You already have what you need

Six ways to get your boat on the map and get a replay of your race. Nearly every boat in the fleet already has at least one of them.
Nothing to buy. Nothing to borrow.
🏁 Watch racing ⛵ Track my boat — no app
Following racing, and getting faster Telltale is for following racing while it happens: every club race, live and replayed, for sailors, families and everyone ashore. It’s free and automatic. Boats with AIS appear on their own; any other boat joins with a phone, a GPX file from a watch or plotter, or a box on board.

Getting faster is Windshift’s: Windshift, Joshua Groom’s platform, takes a boat’s race apart afterwards and helps plan the next one. We share an open data format with it, and you can take your track there from any replay.
So — what have you got?
📡 If your boat hasAn AIS transponder Nothing to do
You’re already being recorded.
Every time you sail within range of a receiver — 24/7, nothing installed, nothing switched on, no app. Your races are captured as they happen.
Publishing a captured race still takes a human flagging it. That part isn’t automatic and we won’t pretend it is.
🗺️ If your boat hasA chartplotter 2 min, afterwards
  1. It has probably been logging your track all afternoon by itself — B&G, Simrad, Lowrance and Garmin normally record one without being asked. On Raymarine you usually start a track first, so check before the gun rather than after.
  2. Export the track as GPX to an SD card. Your plotter's own app may be able to pull it off for you instead — worth a look in the manual, though the card works on every brand.
  3. Drop the file at submit-data.
Replay, corrected on handicap, against everyone else who raced.
⌚ If you wearA GPS watch 2 min, afterwards
  1. Start any outdoor activity at the gun. Garmin, Apple, Coros, Suunto, Polar.
  2. Export it as GPX — straight out of Garmin Connect; an Apple Watch needs an app like HealthFit or RunGap.
  3. Upload it at submit-data.
Set the watch to record every second, not “smart” recording — smart throws points away and takes your tacks with them.
📱 If you haveAn old phone in a drawer Best phone option
  1. A free logger app — Open GPX Tracker on iOS, GPS Logger on Android.
  2. In a dry bag on the chart table. Below decks is fine — GPS goes through fibreglass.
  3. Upload the GPX afterwards.
Better than your own phone for one reason: nobody needs to pick it up mid‑race.
🧿 If all you have isThe phone in your pocket Recorded, no app
  1. Open /track.
  2. Type your boat name, pick the race, tap START.
  3. That’s it — nothing to install, no sign-up to record your race.
  4. To show up live on the map as you sail, sign in or open your club’s tracking link. The tracker tells you which before you start, never halfway round the course.
Leave the screen on. A call or another app pauses the recording — you get a gap, not a lost race, and we say so on screen when it happens.
🛰 If your boat hasSignal K or NMEA instruments Live + instruments
  1. Run the connector on whatever already runs Signal K.
  2. Position, wind, speed through water and heel all flow through — plus any AIS you hear.
  3. The crew’s phones become displays, served by the boat, with no internet needed.
How to set it up →
Want the sharpest track?

Run two signals

A boat with AIS is already on the map. Add a second signal and it gets smoother, sharper through the start, and much harder to lose.
Why AIS on its own is jumpyMost club boats carry Class B AIS, which sends its position about every 30 seconds. Where we are relying on a shared feed instead of a receiver of our own, the map only gets a snapshot every couple of minutes. Fine down a long leg, not much use at a start.
A phone fills the gapsA phone on /track records about once a second and updates the live map every few seconds. While both are running the map shows whichever is freshest. If the phone drops out — a call, a flat battery — the transponder carries on, so the boat never freezes.
One boat, one trackAfterwards the two are folded into a single track. We match them by your boat’s MMSI, so claim your boat with its MMSI on My Boat. Without it we would rather show two markers than guess.
Best of all: the boat’s own GPSA phone in a pocket is good. The boat’s GPS is better — a fixed aerial up in the clear, running all race with nobody touching it. Feed it in through Signal K or NMEA, below, and your wind, boat speed and heel come with it.
A club receiver helps everyoneA shore station of your own hears every report every boat sends, not a snapshot every two minutes. That makes the whole fleet smoother, not just you. What it takes →
Something not right?

