Devices: fēnix® 3, fēnix® 3 HR, fēnix® 5, fēnix® 5X
The Yachtsman app is for sailors, kite surfers and windsurfers who want to navigate to points, navigate around a route or make best progress windward given a user selected wind direction.
Points, routes and wind direction are entered by the user within the app.
Locations / courses saved in the device by other Activities cannot be used in this app.
The orientation of the device does not affect the heading. The most accurate heading is when the device is moving, as when sailing.
Units are in knots, nautical miles (over 1 mile), metres (less than 1 mile). Units are displayed as appropriate.
No interfaces to external components are supported (e.g. for wind speed/direction , tidal current/direction).
Disclaimer: Yachtsman should not be used as the only tool for navigation, the user should use up to date paper charts / compass, be familiar with the area they are sailing in and sail within their capabilities.
The 'Waiting GPS' page is displayed. Move outside for best GPS reception, the GPS position should be established within a short period of time.
Once the GPS position is established, the Main Page is displayed.
If the GPS position is lost during use, the 'Waiting GPS' page is displayed.
Main page modes:
(Press Up/Down):
The main page consists of a compass display, wind direction with tack sectors, next destination direction icon, a speed/time bar chart and short/long period heading information arcs
The compass North indicator is the Blue arrow, South is the Red arrow, East and West are grey arrows. The compass uses True bearings derived from the magnetic compas.
The wind direction icon is the three-pointed symbol
The next point destination icon is the white arrow
The small white circle shows the current direction of movement
The red arc shows the average direction over the Period 1
The yellow arc shows the average direction over the Period 2
Bar Chart:
The bar chart shows the speed now (white bar), then the speed over the last short Period 1 (Yellow) and long Period 2 (red bars), and the remaining speed history (green bars). The numbers above the graph show the maximum speed during the time period and the numbers below the graph show the minimum speed during the time period.
You can cycle through pages for Heading, SOG (speed over ground), VMG (nautical VMG) , Tack and Navigate (summary) page
Head
Shows current heading or direction of movement in degrees, and the average headings over the last Period 1 and last Period 2.
SOG
Shows current speed in knots, and the average speed over the last Period 1 and last Period 2.
VMG
This page calculates nautical VMG, i.e. velocity made good, the component of the sailing vessel's velocity that is against the direction of the true wind direction.
When sailing a beam reach i.e. perpendicular to the wind (Tack angle of vessel = 90) VMG will be 0.0, when sailing closer to the wind (Tack angle of vessel between minimum tack angle and 90 degrees), the VMG will be positive. When sailing broader than beam reach (Tack angle of vessel between 90 degrees and 180 degrees the VMG will be negative)
The VMG shown by the app when sailing closer to wind than the minimum tack angle (i.e. vessel is 'luffing up'), the actual VMG will still be shown, but when sailing this will not be an efficient heading to sail
When the bearing to the next waypoint enters or leaves the port (red) or starboard (green) tack sectors an audible vibration-alert is played. This indicates that the destination can be achieved or not achieved in this tack direction. The alert sound is 'positive' when the destination heading moves into the tack sector and is 'negative' when the destination heading moves out of the tack sector
Tack
This page shows the current heading as a tack angle relative to the user specified Wind direction.This page also shows the current and averaged angle between the direction of travel and the direction of the wind.
Navigate
This page shows the summary of the next destination
BRG: Bearing towards the next destination point and bearing deviation (R20 - to the right 20 degrees, L35 - to the left 35 degrees)
DST: Distance to the next destination point
VTD: Speed towards destination
ETE: Estimated time en-route to next destination point
ETA: Expected time of arrival at next destination point
Press ‘Select' from the Navigate menu to create a route.
- Add Location
Press select to add the current location, an audible vibration-alert is played
- Start
Press ‘select’ to start the route
- Route points
Shows ‘Empty’ if no route created already. Press up/down to move through the points.
- Saved Locations
Use up/down to display a previously saved location, press ‘Select’ to add it to the current route, an audible vibration-alert is played.
