Do many clubs use timing software for sequencing lights, hooters and calculating corrected times etc. I am wondering which is the prefered software for ease of use, and sailwave compatability, bearing in mind most people on the duty rota will only use it 3 or 4 times a year. Some advice on how other clubs manage to get members up to speed with the software would also be appreciated.

Thanks.

Richard Russel (see http://www.r-p-r.co.uk - www.r-p-r.co.uk ) sails at Lymington and makes various devices.

At Burghfield, we have an electronic timer that hoots for us. It has 3 or 4 different programs that are set on one button, and a start button to set it going. The programs vary from 6-3-0 then every 30 seconds (pursuit racing) to 5-4-1-0 (opens) to 6-3-0-3-6-9-12 for club racing.

The club racing count up is then used to record all boats (even those that started 3, 6, 9 minutes later). The direct finish time from the clock is entered into sailwave, and this auto-takes off the starting off-set.

Using the timer just needs one page of clear instructions (plug it in, attach to the hooter, select a program, set it going, disconnect from hooter after the last start). Entering the results into sailwave is done by the club secretary / club manager - so that bit is always by the same person.

One alternative: always get the fleet captains to enter the results for their class.

At our club, we use a 12v seimens logo unit, connected to a buzzer, and a few clearly labled buttons. The unit has been programmed to do a count down with horns at 5,4,1, go followed by counting up again so the race officer just has to do the flags and write down the times at the end of the race. Can't remembe the exact programes its set up to run off the top off my head as i've not played with it for a while. The best thing about the system is that it makes the RO's life a lot easier, also as Logo units are so programable it means that multiple sequences can be programmed into it and its fairly futureproof. The downsides, not waterproof , this isnt an issue as we have ours in a watertight box with tamperproof torx screw to stop people playing with the settings, limited settings for users are available via the remote controls. The other two downsides are the cost its not a cheap system (inless you work in the trade), and the difficulty to programme the unit, its not hard with practice, but it needs to be connected to a pc with the specific programe.

Hope that helps if you want more info on this system or type of system send me a pm and i'll try to help as best i can