The complete user manual for Flying Start Race Committee. Everything you need to set up and run races for your sailing club or regatta.
Every race, from a Wednesday evening club race to a world championship, follows this sequence:
1 Go to rc.flyingstart.app
This is the Race Committee admin panel. All race management happens here.
2 Create an account
Click "New here? Create an account" and enter your email and a password (minimum 6 characters). You can also use Magic Link — enter your email and we'll send you a sign-in link instead of a password.
3 Check your email
If you signed up with a password, you'll receive a confirmation email. Click the link to verify your account, then sign in. If you used Magic Link, clicking the link signs you in directly.
| Password | Traditional email + password sign-in. Toggle to "New here?" to create an account. |
| Magic Link | Enter your email, receive a link, click it to sign in. No password needed. |
| Forgot your password? | Below the sign-in button. Sends a password reset email — click the link, enter a new password. |
After signing in, you land on the Dashboard. What you see depends on whether you've set up an organisation yet.
1 Go to Organisations in the sidebar (or click "Create Organisation" on the dashboard)
2 Click "+ New Organisation"
3 Enter your Organisation Name (e.g. "Itchenor Sailing Club") and optionally a Venue (e.g. "Chichester Harbour")
4 Click "Create"
You are now the Owner of this organisation. As Owner, you can:
Click directly on the organisation name or venue to edit them in place. Press Enter to save, or Escape to cancel. Changes save immediately — no separate edit page needed.
Only the Owner can delete an organisation. In the members panel, scroll to the Danger Zone and click "Delete Organisation". You must type the exact organisation name to confirm — this prevents accidental deletion.
If you have other race officers, scorers, or committee members who need access, you can invite them using your organisation's invite link.
| Invite link | A unique URL like rc.flyingstart.app/join/a1b2c3d4. Share this with colleagues. |
| Copy Link | Copies just the URL — paste into WhatsApp, Slack, or a text message. |
| Copy invite message for email | Copies a pre-written email message with the link, organisation name, and a brief explanation. |
| Role | Can do |
|---|---|
| Owner | Everything — plus manage members, promote/demote roles, transfer ownership, remove members |
| Admin | Everything except managing the Owner. Can request emergency ownership recovery if the Owner becomes unavailable. |
| Officer | Create races, enter results, manage competitors, publish results |
Click "👥 Manage Members & Roles" on any organisation to expand the member panel. As the Owner, you can:
If you're stepping down as race officer or leaving the organisation, transfer ownership so someone else can take over:
1 Open Manage Members & Roles
2 Click "👑 Make Owner" next to the member who should take over
3 Confirm twice (the second confirmation is a safety check)
You'll become an Admin — you don't lose access, you just step down from Owner. The transfer is reversible — the new Owner can transfer back if needed.
If the Owner has left the organisation, lost access to their account, or is otherwise unavailable, any Admin can request an emergency ownership transfer:
1 Open Manage Members & Roles
2 Scroll to "🔑 Emergency Ownership Recovery" (only visible to Admins)
3 Click "Request Ownership Transfer", choose who should become the new Owner, and optionally explain why
4 A 7-day waiting period begins. The current Owner is notified by email and can cancel the request during this time.
5 After 7 days, the "Finalise Transfer" button appears. Any Admin can click it to complete the transfer.
An Event is a container for a regatta or open meeting. Events can have multiple series (e.g. a regatta might have a Dinghy Series and a Keelboat Series), online entry forms, and a notice board.
1 Click "+ New Event"
2 Enter the Event Name (e.g. "Spring Regatta 2026"), Start Date, End Date, Venue (optional), and a Description (optional — for sailing instructions, schedule info, etc.)
3 Click "Create Event"
All event details can be edited after creation. On the Event Detail page, click directly on the event name, start date, end date, venue, or description to edit them in place. Press Enter to save, or Escape to cancel.
After creating the event, you need to link one or more series to it. This connects the entry form to your scoring — competitors can choose which fleet they're entering, and confirmed entries are automatically assigned to the right series.
1 Click into the event to open the Event Detail page
2 In the Series section, click "+ Link Series"
3 Select from your existing series. If you haven't created the series yet, go to Series and create them first, then come back and link them.
