How to Avoid the Rocks

FairWinds has gone to great lengths to help you avoid crashing into the shore. Second only to running out of coffee, waking up to see the skull and bones on your boat (after racing an otherwise perfect course) is a bummer!

Here are a few ways to help you avoid the rocks.

Coastlines ON

In the tools bar, you can toggle coastlines on/off. When ON, this will show a red border around the coasts.

These coasts are the official borders of FairWinds, and may not always line up to the map (FW is more accurate than most maps).

Pro tip: It's a good idea to keep them on and zoom along your course when navigating tight quarters. You will be surprised at how close you can cut it!

Crash Detection

This scans your reckoning line for any intersecting land. If it finds an intersection it displays a skull and bones over the crash area.

Important: This always follows your reckoning line not your route line. A deactivated route will not show a crash if it crosses until you activate it. By default a reckoning line always follows an activated route.

100% Safe Navigation

The coastlines and the boat's reckoning line are extremely precise.

If you are in route mode and your reckoning line is following it and you don't see any collisions - you are 100% safe.

There is 0% drift ever in a route.

Scheduled Waypoints + Weather Updates = 🏴‍☠️

By far the most common cause of a crash is setting up a sailing mode (TWA, VMG, VMC) and not accounting that the forecast will change every 6 hours.

When this happens your relative sailing mode and course will also change. Remember your TWA course that skirted the lighthouse... 12 hours from now? Boom.

The GRIB Cutover Circle

A great way to know when the weather is going to change is the GRIB cutover circle.

This shows the time of the next GRIB cutover:

• 00, 06, 12, 18z (UTC time)
• Or in your local time if you toggle it by clicking on the race clock

Best practice: Check what will happen if you miss a forecast for courses that extend past the GRIB cutover.

Summary: Stay Safe

1. Keep coastlines ON when navigating near shore
2. Watch for skull and bones on your reckoning line
3. Beware of sailing modes (TWA, VMG, VMC) near obstacles
4. Check the GRIB cutover circle for forecast changes
5. Recheck your course after each weather update

Safe sailing! ⛵