It doesn't matter if you start the app first, or bring the electronics on your yacht live. For the sake of demonstration, let's assume you're on the boat, everything is powered up, and you've just started the app. You should see a screen like the one on the right.

Connected shows which hardware gateway you're connected to, it should be the same as the number on the front of yours.

Position, Velocity Etc. are the individual channels of data being received from the gateway. The green light will flicker when an update arrives and the frequency (ie 9hz) shows approximately how often these updates are arriving. A red light means no data is arriving on that channel.

Online shows whether the app found an internet connection, and which account it has connected to. The app will record data without an internet connection with no problem.

2024-29-11-10-19-41 is the first of a list of recordings contained in your phone. The '2024-etc' is the timestamp for when the recordings started. The status is either "Staged" or "Done" with a time showing the duration of the recording; and in the case of a "Staged" recording it has a status of either "recording" or "idle" (showing how long the recording has been idle for). We will cover the 'star' and 'tick' buttons in a minute.

It is important to note that your online account is connected to the gateway and not a particular mobile phone. It is fine to have the See Sailing app installed on more than one phone, and on moving to 'another' phone for whatever reason the app will just need to be reinstalled without the need to move any account details over.

Things that look wrong

"Connected" may say "Finding device..." This means the app has either lost connectivity to the gateway or can't find it at all. Is the power on for the yacht's electronics? If you were connected, try moving the phone closer to where the gateway is installed.

You may also have disabled bluetooth on your phone (and might need to restart the app). Note that there is no need to 'pair' your phone with the gateway and doing so will prevent the app from connecting.

Even if you have had some wireless, phone, power or other difficulties, the app will add new incoming data to the current 'staged' recording - even if you restart the phone app or the phone itself.

"Online" may say "No network" The app has attempted to connect to the See Sailing server to verify your account but cannot. This is really not a problem and as soon as you get back in to mobile data or wifi range the "retry" button can be used to confirm that connectivity has been restored.

"Online" may say "No web account" This means the setup process for your gateway was not completed. Scan the QR code on the front of the gateway to be taken to a page where you can complete the setup process.

Buttons on recordings

Staged recordings are those that are still having data from the NMEA network added to them. If messages stop arriving the recording shows itself as being "idle" and if this continues for three minutes it automatically becomes "done". There are two buttons on each staged recording:

The Star adds an ill-defined "event" to the metadata. The event might be changing to a different genoa, or changing helsman. Currently this is not rendered in the UI but will be soon.

The Tick marks the recording as being done. If data is still arriving it will create another recording automatically.

It's important to note that "Done" recordings are contained only within the phone and that the list of done recordings does not relate to those stored online. If you delete a done recording from your phone, it will not be removed from the webservice (if that's what you're trying to do, see the management page).

The Cloud Button uploads a given recording to your cloud account. It will automatically start the analysis process and within a minute or two you will receive an email with a link to the recording on the web.

The Export Button copies the data from the recording from out of the app and into the 'files' area of your phone. This will work regardless of whether or not you have an online account or if it is active.

The Bin Button deletes this recording from your phone. There is no "undo" for this action.

A suggested workflow

I suggest you do your usual "dock out" procedures and get comfortable heading to the start line before starting the See Sailing app. Once you have started it, make sure you're receiving all the channels of data you're expecting then lock the phone, sleep it or whatever. The app will continue in the background and uses very little battery power in the process. After the race (or between races), open the app and click the green tick to mark the recording as "done". The recordings are not large (by modern standards) so can be uploaded over 4G mobile data comfortably, but there is also no problem with waiting until you next have WiFi connectivity and uploading it then instead.

Retrieving exported data

On an iPhone you retrieve the files by connecting the phone and looking under the 'files' tab like this...

On Android use a file transfer utility such as "Android File Transfer" and your exports will be under the "Documents" directory...