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Sailing guides

Watches, apps and instruments for racing sailors — what each one actually does, what it costs, and who it's for — plus how to get the most from Sail Tactician. We make Sail Tactician, so we say so wherever it comes up, and we say where something else is the better buy.

Choosing your gear

Buyer's guides and comparisons: what each watch, app and instrument actually does for a sailor.

Buyer's guideThe best sailing watches for racing in 2026Smartwatch, dedicated race timer or regatta chronograph? What each kind of watch actually does at the start and up the beat, and which one we'd buy for which sailor.Buyer's guideThe best sailboat racing apps in 2026Start timers, tactical apps, post-race analysis and the instruments with apps attached — what's current, what's gone quiet, and what each one costs.ComparisonApple Watch vs Garmin quatix for sailboat racingGarmin builds sailing into the watch. Apple leaves it to apps. Which approach wins on the start line, on a long day, and in the debrief afterwards.ComparisonPhone and watch, or a Vakaros? Choosing your start-line instrumentA $1,249 dedicated instrument and a phone in a bracket answer the same question — how far am I from the line? Where the hardware earns its price, and where it doesn't.

Using Sail Tactician

How-tos for when you have the app, or are about to.

Setup guideGet racing in five minutesBoat class, wind, race views and your first countdown on Apple Watch and iPhone — download to first race in five steps.ReferenceBoat profiles: upwind and downwind angles for 55 classesThe angles behind VMG, the no-sail zone and the polar for every preset class, and how to set your own boat's.How-toAlready race with a Garmin, COROS or Suunto? Bring your races into Sail TacticianYou don't need to change watches to get a proper debrief. Export the FIT or GPX file your watch already records and Sail Tactician turns it into a coached race.Day sailingA sailing log and instrument panel for any boatCruise mode turns the phone and watch you already own into a helm display, with every sail recorded in your Logbook — for day sails, and for boats that never had instruments.About the appWhat Sail Tactician does differentlyPlenty of apps count down to the gun. These are the decisions that make Sail Tactician a different kind of instrument — and the limits we'd rather you heard from us.

How we write these

We make Sail Tactician, and it appears in several of these guides. You should weigh what we say about it accordingly — so we put its weaknesses in plain view, and where another product is the better buy for you, we say so first.

We race with Sail Tactician ourselves. For everything else, unless a guide says we've used it, details come from the maker's own specifications and manuals, current App Store listings, and reviews by independent testers, all of which we cite at the end of each guide. We note when a feature couldn't be confirmed rather than guessing, and we don't score products we haven't measured.

Links to retailers. Where a guide links to a retailer that pays us a commission when you buy, the button reads "Check price at …" and a note beside it says so. Commissions never decide what we recommend: the picks come first, and several have no paid link at all.

We don't accept free products or payment for placement. Prices are US list prices on the date shown, and each guide keeps a dated record of what has changed. If you spot something wrong — especially about your own product — tell us and we'll correct it.