L over One is flying...

A well organised Official Notice Board makes life easier for both you and sailors. This article is about positioning documents on your SailEvent virtual ONB with particular attention to changes to sailing instructions. 

Let’s start with a quick recap on the board’s Information section. It can contain some or all of –

• Documents, such as the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions, that are often, though not necessarily, drafted by the organisers.;
• Links to other web pages – perhaps a weather station, a Welcome video, an invite to join a WhatsApp chat. The opportunities are boundless.
• A set of hearings-related forms – protest form, request for redress, time limits, etc.

They are all listed sequentially on the board; each opened with just one tap or click. 

Getting that sequence right is key. Each item in the list has a Display Order – a single character 0-9 or A-Z. Items are listed in display order sequence (numbers before letters). If more than one item has the same display order, they are listed in alphabetical order within their display order. Blank display orders (the default) come last.

So what does this mean for your ONB?

You probably want the most important documents to appear first, that’s usually the Notice of Race and the Sailing Instructions, so give them display orders, say, 1 and 2 respectively. Or A and B, the choice is yours.

Next up, amendments to the SIs. We recommend that you publish them as documents in their own right, not as Notices to Competitors but see below.

Give them all display order 3 (or C) and then, and this is important, name them consistently with their number as part of their name. For example Amendment to SIs No. 1, Amendment to SIs No. 2 and so on, or Change to the Sailing Instructions 01, Change to the Sailing Instructions 02, etc. 

What we are aiming for is something like this

However, when you publish a change to the SIs, you need to inform the competitors. A good way to do that is to take the option of automatically issuing a Notice to Competitors. The notice appears on the ONB and competitors are informed by text or email. But you still need the hoot and the flags!

Hearings forms all have display order H  so they naturally appear in about the middle with plenty of room before and after, above and below, for your own stuff. 

It’s easy to adjust display orders and item names so experiment and juggle things around to get the best look. In your SailEvent club app, it’s >Notice Boards from the menu then the docs and links tab.

Protest!! Announcing SailEvent Hearing Management

Sailing is a self-policing sport and the long arm of the RRS law is the protest form. It’s often said that in club racing nobody reads the Sailing Instructions and nobody protests but, as you climb the ladder via open meetings and championships to the top, so the number of protests increases reaching, at times, dizzying heights.

But, at whatever level, sailors have the right to protest, or request redress, when they believe they have been wronged. The process starts with requesting a hearing and continues until a decision is published and, when warranted, scores are updated.

That’s where SailEvent Hearing Management comes in. It takes hearing requests through the flow from form submission, via initial vetting, scheduling hearings and notifying parties, to recording and publishing decisions. All online and all with the minimum hassle.

Starting with the Racing Rules of Sailing Part 5, Hearing Management adds Rule 42 and combines them with SailEvent data for maximum effectiveness. 

Here are just some of the features 

• Online protest and request for redress forms readily available on the virtual ONB.
• Initial vetting to filter out, for instance, results queries and invalid requests.
• Hearings scheduled to time and place, published on the ONB and all parties informed by text or email.
• Decision recording and publication.
• Scoring update checklist.

RRS Part 5 underwent a complete rewrite for the 2025-2028 edition. Its implementation in SailEvent has been thoroughly tested during 2025 with events up to European Championship level. However the Racing Rules of Sailing are always subject to interpretation in the light of experience and even personal preference. Consequently the SailEvent development team is open to all suggestions for improvement and fine tuning so, please, try this exciting new feature and let us have your feedback.

Kicking off 2026 with a new version of the Race Team app

Our first post of 2026 and there are exciting developments in store for SailEvent. We are kicking off with a new version of the Race Team app.

First a quick recap. As its name suggests, the app is an aid for Race Officers and their colleagues to use on the day. It tells them who to expect on the start line and whether they are safely ashore. The app can publish the course, keep track of patrol boats and manage the day in terms of times and races run. It works equally well on phones, tablets and computers.

The update includes minor changes such as rationalising the tab order and cosmetic improvements, but the major new features are:

Fleet Summary

The app now opens with counts of sailors by fleet so you can see straightaway how many to expect on the start line.

After racing, you can see at a glance if all are safely ashore.

 

Safety Check

It’s now even quicker to see exactly who, hopefully no one, is unaccounted for. Choose Safety from the Select (was Sort) drop-down.

Tap a name to bring up their details, most likely including their mobile. On a phone, tap their number to give them a call...

“Hello Jim, where are you? “

“Nearly home”

“ (inaudible) “

...and stand down the RIBs.

New eTally Icons

Feedback suggested they could be clearer so now we have

A round symbol means the sailor eTallied him or herself. Round = they go round the course? Square means marked off by the race team. I’ll leave you to devise with your own cue!

 

The new RT app is available now. Instructions for use are in app, get started via the >Help menu and, as soon as the Northern Hemisphere weather allows, please give it a go and let us have your feedback.