The linked series appear on the event detail page. Click on a series name to go to its detail page. Click "Unlink" to remove the connection (this doesn't delete the series — just removes it from the event).
Annual regattas and club seasons typically follow the same structure year after year. Instead of rebuilding everything from scratch, copy last year's event and adjust the details. This takes a few minutes instead of an hour.
1 Go to Events and find last year's event (e.g. "Falmouth Week 2025" or "Yachts 2025")
2 Click the "⧉ Copy" button on that event's row
3 A dialog appears with editable fields:
4 Click "Copy Event"
The new event copies the description, linked series (with all their races), and entry form configuration from the original. Entries, competitors, results, and notices are NOT copied — you start with a clean slate for new registrations.
Click into the new event. Review and update the details that change year to year — click directly on any field to edit it in place:
Your copied series appear in the Event Detail page. For each series, click into it and review:
Each copied series will have its races from last year. You'll need to update the dates:
1 Back on the Event Detail page, click "Open Entries" to enable the online entry form
2 Click "Publish" to make the event live
3 Copy the entry form link and share it with your competitors — via email, club newsletter, social media, or notice board
That's it — your new season or regatta is set up. Competitors can now enter online, and you're ready to race.
A series is a group of races scored together — for example, "Wednesday Evening Series 2026" or "Spring Championship".
1 Click "+ New Series"
2 Enter a Series Name (e.g. "Wednesday Evening Series 2026")
3 Choose a Handicap System:
4 Choose a Scoring System:
5 Apply RRS Rule A5.3 (checkbox, on by default):
When ticked, boats that came to the starting area but didn't finish (DNS, DNF, OCS, DSQ, RET, UFD, BFD) score boats at starting area + 1 points. Boats that didn't come at all (DNC) score entries + 1. This is fairer for club series where not every boat races every week.
When unticked (RRS A5.2 default), all non-finishers score entries + 1 regardless of attendance.
Most clubs should leave this ticked. See How Scoring Works for worked examples.
6 Click "Create Series"
On the Series Detail page, click directly on the series name, handicap system, scoring system, or start date to edit them in place. Handicap and scoring systems show a dropdown when clicked. The "Apply RRS Rule A5.3" checkbox can also be toggled at any time — changing it will affect scoring for all races in the series when you next score or re-score. Changes save immediately.
See How Scoring Works for the full technical reference on handicap formulas, points, discards, and tie-breaking.
Click on a series to see its races. This is the Series Detail page.
| R1, R2, R3... | Race number |
| Date & Time | Scheduled date and time (e.g. "Wed 26 Mar 18:00"), plus wind conditions if entered |
| Status | Scheduled (grey), Started (yellow), Completed (green), Abandoned (red) |
| PUB | Green badge if results are published to the web |
| 🗑 | Red bin icon — click to delete, then confirm |
In the series header, click "Set default start time" to set a time that pre-fills every new race. For example, set "18:00" for Wednesday evening racing — every race you add will default to 18:00. You can override the time for any individual race.
1 Click "+ Add Race"
An inline form appears with a date picker and time field.
2 The date auto-guesses the next logical race date based on your existing schedule. If your races are weekly on Wednesdays, it suggests next Wednesday. Adjust if needed.
3 The time pre-fills from the series default (if set). Override it for this race if needed, or leave blank.
4 Click "Add Race"
Perfect for setting up an entire season in one go.
1 Click "+ Add Multiple Races"
2 Set the first race date, number of races (e.g. 7), and interval:
3 Click "Create 7 Races" (or however many). All races are created with correct dates and the series default start time.
On the Race Detail page, click directly on the scheduled date or start time to edit them in place. This is useful for adjusting race times after the schedule has been created — for example, if a race is moved due to weather.
Each race row has a red 🗑 bin icon on the right. Click it, then click "Confirm" to delete. After deletion, remaining races are automatically renumbered — there will never be a gap (e.g. R1, R3 becomes R1, R2).
The fastest way to set up a new season.
