The Marks are representations of the boat in a future location and corresponding wind conditions. They can simulate and monitor sailing Routes. The marks can be used in three ways:
Marks(WayPoints) are related to sailing targets that are aimed at for the future. The boat has its basic settings (heading, sail, etc.). And it is at the Mark that the new boat-settings (heading, sail) are changed after reaching that Mark in the Future. The Scheduled Sailing information is shown on the dashboard. This may be for the boat (“My Boat”) or for any of the Marks defined (eg “Marker 4”). The arrows are used to move between “My Boat” and the different Marks.
This is the default mode, scheduled for simulation and route development. The color of a “free” mark is Orange. In this mode the boat does not follow the marks, but changes have to be made manually at the point of reaching the Mark.
Creating the Marks is done with the Ruler. Once the Ruler is clicked on a target location on the map, a window opens offering the option Create. Clicking on it will create the next Mark.
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To position a Mark, point the mouse with the end of the Ruler and click. To make a mark active and the current one, click on it.
You can move an existing mark, by clicking it with the mouse and drag it to its new location.
The current Mark is highlighted in the Map and indicated in the Dashboard.
To move a Mark, just drag it on the map by click and holding the mouse button. It is also possible to move the marker to a new location by using the Ruler. Once the desired position is clicked by mouse, the Ruler will be fixed and the action Window opens; a click on the action Move marker will move the indicated Mark.
As for the boat, the marks maintain the basic settings of heading, sail, and auto-heading, to be set at the boat once the Mark is reached. When the basic settings are made on the mark, the settings are indicated on the dashboard.
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The Marks are used to indicate a target at a desired location and to estimate the duration of a Route taking into account the different settings applied to the boat and Marks and the development of the weather based on the available forecasts. This allows for the short distances to perform highly accurate simulations of a Route option.(accuracy depends on scheduler whether it is time-accurate or location-accurate) With each Mark, the information panel is available with mouse-over and gives an indication of time for the part of the route to this Mark. This information is available as a duration and a date and time (ETA)
Information available at the overview of the Mark can remain displayed by selecting the marker. To do this, click on the information icon available to the right side of the Mark.
A window on the right side of the screen will open with detailed information.
By passing the mouse over the marker to be deleted, a red icon appears for deletion. Just click on the icon to remove the Mark.
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This method of scheduling is the most easy to use. The Waypoint Mode is indicated by a green color on the menu icon and the marks. Once activated, the boat follows the geographical points identified by the Marks and changing the boat-settings set by each Mark. Waypoints scheduling is monitoring geographical Marks, making sure the path is followed closely by the boat, but it can not amend for un-expected changes in the wind; that will also influence sailing time.
The boat sails automatically to the location of the next waypoint. When she reached this waypoint, the settings are assigned to the boat and the waypoint is deleted; eventual following WayPoints are renumbered. The boat stops when reaching a waypoint, waiting for the next 10 min. update at which time the new settings are assigned to the boat, that will continue its sailing route with the new settings. It is therefore possible to lose a few minutes for a waypoint scheduling, but it allows also to stop the boat from sailing too far over a gate line or before it reaches the shoreline.
Waypoints mode does not support the setting of auto Heading . The Auto heading, however, can be activated on the last waypoint, when the boat leaves the scheduling mode.
Safe route planning, to make sure the gate and Finish line are not missed. Accurate setting of a route to be followed along the shorelines
Performance easily affected by weather changes which may change the time to reach the mark.
Loss of performance during the passage of waypoints, depending on duration of sailing towards the Waypoints.
An update in late 2011, has increased the sensitivity of WP's acting on the time your boat reaches it. This implies that in the majority of situations a mark set at a 10min. interval will create a stoppage of about 9min per WP mark. In Races this can strongly and negatively influence your classification.
To overcome this delay to some effect, you may set the Mark at the ..:.9 timing; this way your boat stops 1 min. before the update cycle, but doesn't miss it. You will loose 1 min but not 9 min!
Advanced WP users have found that you may reduce this loss to 31 sec, by searching the spot where the ..:.9:29 spot is for the ..:.9 timing and where the ..:.9:30 spot is, for the ..:10 min setting; this last one will make you loose some 9 mins, as it skipps an update cycle.
This method of scheduling is more complex to use than the Waypoints mode, but can tweak the scheduler better according to the weather changes. Unlike Waypoints mode, this mode is time controlled. The Scheduler Mode is colored in purple. At each Mark, the settings will be applied to the boat at the location of the mark. However if the time is not a full 10-minute update, than the actions of the mark will be set at the location of the last update before the time indicated on the Mark. Once engaged, the estimated time on the markers are locked and the positions of the markers may change when wind-conditions are changing. It is thus possible to monitor the evolution of the path due to wind shifts followed over time. Close to a Gate line or the shoreline, however, the mark may shift and have your boat grounded.
The boats sails to the Mark, will not stop but normally sail on on its course. The Boat has read the actions programmed in the mark and remembers them to be activated in the next 10-minute update.
At the next 10 min. update, the actions from the mark with be activated.
If the time on the Mark was set at a 10-minute update time, the actions will be activated at the location of that mark.
If, HOWEVER, the time on the Mark is somewhere between 01-09 minutes, then the location for the activation of the actions from the mark just passed will be the location of the previous 10-minute LS player update.
This is similar to the manual steering of your boat, where sail and heading instructions will also act on the location of the previous update.
After this the Mark, just passed, is deleted; eventual following Marks are renumbered.
Better adaptation to changing winds. The mark may shift a little as the wind changes.
Optimal performance of the boat; once set at the optimal sailing point it will sail optimale provided the auto heading is engaged.
Compatible with the Auto Heading.
Geographical Accuracy of Mark is limited. The location coordinates of this purple mark may change,depending on changing wind conditions at the sailing time to the mark is governing.
Route may change. With wind shifts, especially when auto heading is engaged, the route may change considerable.
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