Sail Tactician vs TackSense

A sailing instrument for Apple Watch and iPhone, for racing, training or a day sail — start-line tactics, live VMG, a coach that calls your drills, and a logbook that shows what went well and what to work on. 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 speaks every whole minute from ten down and every second from 30 out — spoken numbers or beeps, a long tone at the gun. Record from the watch or the phone alone, or mount the phone and run it from the watch. On Apple Watch Ultra the Action button starts and syncs the countdown. Black Box shows nothing but the clock and still records the race in full. 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. Build your own screens, full-width stacks or grids up to 8-up, and lock one to stay class-compliant. CRUISE, TOO Choose Cruise for a day sail: just Start, no countdown. See sunset, the forecast and GPS and battery readiness before you leave; afterwards, your track on the map, distance, top speed and your season so far. TRAIN WITH A COACH Pick a workout and the coach calls it a word at a time — TACK, GOOD, HEAD UP — spoken from the watch or the phone, with a tap on the wrist. It counts your reps and scores each one against your own usual turn. Tap any drill to learn the maneuver: what it is, the steps, a diagram from your boat's angles, and your reps so far. Eleven presets or your own, run from the watch alone or with the phone mounted. 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 and more — each with its own upwind and downwind angles, or define your own. Save your boats: sail number, hull length and rigging notes. Mounted, the phone reads live heel and trim from one tap on level water. REVIEW EVERY SESSION Every session lands on a map, colored by speed, with course, heel, trim and heart rate. The pre-start is kept apart, with a Start tab on your approach to the gun. Replay that jumps between maneuvers. Speed and VMG charts, a polar diagram with the angle you held on each tack, port vs starboard, upwind/downwind splits, and every tack timed from when you crossed the wind. The Coach is a map and one finding at a time, each with the seconds it cost, with a tacking cone on every beat showing where you overstood. Place the windward mark afterwards and the app works out the wind from it. Trim or clip a race; the original is never touched. The watch shows the same analysis cards. RACE AGAINST YOUR FRIENDS Share a race with the sailors you raced against and compare boat-on-boat on iPhone: who led when, where the race changed hands, and a two-boat replay lined up at the gun. FREE TO SAIL, PRO TO GO DEEPER Free to download and sail with: countdown timer, Black Box, cruise mode, compass, live speed and heading, your first five recorded sessions with full analysis, tacking drills, and import and export. Every session is recorded and saved on every tier. Pro is one subscription, monthly or yearly — first month free — unlocking start-line tactics, VMG and wind shifts, every drill, race sharing and comparison, and your full history. FOLLOWS YOU EVERYWHERE Sessions sync privately between your devices over iCloud, and the app says plainly when they don't. Sign in with Apple is optional; everything works signed out. Speeds in knots, MPH or km/h; distances in nautical miles, miles or kilometers. Export STX, GPX, CSV, KML or TCX. Import STX, and in beta FIT from Garmin, COROS and other watches, GPX, CSV, TCX, Vakaros VKX and NMEA 0183. Capsize and knockdown detection requires the iPhone mounted to the boat. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

TackSense is a simple sailing aid that helps you understand your point of sail from wind direction, boat heading, wind speed, and gusts. Enter the conditions, and TackSense shows a clear visual guide for the sailing angle, likely sail position, reefing considerations, and downwind caution zones. It is designed for quick use on deck when you want a fast sanity check without clutter, accounts, or unnecessary complexity. TackSense can help you identify whether you are close-hauled, reaching, running, near the no-go zone, or in a wing-on-wing zone. It also provides practical trim suggestions such as when sails should be trimmed in, eased out, or when a more conservative setup may be appropriate. Features * Point-of-sail calculation from wind direction and heading * Wind speed and gust input * Clear sail-position diagram * Main and headsail setup suggestions * Reefing considerations based on wind strength and gusts * Downwind caution notes, including wing-on-wing and gybe risk zones * Simple terminology for newer sailors * Works on-device * No account required TackSense is not a chartplotter, navigation system, weather service, or replacement for seamanship. It provides general sail-setup guidance based on the information you enter. Always consider local conditions, sea state, crew ability, vessel setup, and official weather information before sailing. Built for sailors who want a fast, visual answer to a basic but important question: What point of sail am I on, and how should the sails roughly be set?