Most clubs run the same series structure every year. Instead of creating everything from scratch, copy last year's series:
1 Go to Series in the sidebar
2 Find last year's series and click the "⧉ Copy" button (faded until hover)
3 A dialog appears with editable fields:
4 Click "Copy"
The system creates a new series with:
Events can have online entry forms that competitors fill in themselves — no typing for you. When you confirm entries, competitors are automatically added to your Competitors list and assigned to the right series.
1 Make sure you have linked at least one series to the event (see Events section above). This is important — it lets competitors choose their fleet when entering, and lets you assign them correctly.
2 Click "Open Entries" — this enables the entry form
3 Click "Publish" — this makes the event visible to the public
4 A green Entry Form Open banner appears with a shareable link: flyingstart.app/events/{slug}/enter
5 Click "Copy Link" and share it — post it on your website, email it to your mailing list, share on social media
The entry form is a clean, light-themed public page (no login required). Competitors fill in:
Back on the Event Detail page, you see all entries in a table showing Sail #, Helm, Class, Club, Series, Status, and Actions. The Series column shows which series the competitor has been assigned to (for confirmed entries) or which series they requested (for pending entries, shown dimmed). Use the status filter buttons to show all entries or filter by status:
| Pending (yellow) | New entry waiting for your review |
| Confirmed (green) | Entry accepted — competitor created, assigned to series, email sent |
| Waitlisted (blue) | On the waiting list |
| Cancelled (red) | Entry cancelled |
1 Click "Confirm" next to an entry
If the event has linked series, a series selector appears — choose which series to assign them to.
2 Click "✓ Confirm" to confirm
This does three things automatically:
For large events with many entries, use the bulk confirmation:
1 Click "✓ Confirm All Pending (N)" at the top of the entries section
2 A panel opens. If the event has multiple series, choose which series to assign all pending entries to. If there's only one series, it auto-selects.
3 Click "✓ Confirm All & Send Emails"
The system processes each entry in sequence with a live progress counter ("Confirming 5 / 23..."). Each entry creates a competitor, assigns them to the series, and sends a confirmation email.
Not all competitors will enter online. The race committee can add entries directly from the Event Detail page:
1 Click "+ Add Entry" at the top of the entries section
2 A form panel opens. Start typing in the search field to find existing competitors by sail number, name, or boat class. Selecting a match auto-fills all the fields.
3 For a new competitor, fill in Sail Number (required), Helm Name (required), and optionally Crew Name, Boat Class, and Email
4 Select which series the competitor is entering (checkboxes). Handicap input fields appear automatically based on the handicap systems used by the selected series.
5 Click "Add Entry"
The entry is created as confirmed immediately (no pending step needed for manual entries). The competitor is added to your competitor list and assigned to the selected series. No confirmation email is sent.
When you're ready to stop accepting entries, click "Close Entries". This disables the public entry form — anyone clicking the link sees a "Entries are closed" message. Closing entries does NOT send any emails — it just shuts the door.
Competitors belong to your organisation, not to individual series. The same competitor list is shared across all series — so you only enter each boat once.
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Sail # | The boat's sail number (e.g. 12345) |
| Helm | The skipper's name |
| Class | Boat type (e.g. Laser, J/24, RS400) |
| Handicap | The boat's PY/YTC/IRC number. Click to edit inline |
| 🗑 | Red bin icon — click to delete the competitor, then confirm |
Every field in the competitor table is editable. Click directly on any sail number, helm name, boat class, or handicap to edit it in place. Press Enter to save, or Escape to cancel.
1 Click "+ Add"
A form appears with fields for Sail Number, Helm Name, Boat Class, and Handicap (defaults to 1100 for PY).
2 Fill in the details and click "Add Competitor"
Click on any competitor's handicap number in the table. An inline editor appears — type the new value and press Enter or click ✓ to save.
