Flying Start connects marine instruments to iPhone and Apple Watch for competitive sailors. We are looking for hardware partners to expand our instrument ecosystem.
Club racers are sailing's largest untapped market for marine electronics. Flying Start is the bridge between your hardware and their phone.
99% of club racers compete without dedicated instruments. They use phones, watches, and gut instinct. These sailors race weekly, not just offshore passages, and they have never bought a marine electronics product beyond a basic VHF.
Each club has 50 to 200 racing members. That is millions of competitive sailors who have never seen your instrument data on any screen. Flying Start puts your data on the screen they already carry.
Your instruments, displayed beautifully on iPhone and Apple Watch during a race. Every data point carries your brand. Every widget is a reason to buy the sensor behind it.
When a club adopts Flying Start's free Race Committee system, every racer in that club downloads the app. Instrument integration becomes a natural upsell from day one.
A native iOS and watchOS app that turns raw instrument data into actionable racing intelligence.
TCP connection to WiFi-NMEA bridges. Works with NavLink Blue, Yacht Devices, Digital Yacht iKonvert, and any standard WiFi-NMEA gateway out of the box.
WebSocket connection to Signal K servers. Full subscription model support for the open marine data standard. Access any data path in the Signal K tree.
Direct Bluetooth Low Energy pairing for wireless instruments. Currently supporting the Calypso Ultrasonic portable wind sensor, with more BLE devices planned.
Apparent Wind Speed and Angle, True Wind Speed and Angle, Boat Speed, Heading, Depth. All rendered in large, glanceable displays designed for direct sunlight on the water.
Uses live wind data from connected instruments to calculate which end of the start line is favoured. Turns raw wind angle into tactical advantage.
All instrument data displays on both devices, including standalone watch mode. Your sensor data on the helm's wrist, the tactician's phone, the entire crew.
Flying Start acts as a display and intelligence layer on top of raw instrument data. You provide the hardware. We handle everything else.
We handle connection management, data parsing, unit conversion, smoothing, and display formatting. You provide the hardware, the data stream, and the marine-grade reliability.
Multiple ways to work together, from a simple compatibility listing to deep product integration.
Send us hardware. We ensure compatibility and optimise the connection experience. You are listed as a "Works with Flying Start" partner on our instruments page and marketing materials.
Joint case studies, blog posts, and social content. Show your instruments in action during a real club race, with your data displayed live on Flying Start.
Sailing club packages: your instruments paired with Flying Start premium for club members. Joint pricing for race committees equipping their fleets.
Data hooks for deeper integration. Your companion app could trigger Flying Start features or share data bidirectionally. Custom data paths and instrument profiles.
Flying Start as a display client for your instrument ecosystem. White-label potential for racing-specific use cases where your customers want phone and watch displays.
Club racers already carry an iPhone and Apple Watch. They race weekly — Wednesday evenings, Saturday afternoons — not just offshore passages. They will not mount a chartplotter for evening racing around the cans.
But they will connect a wind sensor to their phone if the experience is good. They will buy an anemometer if the data shows up beautifully on their wrist during the pre-start.
This is additive revenue. A sailor who starts with a Calypso on their phone often graduates to a full instrument system on their next boat. Flying Start is the gateway.
Built natively for Apple platforms, with open standards at every integration point.
Supported protocols and known-compatible hardware via standard interfaces.
| Instrument / Device | Connection | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Calypso Ultrasonic | BLE | Supported |
| Digital Yacht NavLink2 | WiFi NMEA | Supported |
| Yacht Devices YDNR-02N | WiFi NMEA | Supported |
| Signal K servers | WebSocket | Supported |
| Generic WiFi NMEA 0183 | TCP | Supported |
| B&G / Simrad (via gateway) | WiFi NMEA | Compatible |
| Raymarine (via gateway) | WiFi NMEA | Compatible |
| Garmin (via gateway) | WiFi NMEA | Compatible |
| Actisense W2K-1 | WiFi NMEA | Compatible |
Start a conversation about integration, co-marketing, or bundled distribution.