Generated by All in One SEO v4.9.7.2, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site. # Bluewater Racing A Free Planning Tool For Sailboat Racing and Cruising ## Sitemaps - [XML Sitemap](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website. ## Posts - [Blog](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/bluewater-racing-blog/) - [JUNO wins in Transpac 2023](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2023/09/27/juno-wins-in-transpac-2023/) - The Express 37 yacht Juno finished first in Division 8 and 14th overall in the 2023 Transpac race from Los Angeles to Oahu. Skippered by Dan Merino, the Juno team used Bluewater Racing as its tactical navigation and race management tool. - [Version 2.50 Available](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2023/09/27/version-2-50-available/) - [Version 2.45 Available](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2023/04/05/version-2-45-available/) - You can now navigate to a mark as well as a route leg, by right-clicking on the mark in the Route Manager and selecting "Go to Mark". MOB Man Overboard Button. If GPS data is available, pressing creates a highly visible "MOB" mark, and sets it as the destination waypoint. Instrument manager: when saving instrument - [Version 2.40 Available](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2023/01/15/version-2-40-available/) - Bluewater Racing Yacht Racing Sailboat Cruising weather GRIB planning tools offshore - [Version 2.30](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2022/05/23/version-2-30/) - Enhanced interface to instruments, updates to planning displays. - [Why does the optimizer produces routes that seem to go upwind?](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2018/02/09/why-does-the-optimizer-produces-routes-that-seem-to-go-upwind/) - This is a fundamental point in understanding how the calculations made by the program relate to how you would actually sail a course. If you enter a route into the program manually, you are telling the program the exact route you want the boat to sail. Then if you add a wind file and polar - [It looks like the optimizer has created routes over land.](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2012/05/13/the-optimizer-has-created-routes-over-land/) - Normally, if you attempt to optimize a route between two points on water (whether ocean, lake, or pond), Bluewater Racing will limit the route to that body of water. It will not route your vessel across land. Sometimes, however, the program does generate routes that cross land. This can happen for several reasons: Your route - ["Endpoint is unreachable" error](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2011/03/02/endpoint-is-unreachable-error/) - This error can occur for several reasons. You have specified one or more route points that are actually on land. The router will not route over land. To see exactly where your route points are located, from the program's point of view, select GSHHS charts and zoom in until you see "GSHHS full n" (n - [Where do I find all the great optimization info, like isochrones and sensitivity?](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2009/11/24/where-do-i-find-all-the-great-optimization-info-like-isochrones-and-sensitivity/) - Isochrones, reverse isochrones, sensitivity analysis, and routing trees are all derived from gridded binary data, so we let the Grib Manager handle them. Open up the Grib Manager: you'll see them appear under the heading "Internal". Click on a light bulb to make them visible on the chart. (We didn't make them visible by default - [How do I view a chart stored in a particular raster image format?](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2009/11/24/how-do-i-view-a-chart-stored-in-a-particular-raster-image-format/) - Prior to version 1.30, you could only view images stored as gifs or bitmaps. As of 1.30, you can view any image file with one of the following extensions: gif bmp jpg,jpegpngtif,tiffxpmxbmtgasunsgipsppmpixmappcxico Of course, the data inside the file has to be in the format implied by the extension. - [Is There a UNIX/MAC OS version?](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2010/11/01/is-there-a-unix-mac-os-version/) - A port to Mac OSX has been in the works for a while but there are still little sticky issues. A beta version with not all functionality perfect may be available upon request. Please send a request through the Contacts page. A user reports that Bluewater Racing works fine under Wine/Ubuntu Linux. - [I can't connect to my GPS.](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2009/12/31/i-cant-connect-to-my-gps/) - To communicate with the GPS, you have to tell Bluewater Racing where the GPS is plugged into the computer, and what communication protocol the GPS is using. The communication port and protocol can be set from tools->preferences->gps. The GPS will be connected to a com or usb port. A com port takes a RS232 connector, - [How do I create a new route?](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2009/11/24/how-do-i-create-a-new-route/) - The easiest way is to choose "Edit Mode" by pressing the "Edit" button on the top left side of the window, and then right-clicking on the chart at the location you wish to start the route. This will add the first route point at that location. You can right click on that route point to - [Can I import a route that is in KML/Google Earth/some other format?](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2009/11/24/can-i-import-a-route-that-is-in-kml-google-earth-some-other-format/) - Yes. Bluewater Racing uses GPSbabel to import and export routes into many different formats. GPSbabel is a stand-alone freeware program created by engineers at Google, and it is included in Windows installations of Bluewater Racing. Mac OSX users are required to download GPSBabel and notify the software if it's been placed into an unusual location - [My route doesn't correctly optimize across the international date line. How come?](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2009/11/24/my-route-doesnt-correctly-optimize-across-the-international-date-line-how-come/) - The software doesn't directly support routes that span the date line. To work around this, you can split your route into two portions, one on each side of the date line. You are forced to chose the point on the date line, however. - [Version 2.10](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2017/04/03/version-2-10/) - Major rewrite of Polar Manager, move to Bluewater-specific .plr file format. Expedition/Deckman still supported. Sailonline polar files are now supported. Substantially more editing functions added to Polar Manager. Route manager modified to combine routes and marks into one display tree. Routing algorithm now uses A-Star heuristic to speed search. Program internal structure changed to simplify - [Version 