Flying Start can import data from most sailing race management systems. Whether you're migrating from Sailwave mid-season or adding GPS tracks from RaceQs, the import page handles it.
| Sailwave XML (.xml) | Full migration — competitors, series, races, and results with pre-import score verification. The richest import. In Sailwave: File → Export → XML. |
| World Sailing XRR (.xml) | International standard — used by HalSail, Manage2Sail, and national federations. Imports competitors, races, and results. Flying Start auto-detects whether an .xml file is Sailwave or XRR. |
| CSV / TSV (.csv, .tsv) | Competitor lists — from any spreadsheet. Flexible column matching ("Sail", "SailNo", "Sail Number" all work). |
| Sailwave (.blw) | Sailwave native format — imports competitor lists and handicaps. |
| GPS Tracks (.gpx) | Race replay data — from RaceQs, Garmin, or any GPS app. Shows track stats (distance, speed, duration) and feeds the race replay system. |
| Sailwave | File → Export → XML (recommended) or save as .blw |
| HalSail | Export to CSV from the Boats menu, or export XRR if available |
| Manage2Sail | Export results in XRR format from the admin panel |
| RaceQs | Export GPS tracks as .gpx from the event page |
| Any spreadsheet | Save as .csv with columns for sail number, helm name, class, and handicap |
1 Go to Import in the sidebar
2 Drag and drop your file onto the drop zone (or click to browse)
3 Preview the parsed data — check that names, sail numbers, and handicaps look correct
4 Choose your import mode:
When you click ⚡ Full Import, Flying Start runs its own scoring engine on the raw data from Sailwave and compares the results. This gives you confidence that Flying Start produces the same results before you commit to switching.
| Verdict banner | Overall match percentage — green (perfect), yellow (minor rounding differences), red (significant differences) |
| Stats row | Total races, finishers, matches, and mismatches at a glance |
| Race-by-Race table | Click any race to expand and see exactly which boats differ and by how much. Each mismatch shows Sailwave's value vs Flying Start's value, the field (corrected time, position, or points), and severity |
| Series Standings | Side-by-side comparison of overall rankings — Sailwave rank vs Flying Start rank, total points from each system |
After reviewing the report, you choose which scores to use:
| Sailwave scores (default) | Preserves Sailwave's original corrected times, positions, and points exactly as they were. Best for mid-season migration — results don't change. |
| Flying Start scores | Uses Flying Start's independently calculated results. Best for importing historical data to verify our engine, or when you prefer our calculation. |
Then click "⚡ Import" to proceed, or "Cancel" to go back.
Your CSV needs at minimum a column for sail number and helm name. The importer recognises these column headers (case-insensitive):
Click on a race to open the Race Detail page. This is where you enter finish times and score the race. The page shows only the competitors enrolled in that series — not your entire organisation. This includes both competitors who entered online and those added manually by the race committee.
| Column | What to do |
|---|---|
| Sail | Sail number (read-only) |
| Helm | Helm name (read-only) |
| Class | Boat class (read-only) |
| Handicap | The handicap rating for this series' handicap system (e.g. PY rating for a PY series, IRC for an IRC series). If a competitor has multiple handicap ratings, the correct one for this series is used automatically. |
| Finish Time | Enter the elapsed time: 39 = 39 seconds, 39:30 = 39 min 30 sec, 1:39:30 = 1 hr 39 min 30 sec |
| Status | Dropdown: — (didn't race), Finished, DNS, DNF, OCS, DSQ, RET, DNC, UFD, BFD |
1 For each boat that finished: type their elapsed time in the Finish Time column. The status automatically changes to "Finished".
2 For boats that didn't finish: select the appropriate penalty code from the Status dropdown (DNS, DNF, OCS, etc.). The finish time field is disabled.
3 Optionally enter Wind speed (knots) and Direction at the top of the page.
1 After entering finish times, click the green "Score Race" button at the bottom of the page.
The scoring engine:
Three new columns appear in the table:
| Corrected | The handicap-adjusted time |
| Pos | Position — colour-coded: 1st (gold), 2nd (white), 3rd (orange) |
| Pts | Points for this race |
If you made a mistake, edit the finish times and click "Re-Score Race".
Once you're happy with the results, you can publish them to the web.
