Handicap and the Scope

Know who’s really ahead, then go and look.

On handicap, the boat in front on the water isn’t always the boat in front on the results sheet. JibTrak keeps a live corrected-time ladder for the fleet, turns every gap into a distance you can go and find, and draws that rival on the horizon at the size it should look.

Coming soonAndroid phones and tablets
Coming sooniPhone and iPad, after Android
Coming soonGarmin Connect IQJibTrak, for the epix Pro (Gen 2)

A live ladder for the whole fleet

Tick the boats that are racing and JibTrak keeps everyone’s corrected time as the race goes on. IRC (time-on-time) and PHRF (time-on-distance) sit in one table, each class can have its own start time, and an AP moves them all. The Garmin watch shows the ladder too.

One column to read: “vs Us”. It’s each boat’s corrected time against yours. Plus means they owe you time; minus means you owe them.
Every gap becomes a distance. “Four minutes” means little out of the window; “0.6 of a mile” is something you can go and find.

A boat ahead is water you’d have to sail, so its distance uses your speed. For a boat behind, JibTrak scales your speed by the two IRC ratings, because that’s the boat doing the sailing.

Handicap

Live deltasSOG 6.0 kt

An example of the handicap ladder on a phone: five boats with their ratings and corrected times, and how far ahead or behind our boat each should be.
#	Boat	Corrected	vs Usat 6 kt	Rival
1	FulmarIRC 1.048	3:49:59	+06:080.61 nm
2	TernIRC 1.026	3:45:09	+01:190.13 nm	Rival
3	Gannet (us)IRC 1.020	3:43:50	—
4	CurlewIRC 1.004	3:40:19	−03:300.35 nm
5	SkuaIRC 0.985	3:36:09	−07:400.74 nm

The ladder as it might look on a phone, with made-up boats, fastest-rated first. Tap a name and the Scope opens. Illustration.

The Scope on a phone. A boat called Tern is named at the top, with Previous and Next buttons. The headline says Tern should be about 0.13 nautical miles ahead of us, which is 01:19 of corrected time at 6.0 knots. Below it, a yacht seen from astern is drawn on the horizon at the size it should look, leaning over under a red jib. Under the picture: bigger on the water than on screen means we’re beating them on handicap; smaller means they’re beating us. Buttons: Camera, Refresh SOG and Measure. — The Scope, with a made-up boat. Illustration.

The Scope: go and check the sums

Tap any boat on the ladder and the Scope draws it on a horizon at the size its rig should look from where you are, if the handicap result is right. Then look at the real boat.

Bigger on the water than on the screen means the boat is closer than the ladder expects. If it should be ahead of you, you’re beating it on handicap; if it should be behind, it’s beating you.

It works with the phone’s camera or on a drawn horizon, you can measure a rival with two lines instead, and the Garmin watch has its own Scope.

The boat is drawn fresh for every rival, and how it’s drawn is part of the answer: bow-on with a red masthead light if it should be behind you, stern-on with a white one if it should be ahead, leaning or upright, and grey at night.

The Scope is an aid to your own eyes, not an instrument.

Timing the fleet as it goes by

The ladder assumes everyone has sailed the same time since their start. These two tools check it against what actually happens on the water, and both work with just a phone.

Mark ping

Who was ahead at the mark? Tap each boat’s name as it rounds or finishes, and tap your own. Once both times are in, the row turns pale green if you were ahead on corrected time and pale red if they were, with the gap beside it.

Exact with IRC ratings; with PHRF it’s an approximation.

GPS ping

No mark to time? On a windward–leeward course, tap a boat as it passes you going the other way. JibTrak logs where you are, times how long you take to sail back to that spot, and corrects the gap for handicap.

Pings made on the phone and on the Garmin watch are shared both ways.