Race Alerts
FairWinds can email you or send a Discord DM when something on your boat needs attention — a grounding, a start, a finish, or (on Pro) a pinch, a gate approach, or a rounding. You choose each alert on your profile. Nothing is sent unless that channel is on.
Turn alerts on or off at fairwinds.world/profile under FW Race Alerts.
How they work
- Email and Discord are independent. You can have one, both, or neither for each alert.
- Emails go to your account address. Discord DMs go to the Discord account linked on the same profile page (connect Discord and send a test DM once).
- Alerts use the language saved in your profile. If you change language mid-race, the next messages may still use the previous language until your boat is loaded again.
- The simulation runs on one-minute cycles. Alerts are decided at the end of a minute, not the instant you change heading. A minute of delay is normal.
- Some alerts (crash, finish, gate rounded) wait until that minute has committed, so a last-second heading change cannot false-alarm you.
- After a FairWinds restart you will not get a replay of a crash or finish that already happened.
SMS is not offered yet.
Which alerts exist
| Alert (profile name) | Who | When it fires |
|---|---|---|
| Boat crash (runs aground) | Everyone | Your boat hits land |
| 15 minute race start reminder | Everyone | Once, shortly before a scheduled start |
| Race finish | Everyone | Your boat crosses the finish |
| Sailing below VMG (5+ minutes) | Pro | Pinch, too-deep, or irons for several minutes |
| Approaching next gate | Pro | You enter the distance you set to the next gate |
| Gate rounded | Pro | You cross an intermediate gate |
The three Pro alerts are locked on free accounts. Crash, start, and finish stay available to everyone.
Boat crash
Fires when the boat hits land. The wording follows the race’s collision mode: aground (stopped for repairs) or sunk.
Rules:
- One notice per grounding. If you stay on the rocks, FairWinds will not nag every cooldown window.
- After you sail clear in a healthy state, a later grounding can notify again — once the cooldown (default 30 minutes) has also elapsed.
- See Avoiding the Rocks for how crash detection works in the viewer.
Race start reminder
You get one reminder for a scheduled (not perpetual) race, while the race is active and the start is still in the future. The profile lists this as a 15-minute reminder.
No reminder if the race has already started, or if you only join after that window.
Race finish
Fires when your boat crosses the finish line. At most once per boat per attempt (perpetual races can notify again on a later attempt). The message can include finishing place when it is known.
Sailing below VMG (Pro)
This is not “head-to-wind only.” It fires when you have been sailing inside the polar VMG angle long enough that it is probably not a brief tack.
What counts as “below VMG”
Using true wind angle (TWA) against the polar’s optimum VMG angles, with a 5° margin:
| Situation | Rule |
|---|---|
| Pinch (upwind) | |TWA| is more than 5° inside the upwind VMG angle (closer to the wind than the polar wants) |
| Too-deep (downwind) | |TWA| is more than 5° outside the downwind VMG angle (deeper than the polar wants) |
| Irons | Boat speed from the polar is ≤ 0.05 kn, or |TWA| ≤ 15°. Polar speed is checked first; the 15° test covers polars that still leak a little speed at TWA 0 |
Irons can fire even when pinch/too-deep cannot. On a very round polar, or when downwind VMG is ~178°, too-deep may never fire.
Timing
- You must be in that state for 5 consecutive committed minutes.
- After a send: TWA must sit at or above VMG for 2 minutes, then a 30-minute cooldown before it can fire again.
- Switching to VMG, motor, or paddle clears the streak immediately (you are no longer “sailing below VMG”).
What does not count
These are first-class boat states. FairWinds does not infer TWA from them, and they are not “sailing below VMG”:
- Heave-to
- Anchor
- Stopped
Also skipped: DNF, finished, before your start, or missing wind. If true wind speed drops below 3 knots, the five-minute streak pauses (a brief lull will not wipe four good minutes).
Approaching next gate (Pro)
Watches only the next gate on your course. Finish counts. Start does not.
You set the distance X on your profile:
- Default 10 nm
- Clamped 1–20 nm
When it fires
- Enter: you cross into the X nm circle. Already sitting inside X when FairWinds first sees you does not fire.
- Urgent exception: if you are first seen already inside and you are within
min(5 nm, 0.25 × X), it still fires (you are about to round). - Rearm: sail back outside X + max(1, 0.15 × X) nm, then you can get the approach alert again for that gate.
The message says you crossed your X nm threshold. It does not print live distance-to-gate (that number is already changing by the time the mail arrives).
Gate rounded (Pro)
Fires when you cross an intermediate gate — not the start, not the finish.
- Once per gate per attempt. A later attempt on a perpetual race can notify that gate again.
- Like crash and finish, this waits until the minute has committed, so a mid-minute recalc cannot false-alert a rounding.
Turning them on
- Open your profile.
- Edit FW Race Alerts.
- Tick Email and/or Discord on each row you want.
- For Approaching next gate, set the distance in nautical miles.
- Save. Discord needs a connected account (and a successful test DM) before DMs will arrive.
Changes apply to boats already racing without waiting for the next login. Language changes are snapshotted when the boat is loaded — see How they work.