RaceFlow
User Guide

A single event in RaceFlow ties together five things: the race parameters, the fleet, the course, the exclusion zones, and the routing runs you request against a weather model.

You work through them on one dashboard, save your changes, then request a routing. RaceFlow uses the PredictWind engine, which calculates the optimal track for each boat and predicts the optimal elapsed time (PET). RaceFlow then calculates time correction factors and gives you maps, per-boat tracks, animated time-lapse playback, duration-weighted wind & routing analyses, portable track downloads, and printable scratch sheets to share.

Page login.php

You can reach RaceFlow with an ORC Sailor Services account or a social login. Any time your session expires, RaceFlow returns you here automatically.

Email & password

Sign in with the email and password tied to your ORC account. Forgot my password sends a password reminder.

Google & Facebook

One-tap sign-in with a Google or Facebook account. RaceFlow uses the account only to identify you, using your email address to register you as an ORC Sailor Services user.

Register

Not registered? Register now will create a Sailor Services free account, which you can use to enter RaceFlow.

Page events.php

After signing in you land on your events — the home base for everything you organize.

Create your event

To create an event you need to apply for one by clicking the "Apply for a new RaceFlow event" button, or directly here. The ORC Staff will create and assign an event for you. The event will include course designs according to the NOR and SI that you provided in your application, as well as one or more sample routings.

Open an event

Click a card to open its dashboard. Each card shows the event name and start time at a glance.

Page index.php?rfkey=…

The dashboard is where an event comes together. It's organized into four collapsible sections you can open and close by clicking their headers. To setup a routing you will need to construct the fleet, select the start time and the weather model to be used.

Save Changes

Sits at the top right of the dashboard. It stays greyed out until you change something, then lights up. RaceFlow warns you before leaving if you have unsaved edits.

Import Scorer Event

Allows uploading an ORC Scorer event file (.orcsc) directly to populate the full event setup in one go.

Dashboard · Section 1

These are the race basics that the next routing run is built on.

Name

The display name, shown across RaceFlow and on result sheets.

Start time (local)

The race start, typed as DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM:SS in local time. RaceFlow validates the format and converts to UTC behind the scenes, as soon as a routing is requested, based on the coordinates of the start of the selected course.

Distance (NM)

The course distance in nautical miles, as published in NOR/SI, used for time-on-distance scoring.

Safety depth (m)

The minimum water depth the routing is allowed to pass through. Choose Use draft to let the routing use each boat's individual draft from its ORC certificate, or select a fixed value to apply a uniform floor to the whole fleet. Use a fixed value when you need to apply the same depth constraints to all boats, regardless of each one's actual draft. The possible values are 2, 5, 10 or more than 10 meters, which correspond to the available depth contours.

Weather model

Choose which forecast model the next routing will use uses.

Course

Pick which of the event's courses this routing runs on, from the available course(s) that have been provided by ORC Staff. You can update these courses or build your own from scratch in section 3.

Divisions

Divisions are starting groups within the fleet, each able to start at its own offset from the gun.

Add division

Creates a new starting group you can name and configure.

Enabled

Toggle whether a division takes part in the next routing without deleting it.

Start offset (seconds)

How many seconds after the main start this division's gun fires.

Delete

Removes a division — but only if no boat is currently assigned to it, so you never strand an entry.

Routings

The table of routing runs you've requested for this event. Each row shows the submission time, start (local and UTC), the weather model used, and a live count of boats that are idle, processing, done, or errored.

• Done — track ready
• Error — routing failed for that boat
• Idle / processing — still running

While a run is processing, RaceFlow refreshes the row automatically every few seconds and shows a spinner. Once a run finishes, Details opens the full results and Delete removes the run.

Dashboard · Section 2

The fleet is the list of boats racing, each carried with its current ORC certificate. The fleet table is fully sortable — click any column header.

The fleet table

Shows each boat's country flag, BIN, boat name, sail number, division, class, certificate, RefNo and issue date. The RefNo links straight to the boat's certificate on ORC Sailor Services.

Assign a division

Type or pick a division directly in each boat's row; the field suggests the divisions you've defined.

Remove

Takes a single boat out of the fleet.

Update fleet certificates

Refreshes every boat to its latest ORC certificate and saves immediately — run this if certificates have been re-issued since you built the fleet.

Fleet Builder

Manage entries opens the Fleet Builder, a side-by-side workspace of available boats and your selected fleet.

Rating family tabs

Across the top, a tab for each rating family and VPP year. Click one to choose a country.

Country picker

A flag grid of the countries with boats in that family. Pick one to load its certificated boats into the available list.

Search

Filter available boats by boat name or sail number (three characters minimum).

Add & remove

Double-click a boat or click + to move it between available and selected. Both tables sort by clicking any column header.

Clear Fleet

Empties the selected fleet after a confirmation.