Not working? Try these

Most problems are the phone or the browser, and most take thirty seconds to fix. If it works in Chrome but not Safari (or the other way round), start at the top.
“Can’t establish a secure connection” or the page won’t load
Type the address without the www: telltaleracing.com. If you’ve saved a bookmark or home-screen icon, delete it and make a new one from that address. Still stuck? Close the browser completely (swipe it away) and open it again.
It works in Chrome but not in Safari
Safari is probably holding on to an old copy of the site. Clear it just for Telltale:
  1. iPhone / iPad: Settings → Safari → Advanced → Website Data → search “telltale” → swipe to delete.
  2. Mac: Safari → Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data → search “telltale” → Remove.
Then open telltaleracing.com again and sign in. Upload any finished recording first — a track still waiting to upload is kept in that website data and would be cleared with it. Private Browsing works too, but the tracker can’t keep a recording safe if the page is closed.
The page looks old, or a button does nothing
Pull down to refresh. If that doesn’t do it, close the tab and open the site again — the newest version loads on a fresh open. On the tracker this is safe: a recording in progress picks up where it left off.
The tracker can’t find my position
The browser needs permission to use location.
  1. iPhone: Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → on; then Settings → Safari → Location → Ask (or Allow). For Chrome: Settings → Chrome → Location.
  2. Android: Settings → Location → on; then in Chrome, tap the icon left of the address → Permissions → Location → Allow.
Tapped “Don’t allow” once? The browser remembers — change it as above, then reload. Indoors or under a carbon or metal deck the first fix can take a minute; step outside.
No heel showing
Heel needs the phone’s motion sensor. iPhone: Safari asks the first time you tap Start or Ready — tap Allow. If you said no, Settings → Safari → Motion & Orientation Access → on. Then put the phone somewhere it can’t move, long edge pointing to the bow, and tap Level with the boat upright. Heel pauses while you’re using the phone and comes back ten seconds after you put it down.
My recording stopped, or has gaps
A phone stops recording when the screen locks or you switch apps. Keep the tracker on screen: the page asks the phone to stay awake, and it tells you if it can’t. Turn off Low Power Mode (iPhone) or Battery Saver (Android) before you start — both can stop location in the background.
I’m not on the live map
Posting live needs one of: signing in, your club’s tracking link, or your boat’s device key — the tracker tells you which before you start. The public map also runs a few minutes behind; sign in to see it in real time. Your track is still recorded either way and becomes a replay when you finish.
Still stuck?
Tell us on Feedback: which phone, which browser, which page, and what you saw — a screenshot is gold. It helps the next sailor too.
Then — want more?

Feed your instruments in

Everything above puts you on the map and gets you a replay. Sending the boat’s own NMEA adds the rest — and costs about the same as lunch.
Real wind, not a forecastTrue wind speed and direction recorded with your track, from your masthead — not a model’s guess at your patch of harbour.
Speed through waterAgainst SOG, which is what actually shows the current you were sitting in.
Heel, pitch and headingHeading against COG is leeway — nothing else on the boat tells you that.
VMG against your polarWere you at target, or just fast?
Live, with nobody babysittingThe box sends it. No screen to keep awake, no gap when someone takes a call.
The crew’s phones as displaysSpeed, VMG, heel, wind and a shared start timer, served by the boat, working with no internet at all.
Here’s how
🖥️ Already running Signal KRun the connector on the same box. Free
🔌 NMEA 0183 instrumentsAn Elfin EW11 serial-to-WiFi server — an off-the-shelf industrial part, not marine kit. Two wires, 12 V, done. ~NZ$13Sept 2026
🔗 NMEA 2000 backboneOur firmware, free, flashed onto an ESP32 board you buy yourself — about three parts. It plugs into a standard drop-tee: one plug for data and power, nothing to strip. We don’t sell a box. ~NZ$14Sept 2026

Prices are what the parts cost at NZ retail in September 2026 and they move about — the parts, the searches and the wiring are listed on hardware and in the buying list.