Wind
To set the 'Wind' direction in Yachtsman, click the 'Start' button on the VMG or Tack pages. The 'Wind' page is displayed where you can set the wind direction (increments of 5 degrees). This is the direction that the wind is blowing from.
The initial wind direction is the direction of movement. Press up/down buttons to change the wind direction and the back button to return to the main page.
Menus
- Timer
Use up/down buttons to set the minutes for a countdown time in MM:SS format. Only the minutes can be set. It defaults to 5:00. Press ‘Start’ button to begin the countdown timer. The countdown has a visual marker around the edge of the display to show progress. Alerts sound at minute intervals above 1 minute and then each 15 seconds above 10 seconds then at 1 second intervals until 0:00, then the main page is displayed. While the timer is counting down, use the up/down buttons to round the time to the nearest minute if required.
The current time of day is displayed (HH:MM:SS)
- Saved Locations
Displays saved points. It shows their coordinates, bearing, name, distance and the white direction arrow relative to the compass points (Blue arrow - North)
('Long Hold' Up button / Menu):
- [*=1]New Point
[*=2]Info
[INDENT=3]Defaults to name - 'POI'
Select the up / down to select characters to change the name of the point. Press 'backspace' to delete a character and the 'tick' to save the value
[/INDENT]
- [*=2]Latitude
[INDENT=3]Enter the latitude coordinate for the point. (Exp: 12N23'45", 12.34567S, 12N34.5678' or exotic 12.3S34.6'21")
[/INDENT]
- [*=2]Longitude
[INDENT=3]Enter the longitude coordinate for the point. (Exp: 12E23'45", 12.34567W, 12N34.5678' or exotic 12.3E34.6'21")
[/INDENT]
- [*=2]Go to
[INDENT=3]Press to select this point as the next destination point
[/INDENT]
- [*=2]Delete
[INDENT=3]Deletes the current point
[/INDENT]
- [*=1]Delete all
[INDENT=2] Deletes all current points from the app
[/INDENT]
When sailing towards a point, when the point is within the limits of time or distance, an audible libra-alert is played, the next point in the route then becomes active.
- Route points
('Long Hold' Up button / Menu):
Shows ‘Empty’ if no route created already. Add new points to form a route. Many points can be entered in the app in one route. Only one route can be saved in the app.
- Start/Stop Track
Press start to start or stop a track record (activity), an audible vibration-alert сonfirms this action. The activity can be analysed later in Garmin Connect.
- Settings
[*=1]Averaging
[*=2]Period 1
[INDENT=3]This is the shorter time period over which Yachtsman calculates an average speed/heading and displays this on the main pages.
[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]Select the length of Period 1 in seconds, default is 5 seconds
[/INDENT]
- [*=2]Period 2
[INDENT=3]This is the longer time period over which Yachtsman calculates an average speed/heading and displays this on the main pages.
[/INDENT]
[INDENT=3]Select the length of Period 2 in seconds, default is 10 seconds
[/INDENT]
Averaging applies to the main pages - SOG, Tack, VMG, Heading
- [*=1]Tack Angles
[*=2]Min (Tack Min)
[INDENT=3] This is the minimum angle of tack that the skipper expects the sailing vessel to achieve when 'close hauled'. This is the closest angle of tack
that the boat is expected to achieve before the sail luffs, start to flog and loses the ability to drive the boat forwards. It defaults to 45 degrees(Range 0-90)
[/INDENT]
- [*=2]Max (Tack Max)
[INDENT=3] This is the maximum angle of tack that the skipper expects the boat to achieve when 'off the wind'. It defaults to 120 degrees. (Range 90 - 179).
Kites have a reduced tack sector compared with windsurfers or yachts, and only some yachts have a spinnaker to allow downwind sailing (Tack angle 180). The audible vibration-alert is triggered when the destination waypoint is moving into or out of either tack sector
[/INDENT]
I am grateful to David Tucker for helping me write the documentation.