1.80](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2014/03/07/version-1-80/) - NMEA input revised to be more robust. - [Version 1.70](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2011/12/29/version-1-70/) - Optimization is now substantially faster. Added options to control date format and ETE format in route manager and route details windows. - [Version 1.60](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2011/08/09/version-1-60/) - Enhanced support for NMEA instruments. Updater is now silent during updates. Bug fixes: When sorting route manager entries by column, colors of routes were lost. Repaired bug in gribDescription.tcl popup for cloud cover. Performance functions will no longer erroneously use upper-level wind data. - [Version 1.50](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2010/09/24/version-1-50/) - Automatic update checking now included. Printing of route details. - [Version 1.40](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2010/07/29/version-1-40/) - Added improved undo/redo capability and file autosaving. Extended optimization to routes in lakes and ponds. - [Version 1.20](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2010/01/15/version-1-20/) - This is the first major release to the public. - [Version 1.30](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2010/04/10/version-1-30/) - Planning chart updated to GSHHS Version 7. Added political boundary, river, and world port index data to the planning chart. By default only ports are shown. Optimizations can now be canceled while running. Made performance code reentrant, to avoid bug where winds were lost during optimization. Fixed bug in GPX parse error reports. Internal rewrite - [Barb-a-loot wins 2008 PacCup division](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2008/07/30/barb-a-loot-wins-2008-paccup-division/) - Andrew Hamilton drove his Moore 24 Barb-a-loot to victory in Division 2 of the 2008 Pacific Cup, using Bluewater Racing. Barb-a-loot finished 7th in the overall fleet of 59 boats. Andy writes: "the program is great, was a huge help and kept me busy." - [Peregrine Wins Transpac 2011 Division VI Using Bluewater Racing](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/2011/08/10/peregrine-wins-transpac-2011-division-vi-using-bluewater-racing/) - The Hobie 33, skippered by Simon Garland with navigator Jeff Westbrook, corrected out six hours ahead of its nearest competitor to take the Division VI trophy. ## Pages - [Home Page](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/) - A Free Planning Tool For Sailboat Racing and Cruising - [Download Version 2.61](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/available-downloads/) - Bluewater Racing is free software but all copyrights are retained by Jeffery Westbrook and Two Foxtrot Bravo, Inc. Consider helping the project with a donation of US$20 or any other amount. Distributions include sample races, polar files, and weather gribs, a tutorial, the full GSHHS planning chart (accurate to microdegrees) and a selection of NOAA - [Contact](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/contact/) - Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *Comment or Message *Submit - [Win Long-Distance Yacht Races](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/a-tool-for-long-distance-yacht-racing-and-cruising/) - Bluewater Racing is designed to help sailors make long passages or compete in races like Sydney-Hobart or Transpac. You can: Plan your route on a graphical chart-based interface. View boat performance data (polar charts). View weather forecasts (GriBs). Optimize your route using performance and wind data. Analyze how much flexibility you have to choose different - [Check it Out](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/93-2/) - Take a quick tour of Bluewater Racing with the online tutorial, or check out the manual. Visit the online forum with questions or suggestions. - [About](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/about/) - BLUEWATER RACING is non-commercial software, developed and maintained by Jeffery Westbrook, Ph.D Computer Science. In 2006, as I prepared to race in the 2007 TransPac, I reviewed the commercially available software and discovered it didn’t provide the functionality I wanted, included a bunch of stuff I didn’t want, and cost a lot of money. - [Donation Failed](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/donation-failed/) - We're sorry, your donation failed to process. Please try again or contact site support. - [No Access](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/no-access/) - [dlm_no_access] - [Thank you for your donation to Bluewater Racing](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/thank-you-for-your-donation-to-bluewater-racing/) - It's very much appreciated! - [Acknowledgements](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/acknowledgements/) - Grateful acknowledgements to the following without which this project would not be possible. Vector shoreline data from GSHHG: Global Self-consistant Hierarchical High-resolution Geography Database. Version 2.3.4 Copyright © 2015 by P. Wessel and W. H. F. Smith. ( pwessel@hawaii.edu) (NCEI Download Site) The World Port Index database from the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. http://www.nga.mil/portal/site/maritime BLUEWATER - [A Freeware Navigation Tool](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/use-free-public-weather-and-chart-data/) - Compare to commercial software such as Expedition or Deckman. Designed for use onboard with limited internet connectivity. Support for Sail Online virtual racers. Bluewater Racing uses high-quality, free, publicly available data from NOAA and various universities for its charting and weather routing.It reads Grib weather files which are available from sources such as Saildocs, and - [Resources](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/resources/) - Official NOAA Navigation Charts in BSB format: Download free digital images of NOAA's official paper navigation charts, stored in NOAA'S proprietary compressed format called "BSB". They can be loaded directly by Bluewater Racing. World Port Index: The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency list of international ports, with notations about the port's characteristics. Bluewater Racing displays ports ## Categories - [Uncategorized](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/category/uncategorized/) - [FAQs](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/category/faqs/) - Frequently Asked Questions - [News](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/category/basic-blog/) - News about the program ## Download Categories - [Windows](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/ddownload_category/windows/) - [General](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/ddownload_category/general/) - [MacOS](https://www.bluewaterracing.com/ddownload_category/macos/)