1 On the Race Detail page, click "Publish Results" (blue button, top right)
Published results are visible to anyone at:
flyingstart.app/results/?race={raceId}flyingstart.app/results/?series={seriesId}After publishing, three links appear on the race page:
| Results ↗ | Opens the public results page for this race |
| Replay ↗ | Opens the GPS race replay viewer (if GPS tracks have been uploaded) |
| Live ↗ | Opens the live tracking page (for spectators during the race) |
You can also publish an entire series from the Series Detail page — click "Publish" next to the series name. This makes the series standings page visible.
Two additional buttons appear on unpublished races:
| General Recall (yellow) | Resets the race to "Scheduled" status. Use when you need to restart the race. A note is added to the race record. |
| Abandon (red) | Marks the race as abandoned — it's excluded from series scoring. Use for races stopped due to weather, safety, etc. |
Both actions require confirmation before proceeding.
Post announcements for competitors — course changes, sailing instruction amendments, protest information, and safety notices.
Match a real sailing notice board:
| General | General information and announcements |
| Course (blue) | Course layout changes |
| Amendment (yellow) | Changes to sailing instructions |
| Protest (orange) | Protest-related notices and hearing schedules |
| Safety (red) | Safety information and warnings |
Pinning: Check "Pin to top" when creating a notice to keep important items at the top of the board regardless of date. Click "Unpin" to remove the pin.
After several races, the system can analyse corrected time performance and suggest handicap adjustments. This eliminates hours of committee debate.
| Current | The competitor's current handicap |
| Suggested | What the system recommends |
| Delta | The change. Red (+) = handicap should increase (boat is too fast). Green (-) = should decrease. |
| Avg Pos | Their average corrected time position |
| Races | How many races the analysis is based on |
| Apply | Click to update the competitor's handicap immediately |
See How Auto-Handicap Works for the technical algorithm.
Zero-configuration analytics generated from your race data. Perfect for AGM reports.
| Headline stats | Total races, total competitors, average turnout, completion rate, season trend (+/- %) |
| Participation chart | Bar chart showing turnout per race |
| Top Sailors | Ranked by average corrected position, with race count and wins (gold highlight for 1st) |
| Fleet Breakdown | Boat classes with percentage bars — see which classes are growing or declining |
| Season Trend | Compares first half vs second half of the season: Growing, Stable, or Declining |
Spectators can follow a race live on a map. Every competitor running the Flying Start app on their phone broadcasts their GPS position every 3 seconds.
On a published race's detail page, click "Live ↗" to open the spectator view. Share the URL with the clubhouse, family, or social media.
After a race, if competitors uploaded their GPS tracks via the Flying Start app, you can watch an animated replay of the entire race on a satellite map.
On a published race's detail page, click "Replay ↗".
| Play / Pause | Start or stop the animation |
| Time slider | Scrub to any point in the race |
| Speed buttons | 1×, 2×, 5×, 10× playback speed |
| Leaderboard | Live position ranking on the right side |
Each boat is shown as a coloured arrow pointing in the direction of travel, with a trail showing where they've been. The start line is shown as a dashed red line.
Click "Account" in the sidebar footer (below your email). Enter your new password, confirm it, and click "Update Password".
On the login page, click "Forgot your password?". Enter your email, click "Send Reset Link". Check your email and click the link — you'll land on the Account page where you can set a new password.
Click "Sign out" in the sidebar footer.
On the Account page, scroll to the Danger Zone section and click "Delete Account".
Once all ownerships are transferred (or if you don't own any), type DELETE to confirm. Your account, all memberships, and associated data will be permanently removed. You will be signed out and redirected to the login page.
The sidebar on the left of every page contains all navigation:
| ⚓ Dashboard | Home page — organisation overview, quick actions, recent races |
| 🏠 Organisations | Create/manage organisations, invite committee members |
| 📋 Series | Create series, manage races within each series |
| 🏆 Events | Create regattas, manage online entries |
| ⛵ Competitors | Add/edit/remove competitors, edit handicaps inline |
| 📢 Notices | Post and manage notice board items |
| 📊 Handicaps | Auto-handicap analysis and suggestions |
| 📈 Analytics | Organisation participation stats, top sailors, fleet breakdown |
| 📂 Import | Import competitors from CSV or Sailwave .blw files |