Racing

Last updated October 28, 2026 · Markdown

🏁 Racing (in Crew Corner; in the More drawer on a phone) is where you register your boat for a club's race season and keep its crew list. Racing is free on every plan. Your club runs the season in ReadyHelm Pro and sets the schedule, divisions and fees.

Racing is rolling out gradually. If you don't see it yet, it's on the way.

Finding your club's season

There are two ways in:

• The club's registration link. Open the link your club sent you. If you're not signed in, sign in or create a free account first, and the season opens straight afterwards.
• Find a race. Search by club or season name. Only seasons open for registration are listed.

If you've registered, Your next race at the top of a season's page shows your start, class flag and course, with the NOAA forecast for the club's racing area (or, if the club hasn't set one, your boat's home port) once the race is within a week. The Racing and Race results tiles on Home show the same at a glance.

A season's page shows the club's notes, the Schedule (each series and its races), the Divisions, and the Fees as they stand today, including any early-bird price or late fee. Once the club has posted a race's starts, Starts and courses under it lists each division's start time, class flag and course: the marks in order, which side to leave each one, and each leg's distance and true bearing. Show on chart draws the course on a map, with the buoys and lights from OpenSeaMap (not for navigation).

Registering a boat

Only the boat's owner, or someone it's shared with as an Editor, can register it. Click Register a boat, then choose:

• Boat.
• Division. Your boat's rating for the division's system (PHRF, IRC, Portsmouth, ORC or ORR) shows under it, read from Vessel Records → Ratings (see Vessel Records). If there's no PHRF rating on file, or the certificate has expired, you see a warning. You can still register: add or renew the rating, and the race committee can pick it up.
• Registration. For example the full season, one series, or a single race. A single race asks which one.
• Member. If the club asks, tick I'm a member of … for the member price.
• Sail number and your phone for the race committee.
• Crew. Tap anyone already connected to the boat: people it's shared with, crew from your trips in the Captain's Log, and crew from earlier races. Or use + Add someone else with a name and, optionally, an email. Give each person a role, tick Under 18 for a minor, and tick Send race notices for anyone who should hear from the club too.

If the club has a waiver, read it and sign it before you register: type your full name and tick I have read this waiver and agree to it.

If the club sells anything else, such as dinner tickets, a course fee or crew shirts, it's listed under Also from the club. Enter how many you want (and the size, for clothing).

The total shows before you register, with the club's instructions for paying. The club collects the money itself: ReadyHelm doesn't take payment. You get a confirmation email, and the club is told.

A boat can't be registered twice for the same race. For example, with a full-season entry you can't also enter a single race in that season.

Your entries

Your entries lists each boat you've registered, with its division, registration, fee, rating and crew. Crew see the entries they're on too, read-only.

Next race on each entry shows the next race it covers (a race moves off once every boat has finished or the committee is done with it), with your division's start time, class flag and course once the club has posted them. On race day it shows the start the committee actually set, if that changed.

Race day

From Next race on the entry (the skipper, or anyone the boat's shared with as an Editor):

• File a float plan fills one in from the entry: the boat, the crew, the race and its start. It suggests leaving an hour before your start and being back by the expected finish plus an hour, worked out from the course distance (three hours of racing when the distance isn't known). Add who it goes to (your saved float plan recipients are filled in), what they should do if you're overdue, and whether to send it now or when you leave. It's saved as a race trip in your Captain's Log.
• Check in on race day tells the race committee you're out. Untick crew who didn't come, add anyone else aboard by name, and check the souls on board (everyone aboard, you included). Or choose Not racing today. If you've filed a float plan, its crew list changes to match. Change updates your check-in.
• Change return time moves your float plan's return time. If the plan has already gone out, everyone it went to gets it again with the new time. If racing starts late, the entry offers to move the return time by the delay.

In a pursuit start, each boat starts on its own time from its rating and the first boat home wins. Your entry shows your pursuit start, to the second, and the float plan is timed from it.

