Speaking of Sailwave...

...as we were in our previous post about syncing with SailEvent, Sailing Club Software has contributed a publishing effect to Sailwave’s effects library.

It’s called the Pager and shows results, fleet by fleet, in a continuous cycle, ideal for display on a screen in the clubhouse. When applied to a Sailwave series file, the Pager shows the first fleet in the series then moves on to the next. When it gets to the end it starts again from the top.

Each fleet is shown for a default 25 seconds but you can adjust that. The default number of visible rows per fleet is about 20 so the Pager is best suited to multiple small fleet series, such as club racing. For championships and open meetings with fewer, bigger fleets there’s the Scroller effect.

The Pager effect isn’t directly part of SailEvent but it does present a neat finale to SailEvent’s flow from entry form to results. It’s included in all recent versions of Sailwave and we hope you find it useful.

Import App for Sailwave

Here at Sailing Club Software we like to work in harmony with others who also offer systems and services to the leisure boating community. This, we firmly believe, is the optimum way to bring value to clubs and classes.

That’s why SailEvent comes with integrations to multiple apps. Today we focus on the ones for results services – HalSail and Sailwave.

HalSail, like SailEvent, is cloud based and so integration is straightforward using established technologies. Working together, SailEvent and HalSail offer seamless connectivity for exchanging entry lists and finish status.  That means accurate results published in record time.

Sailwave is trickier because it is strictly desktop. Nevertheless with cooperation and ingenuity we can now introduce the SailEvent Import App for Sailwave.

The Import App is a Windows application that lets you synchronise SailEvent entry lists to their corresponding Sailwave series files. No more downloading and uploading CSVs.

Suppose you are running a Solo meeting and you have 50 entries in SailEvent. Open the corresponding, but as yet empty, Sailwave series file. Run the Import App to connect the series to the Solo meeting in SailEvent. All 50 entries are copied straight into Sailwave.

Then you have some last-minute entries, a couple of cancellations, you correct a few typos. Run Import again and Sailwave is back in sync.

The Import App is available with SailEvent paid-for plans. The installation package and instructions can be downloaded from >Settings >Integrations.

Many thanks to Jon Eskdale from Sailwave for his advice and input.

Digital Event Calendars

In our previous post we introduced SailEvent Digital Posters as an effective way to publicise your club’s sailing activities. We signed off with a hint that several posters in chronological order make a Digital Calendar. Here’s an example of what one might look like -

You can have multiple calendars – for instance one for club racing and another for open meetings. (Subscription plan dependent.)

Just like posters, calendars are customisable. You can change the background and heading to give each calendar its own look and feel.

Every calendar has a link for publication on websites, in emails and on social media. I really neat way is to embed a calendar inside a page on your club website: technically it’s called an iframe. Ask your webmaster to set one up (there are plugins for WordPress) and then you have complete no-code control over your calendar from within SailEvent.

Set up your calendars in >Settings >Calendars ready for the next (Northern Hemisphere) season.

Digital Event Posters

You’ve got your open meeting organised, volunteers lined up, NoR and SIs thoroughly checked, band booked. Now all you need are competitors.

The traditional way to spread the word was via paper posters pinned to noticeboards. Who knew who reads them and how effective they were.

SailEvent digital posters are the digital alternative for quickly reaching a wide audience via links on club and class websites, in emails and texts, and through social media.

Simple to create, easily distributed and with the entry form and other key information only a click away. Here’s an example:

Words, colours and images are all customisable and there can be up to seven action buttons giving instant access to

• Entry form
• Entry list (always complete and up to date)
• Notice of Race
• Sailing Instructions
• Official Notice Board
• Results
• Any additional information

Set up is in the new Posters section on the Events page. 

A list of posters in date order is an event calendar. That’s the topic of our next blog post.

New Stuff!

This blog has been quiet of late but that’s not because the SailEvent team hasn’t been busy. Far from it – we have been actively working with a major sailing club to power up the SailEvent experience.

The club, which shall remain anonymous, uses SailEvent for everything from club racing to world championships. Thanks to SailEvent they now have a smooth and efficient workflow from event promotion through entry form and safety monitoring to publishing results. That in turn brings enhanced  management information,  more control and improved competitor communication yet with less manpower and greater efficiency.

It’s now time to make this good stuff available to all. This is the first of a series of blog posts introducing the new features and functions.

The starting point is the Events page. We’ll be covering the most significant additions in subsequent posts but here is a selection of goodies for you

• New event fields. We’ll cover them later but Event Start Date provides the opportunity to sort and filter events by both name and date.

• The Sessions tab lists all sailing sessions scheduled for an event.

• Competitor counts when sorting and filtering competitors. Now you can see straightaway how many there are in, for instance, Fast Handicap.

• A new competitor field – Alternate ID. Use it for tally numbers, bow numbers and the like.

• New icons

Tap or click a row for more information

Go landscape for more information

In this post we’ve introduced many new features and functions. Next up are Event Posters, Event Calendars and more.

Declarations

eTally ashore is not just the time to check that everyone has finished sailing and is safely accounted for, it is also an opportunity to find out how they got on. Did they sail the course and finish correctly? Or Did they Not Finish, or even Not Start?

eTally has always accepted declarations for a single race; it can now accept up to four races in one sailing session.

The screenshot below shows how it looks in the eTally phone app for three races back-to-back. eTally Kiosk has an equivalent.

 

For each event you can set a planned number of races but we all know that things don’t always go according to plan! So ROs can set the actual number of races sailed in the Race Team app and eTally adjusts itself.

Why a maximum of four races? We feel that four is enough for most eventualities and, if there are more than four races a day, it is probably asking a bit much of tired sailors to remember exactly what happened!

Declarations are particularly useful at club racing level when hard-pressed race officers can’t always keep tabs on everyone. SailEvent now provides an easy way to collect score codes and feed them into results.

HalSail Integration

SailEvent can send declarations seamlessly to HalSail in real time. HalSail applies score codes to race results logically keeping in mind that the RO is always right but may not have all the facts!

For example, an RO may have someone recorded as finishing but that person knows they did only 3 out of 4 laps. They do the honourable thing and declare that they did not finish. HalSail scores them DNF.

On the other hand, someone else declares they finished correctly but the RO knows they were OCS. They stay OCS!

Fleets

We’ve tightened up fleet naming!

Previously a fleet name could be typed individually against each class in a class list. This approach opened the door to typos and spelling variants.

Now fleet names are entered once on the new >Admin >Fleets page and selected from a drop-down list in >Admin >Class Lists.

This ensures consistent fleet naming across all classes. Filtering lists of competitors by fleet works better and so do interfaces with other apps such as Sailwave and HalSail.

Existing fleet names have been transferred to a list of fleets for each SailEvent account. You may want to check your list and weed out any of those typos and variants.

It’s a small change but ultimately well worthwhile.