ORC Scorer import

Already have an ORC Scorer fleet file? ORC Scorer Import reads an .orcsc / .xml file, extracts the boat reference numbers, and imports those certificates into your fleet without overwriting your current event settings.

Dashboard · Section 3  ·  Editor route.php

A course is an ordered list of waypoints. An event can hold several courses; you choose which one a routing uses in section 1.

New course

Creates a starter course centred on your location (found from your IP), with a Start and Finish about 10 NM apart, and opens the editor.

Display on map

Opens a read-only map of the event's course and zones.

Edit / Delete

Open a course in the editor, or remove it. Deletions take effect when you save the dashboard.

The course editor

An interactive chart where you shape the course directly. The on-screen instructions sum it up: drag points to move them, click a point to edit it, and click a line to add a point.

Move points

Drag any waypoint or zone vertex on the map to reposition it.

Insert a point

Click anywhere on a course leg or zone edge to drop a new point exactly there.

Edit a point

Click a point to rename it, change its type (Start, Mark, Gate, Finish), or delete it.

Row reordering (▲ / ▼)

Each row in the waypoint table features dedicated Up (▲) and Down (▼) buttons to immediately shift that mark forward or backward along the course sequence.

Waypoint list editing

Edit mark names and coordinates directly as text, delete individual rows with ✕, or click Append blank to add a row at the end.

Copy & paste

Copy All puts the waypoints on your clipboard; Paste brings a list in — quick for reusing a course from elsewhere.

Course name & recenter

Name the course, and use Recenter Map to bring the whole course back into view.

Dashboard · Section 4  ·  edited in route.php

Exclusion zones are areas the routing must keep out of — traffic separation schemes, shipping lanes, restricted water, hazards. The dashboard lists them, simply a collection of coordinates.

The course editor page (see above) hosts the tools to create and update exclusion zones.

Add new zone

Creates a zone you can name, colour, and shape vertex by vertex on the map.

Name & colour

Label each zone and give it a colour so it's easy to tell apart on the chart.

Enabled

Switch a zone on or off for a routing without deleting it.

Vertices & reordering

Drag, insert, delete, or reorder boundary vertices using the per-row Up (▲) and Down (▼) buttons. Zones automatically validate and repair self-intersecting polygon boundaries when saved.

On the dashboard, the zones table is a read-only summary showing each zone's status, name, colour, and points.

Dashboard

Editing the dashboard never runs a routing on its own. You save your setup first, then request a run — which is the step that produces tracks and results.

Save Changes

Writes the whole event — parameters, divisions, fleet, courses, and zones — in one go. The button confirms with a brief "Saved!".

Request a new routing

Queues a weather-routing run for the current setup, after a confirmation. Each boat is then routed over the course against the chosen model.

When the request button is locked

RaceFlow disables Request a new routing and tells you why, so you're never guessing:

Unsaved changes

Save first — a routing always runs against the saved setup.

A run already in progress

Wait for the current routing to finish before starting another.

Not enough credits

Each run costs credits. The credits badge shows awarded, used, balance, and the price per request. RaceFlow is a free service for race organizers. However, in order to ensure that this free service is not abused but stills remains free, each routing is "charged" with a price (the number of yachts to be routed). The ORC Staff awards the event enough free credits for doing the job. But if your event runs out of credits just let us know!

Page routing.php?wrskey=…

Open a finished run with Details. The results page has three parts: the routing summary, the scored fleet, and the tracks map.

Routing summary

The run's name, course distance, and the scratch PET — the rounded average of predicted elapsed times used as denominator to calculate the time-on-time factors. This is mostly for informational reasons and normally you wouldn't need to change it.

Results table

Every boat with its status, country, boat, sail number, class, certificate, RefNo, and the scored figures: TOD, TOT, start time, PET and Predicted Finish Time (PFT). Sort by any column.

Show on map

Tick a boat to draw its track; the header checkbox toggles the whole fleet at once.

Details

Opens that single boat's track and step-by-step telemetry data (section 11).

Wind Analysis

Opens the comprehensive wind & routing analysis dashboard (section 12) with duration-weighted distributions and correlation charts.

Exports & Tools

Tracks map

Speed heat map

Colours each track by boat speed, blue at 1 knot through red at 22 knots and up — so you can see where the fleet sped up or parked.

Show windbarbs

Overlays the forecast wind across the course.

Auto-fit

Keeps the whole course framed in the map as you toggle boats on and off.

Segment details

Hover any track to read that leg's numbers in the live telemetry bar below the map.

Animation

Opens the time-lapse playback view (section 11).

One boat in detail

Page yacht.php?wrskey=…&refno=…

The boat view focuses on a single boat: its routed track on the map, plus a full track table of every step.

Track table

Local time, latitude and longitude, speed over ground (SOG), true wind speed (TWS) and direction (TWD), bearing, true wind angle (TWA), and per-leg duration, distance, course speed and course direction.