If the committee postpones (AP) or abandons a race, you get an email and a notification, and the entry shows the race postponed.

Race committee duty

When the club puts you, or a boat you skipper, on race committee duty, you get an email and Your race committee duties appears at the top of Racing, with the job, the race and any notes. Confirm I'll be there tells the club. A boat on duty scores race committee credit for that race if the club's series allows it. Unconfirmed duties are on the Racing tile on Home, and the season's page lists the whole roster under Race committee duty.

Safety inspections

If the club asks for a safety inspection (offshore races usually do), your entry shows Safety inspection: not started yet, what the inspector found to fix before the start (with their note), or All passed. You get an email and a notification when the inspector finds something, and when the boat passes. Fix it, then ask the inspector to check it again.

Inspecting for a club. If a club asks you to inspect, its email has a link. Open it and sign in (or create a free account): Racing shows Safety inspections with the boats you inspect. Open a boat and mark each item Pass, Fix (add what needs fixing) or N/A. It works with no signal at the dock: results are saved on your phone ("No connection. 3 results saved on this phone") and sent when the signal's back. Open the boat once with a signal first, so the phone has its checklist.

Protests and redress

Under an entry, Protests lists every protest your boat filed or is named in, with its hearing and decision. To file one (the skipper or an Editor):

1. File a protest or redress request, and pick the race. The protest time is shown; you can still file after it, but it's marked late.
2. Protest another boat, and tick the boats, or Ask for redress if your score was made worse through no fault of your own.
3. Say about when and where it happened, the rules you think were broken, what happened, and how you told the other boat (rule 61.1: hail "Protest" at the first reasonable opportunity, and fly a red flag if your boat is over 6 m).

The boats you protest are told, and so is the club. When the hearing is scheduled and when it's decided, everyone involved gets an email and a notification. You can Withdraw your own protest until it's decided.

The season's page lists every protest under Protests, with its hearing and decision; the full description is only shown to the boats involved.

Results

Once the club publishes results, the season's page shows Results. Each series' standings come by division, with your boat highlighted and discarded races in brackets. Each race's results, under Show results, give every boat's elapsed and corrected times and points. Provisional results can still change; when they're final you get an email and a notification.

Your entry shows its latest result, such as Race 3: 2nd of 8, corrected 0:52:36. Final results also go on the race's trip in your Captain's Log, with your place, the size of the fleet and your corrected time. If you filed a float plan from the entry, that trip gets the result.

• Edit changes the sail number, your phone and the crew list any time. Until the first race your entry covers, you can also change the division. After that, ask the race committee.
• Withdraw takes the boat out. The club is told, and the entry stays on their list marked withdrawn. Talk to the club about any fee you've paid.

Fees

Each entry lists what you owe the club: the entry fee and anything else you asked for. Each line shows whether the club has marked it Requested, Partly paid, Paid, Refunded, Waived or Cancelled. While anything is owed, the entry shows the amount and How to pay. The club updates the statuses when your payment reaches them.

• + Add items asks for more, such as another dinner ticket.
• Cancel removes something you asked for, as long as nothing's been paid on it. For anything else, talk to the club.

Waivers and amendments

Under each entry, things to do lists what's still needed, with ✓ for what's done.

• Waivers. Some clubs ask every crew member to sign too.
• A crew member with a ReadyHelm account signs from Read and sign on the entry they're on.
• For anyone else, use Email signing link. They open the link and sign without an account. Resend signing link sends a new one, and the old link stops working.
• For crew marked Under 18, a parent or guardian signs, giving their relationship. As the skipper, you can sign as a parent or guardian with Sign as parent or guardian.
• If the club changes its waiver's wording, everyone signs the new version.
• Amendments. When the club amends the Notice of Race or Sailing Instructions, you get an email and a notification. Open the amendment from the entry and click I've read it to acknowledge it.

The season's page lists the club's Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions, with what each amendment changed and links to earlier versions, and the messages the club has sent under From the club. Club messages also come by email to you and to any crew you ticked Send race notices for.