifts under your eye. • Reset, Sync and Start/Pause live at the bottom, always in the same spot. • Tap the countdown to change its length; tap the favored end or the line numbers to set your marks. On the watch: • Distance and time to the line stay on screen after the gun, instead of vanishing when you need them. • Distance to mark, VMC and laylines now render on the wrist. • Type is sized to your watch — a 40mm no longer gets the type meant for a 46mm. • One GPS session instead of three, and the magnetometer backs off with your wrist down. Your boat, not you: • Sail numbers now live on the boat, alongside hull length and your own rigging notes. Race an MC Scow on Sunday and crew a J/24 on Wednesday and each keeps its own number. • Distance to line, line bias and other short distances read in boat lengths by default. In the logbook: • Heel gets its own tab and its own summary. • Trim or Clip: one map, one two-handled scrubber. Clipping copies a range to a new race and leaves the original alone, so a mis-placed cut is never destructive. • Long races open noticeably faster. Help and feedback: • The user guide now ships inside the app, at Settings > Support. • Send feedback without leaving the app. It saves and sends itself later if you're offline, and never attaches your race data. Accuracy fixes worth knowing about: • A GPS receiver keeps reporting its last known course when you're barely moving. Recorded course is now cross-checked against the path you actually travelled, so the replay arrow stops pointing the wrong way while you drift around before the start. • Fixes worse than 25 m no longer count toward your distance and speed. • Analysis no longer assumes one sample per second, so races recorded at 2, 5 or 10 Hz report the right times and distances. • The recording rate setting is now honest about being a ceiling the hardware often can't reach. • Three settings that appeared in both settings screens but silently never synced now do. • iCloud status tells you the truth — including the case where the store opened locally and a relaunch is needed. ### 2.0.0 — 2026-08-13 Race sharing & comparison (iPhone): • Share a race with the sailors you raced against, straight from the Logbook. • Compare boat-on-boat: who led at every moment, a scrubable lead chart, the spots where the race changed hands, head-to-head numbers, and a two-boat replay. • Comparisons anchor at the start gun, so you compare the race — not who started recording first. Start analysis: • Your stats now score the race itself — the pre-start no longer pollutes your averages. • A new Start tab breaks down your final approach to the gun. • The pre-start shows dimmed on the map and shaded on the speed chart, and the replay clock counts down to the start. • GPX exports now carry the start gun, and imports bring it back. Introducing Sail Tactician Pro: • The app is free to download and race with: countdown timer, compass, live speed and heading, your first five recorded races with full analysis, tacking drills, and race file import/export. • Pro is a single yearly subscription (first month free) that unlocks unlimited recording, the live tactical suite, every training drill, race sharing and comparison, and your full race history. • Already sailing with us before 2.0? Thank you — everything stays unlocked, free, for a full year from the day you first downloaded the app. Also: • Time to Burn now shows the right sign (positive = time to kill). • Line bias reads correctly on every wind angle. • Best Upwind/Downwind picks the genuinely better tack. • Faster and lighter recording, with less iCloud traffic on long races.Race sharing & comparison (iPhone): • Share a race with the sailors you raced against, straight from the Logbook. • Compare boat-on-boat: who led at every moment, a scrubable lead chart, the spots where the race changed hands, head-to-head numbers, and a two-boat replay. • Comparisons anchor at the start gun, so you compare the race — not who started recording first. Start analysis: • Your stats now score the race itself — the pre-start no longer pollutes your averages. • A new Start tab breaks down your final approach to the gun. • The pre-start shows dimmed on the map and shaded on the speed chart, and the replay clock counts down to the start. • GPX exports now carry the start gun, and imports bring it back. Introducing Sail Tactician Pro: • The app is free to download and race with: countdown timer, compass, live speed and heading, your first five recorded races with full analysis, tacking drills, and race file import/export. • Pro is a single yearly subscription (first month free) that unlocks unlimited recording, the live tactical suite, every training drill, race sharing and comparison, and your full race history. • Already sailing with us before 2.0? Thank you — everything stays unlocked, free, for a full year from the day you first downloaded the app. Also: • Time to Burn now shows the right sign (positive = time to kill). • Line bias reads correctly on every wind angle. • Best Upwind/Downwind picks the genuinely better tack. • Faster and lighter recording, with less iCloud traffic on long races. ### 1.0.4 — 2026-07-28 Guided training and coaching: • Pick a workout and drill with live coaching — the app counts your tacks, gybes, VMG holds, starts, and mark roundings and tells you what to fix as you sail. • Ten preset workouts, or build your own with custom drills and technique notes. • Choose a workout from your Apple Watch and run it on the mounted iPhone. • Coaching Review scores tacks and gybes on ANY past session, not just workouts. • Recommended Training spots your weak points and starts the workout that fixes them, from a session or from the Analytics tab. Windward mark and course tactics: • Ping the windward mark for VMC, distance to mark, and laylines on the map. • Mark roundings are detected and scored automatically. • Set a mark on a saved session after the fact, right on the track map. Import and export: • Export races as STX, GPX, CSV, KML, or TCX — one race, a selection, or all of them. • Import STX, GPX, CSV, TCX, Vakaros VKX, and NMEA 0183 logs. Mounted-phone improvements: • Calibrate heel, trim, and heading to your actual mount, with a live bubble level. • Full screen brightness during a race, restored when it ends. • Race summary closes itself after 20 seconds for back-to-back racing. • Bigger, higher-contrast race screens readable through sunglasses. Also: • Set wind direction and start line on saved sessions. • Coaching layer in Race Replay with a coaching/maneuver toggle and cue cards. • Countdown cue now runs from 5 to 30 seconds. --- *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 2026-09-09.*