And it isn’t only for you. A boat feeding in also forwards any AIS it hears, so your boat quietly becomes a receiver for the whole harbour — and offshore, with nothing in the way of the horizon, for tens of miles in every direction. Every other boat on the map gets better because yours is out there. Your instrument channels stay yours: nothing is shared with anyone until you switch it on.
📡 If you want the map to be betterMake your boat a receiver set once

Shore aerials are stuck on the hill. They cannot see round a headland or into the far corner of a bay, so there are patches of the harbour where a boat is racing and nobody ashore can hear it. A boat underway has no such problem — it is already where the fleet is. Laissez Faire does this now, and covers water the clubhouse never will.

  1. Already have AIS aboard? Forward what it hears — the same connection that puts you on the map carries every other boat around you as well.
  2. No AIS? A Raspberry Pi or an old mini PC with a USB aerial does it: one line to install, and it runs on its own after that.
  3. It costs about 40 MB a day while you are out — measured on ours, not guessed. Call it a gigabyte a month if you sail most weekends: small, but not nothing, so check your plan. No clubhouse WiFi and no room on your own plan? One NZ list a tablet plan around NZ$20 for 40 GB (Sept 2026) — enough for a station several times over.
Nothing you send stops being yours. Re-share your own captures anywhere, for as long as you like — we only hold a copy. Every fix is tagged with who heard it, so your station gets the credit on the map. The data terms say it in full.
Not sure which one you are?

Then it’s the phone in your pocket, and that is genuinely enough — it is the same GPS the rest of this page is trying to reach. Open the tracker, type your boat’s name, tap record. A free sign-in, nothing to install, nothing to buy. If your club has sent round a tracking link, use that one instead — no sign-in at all — and you appear on the live map as well.

Track my boat →
What a club gets

Your racing, recorded, without anyone remembering to press anything

Give us your club calendar once and we read it every night: each racing entry becomes a recording window, and the AIS boats in your fleet are caught automatically. Nobody has to be ashore with a laptop, and a race nobody thought to record is still there afterwards.

Bring your club →

The boats without transponders — which is most of them

Mint one tracking link and send it to your fleet. A sailor opens it, types their boat name and taps record: no app, no account, nothing to hand out at the dock or collect afterwards. You can revoke it in one click, and it is worthless outside your club.

Club admin →

Results and history, pointing back at you

Publish results from Sailwave, RaceTrack or a spreadsheet and they gain a replay, series standings and a season champion. Where your club already publishes something, we link to your page rather than keeping a copy — the visit lands on your site.

Our promise to clubs →

What it costs

Club racing is free, always. A shore station is about NZ$209 in parts if you want one, and roughly 1.4 GB a month of data — both measured on ours, not estimated. Your data stays yours and exports whole, whenever you ask, in open formats.

Run a receiver →
If you build software

A keyed API, scoped per partner

Races, one race in full, and the AIS our own receivers heard — by fleet, box or MMSI. Every response names the source of every record. Rate and quota are per key, every call is logged, and a race is private until a human flags it.

The partner API →

What you may do with it afterwards

What we heard on our own receivers we grant outright: credit us, mark it not for navigation, re-share it. What came from another network keeps that network's terms, named per record, because a rebroadcast right we never held is not ours to pass on. A sailor's own data is the sailor's.

Data terms →

A format neither of us owns

One race, one file, the whole fleet plus the course and the wind — plain JSON, columnar tracks, no lock-in. Proposed jointly with Windshift so a sailor can carry their own data between platforms and neither of us has to scrape the other.

Open Sail Data →

The code

AGPL-3.0, plain-stdlib Python, one file per feature with its own tests and a real-HTTP check before anything ships. Contributions welcome; the house rules are short.

GitHub →