Back to routing

Returns to the full results page.

The animation

Page animation.php?routing=…

A playback of the whole fleet sailing the course, so you can watch the race unfold and see where boats converged or split.

Play / Pause

Runs the fleet forward through the forecast timeline.

Timeline slider

Scrub the slider to any moment in half-hour intervals to inspect fleet positions at key race transitions.

Choose boats

Show All, None, or select individual boats to compare tactical paths. Trails are coloured by speed.

Live telemetry popups

Dynamic callout bubbles follow the yachts displaying real-time TWS, TWA, SOG, Current Speed (CS), and Current Direction (CD).

Page analysis.php?wrskey=…

The Wind Analysis dashboard provides deep, duration-weighted meteorological and tactical insight across the fleet. It calculates exact true wind exposure along each boat's optimal path and produces interactive charts, distributions, and summary tables.

Interactive Visualizations

Correlation Scatter Plot

Plots each boat's duration-weighted Mean True Wind Speed (knots) and Mean True Wind Angle (degrees) against Predicted Elapsed Time (hours), All-Purpose Handicap (APH), or Fleet Rank. Clicking any point highlights that boat across the page.

Individual Wind Profiles

Side-by-side histograms displaying the exact percentage of race duration spent across 10 TWS speed bands (0–4 kt up to 30+ kt) and 12 TWA angle bands (0–15° up to 165–180°).

Fleet-wide Comparison

Stacked bar charts showing how wind conditions and points of sail varied across all competing yachts sorted by rating or finish time.

2D Joint Duration Heatmap

A matrix table showing joint TWS × TWA duration percentages with intensity shading, revealing the dominant conditions experienced by each boat.

Fleet Wind & Performance Table

Full fleet statistics

Sortable and searchable table listing Boat, Sail No, Class, APH, TOD, TOT, PET, Mean TWS, Mean TWA, % Upwind, % Reaching, % Downwind, and Total Distance Sailed.

Export CSV

Downloads the complete computed wind metrics table for further spreadsheet analysis.

Print / PDF

Generates a clean, print-optimized document perfect for race committee records and competitor post-race debriefs.

Pages scratch-tot.php · scratch-tod.php

Scratch sheets turn a routing into the printable allowance tables race officers use to score and post results. They open from the results page.

Time-on-Time (TOT)

Builds corrected times from each boat's TOT coefficient — the standard offshore scoring method. Adjust the reference and the sheet recomputes.

Time-on-Distance (TOD)

Builds allowances from each boat's TOD figure and the course distance, for races scored by the mile.

Page wrsappl.php

Organizers who need ORC to set up an event can submit the RaceFlow event request form. It collects the race details and documents and sends them to the ORC weather-routing team.

Race details

Race or event name, organizer, location, and the start date and time (required).

Documents

Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions, by link or PDF upload (optional).

Your details

Your name and email (filled in for you), plus a free-text comments box.

On submit, the request is emailed to the ORC weather-routing team at wrs-requests@orc.org.

The shorthand you'll meet around RaceFlow.

Weather routing

Computing the fastest sailing path through a wind forecast, given a boat's performance polar data.

WRS

Weather Routing Service — a single routing run requested for an event.

ORC

Offshore Racing Congress, which publishes the rating system RaceFlow uses.

RMS

The ORC rating and certificate data RaceFlow reads to build fleets.

VPP year

The version year of the Velocity Prediction Program behind an ORC certificate.

BIN

Boat Identification Number on an ORC certificate.

RefNo

The reference number of a specific certificate; links to the certificate itself.

Safety depth

The minimum depth (in metres) the routing engine is permitted to cross.

TOT

Time-on-Time — a coefficient that scales elapsed time into corrected time.

TOD

Time-on-Distance — an allowance in seconds per nautical mile of course.

PET

Predicted Elapsed Time — how long the routing expects a boat to take to complete the course.

PFT

Predicted Finish Time — the clock time a boat is forecast to finish.

Scratch boat

The reference boat that standings are measured against on a scratch sheet.

Division

A starting group within the fleet, each with its own start offset.

Exclusion zone

An area the routing is required to sail around.

Credits

What an account spends to request a routing run.

SOG / TWS / TWD / TWA

Speed over ground, true wind speed, true wind direction, and true wind angle.

Duration-weighted Mean TWS / TWA

Average wind speed and angle weighted by the time spent in each leg, reflecting true race exposure.

Point of sail

Course classification based on True Wind Angle: Upwind (<60°), Reaching (60°–120°), and Downwind (>120°).

2D Wind Matrix

Joint distribution table showing percentage of race duration spent across speed (TWS) and angle (TWA) combinations.

HTML Track Export

A self-contained, portable interactive file containing fleet tracks, speeds, and wind data for offline viewing.