April 2023

This release has seen the addition of two significant features a few additional ones.

• Course Alert - Allows anyone active on Buoy Zone to raise a “Course Alert

• Join as - Those joining a course now select their role and allocates a specific colour boat icon on map. 

• Enable satellite imagery map view option

• Refinement of buttons on map page

Course Alerts

A feature which we think offers a real innovation for on-water sports and race management. 

This will be especially helpful in the case of general assistance requests, man-over boards, or urgent medic requests. If activated, a notification is sent to all Buoy Zone users who have joined or managed the course in the last 12 hours and alerts them to an assistant request with a location and ‘navigate to’ function. 

“This is an area of innovation we haven’t seen before for on-water sports, where traditionally communications are completely reliant on VHF/Radio,” 

We don’t see Buoy Zone replacing VHF, but we do believe it will expand the range of tools typically used by race officials, and be a valuable way to share more specific details and identify those best placed to respond. 

Using the the Assistance request

1. On the map view select the symbol on the right which looks like a person with their arms out

2. On the pop up screen select the alert type you’re looking for (Man overboard, Assistance Request or Medic Request)

3. Tap the “Activate” button

This will send a notification to anyone who is, or has been active on the course.

To deactivate the Course Alert the individual user or the Race Officer has the option to deactivate the alert from the alert banner on the map screen. 

“Join as” 

This applies to those who are joining a course requiring them to select the role under which they are joining the course. These roles include Mark Vessel, Safety, Umpire, Official, Coach, Spectator, Competitor and Other. The roles all have a unique colour and are reflected throughout, including on the map view and list view. 

As time goes by we see more and more users joining a course for different reasons, some playing and active role and managing a course and others just to observe. The goal through this addition is to allow anyone at a glance to see the role of each boat on the course by colour and descriptor.  

Refreshed map buttons 

The map buttons have been refreshed to include collapsed menu options within. The icons from the top are:

• Centre over start boat 

• Map Layers toggle

  • Satellite image

  • Club features toggle on/off

• Information

  • View mark details

  • View Buoy Zone users active on the course

• Course Alert

• Course Settings (Race Officer only)

21 June, 22 (v 2.6.0 - 258)

Buoy Zone makes it even easier to improve the experience for sailors and race officers by making it possible for clubs to save the course formats and locations they like to use through the Club Templates feature. This feature is currently available for a limited time to all, but will be limited to all clubs who have a Buoy Zone Club Subscription. 

Using the Club Template feature:

Creating new template:

To create Club Templates follow these simple steps

1. From the landing screen select “Manage a Course”

2. Either select an existing course or create a new one. Remember, make sure your course, whether existing or new, is associated with the host club you intend to create the template for. 

3. Set your course settings as you would like to see them saved as a Template. Tip:

if you would like your Template course to be saved in a specific location rather than the dynamically updated GPS location of the RO then change the “start boat location” setting to “Manual course Location.” If you’re reusing an existing course the coordinates will be where you last set the course. If you have created a new course the coordinates will default to your current location, but you can change them.

4. Select the Advanced Courses settings and scroll to the bottom, check the “Set as a club template” field

5. Enter a name for the new Template - this is how the template will be displayed

6. Tap “Set Course” to save and view the template

Using a Club Template:

The Club Templates are available to all Race Officers who select a host club which has saved template(s). Remember when you select from a template course you receive a copy of that template course which you can adjust and edit to make your own, with no worry that you will change the saved “Club Template”. 

1. From the landing screen select “Manage a Course”

2. From the next screen select the + button (Bottom right) to create a new course

3. Choose the Host Country and Club you are creating a course for

4. Select a template course from the “Club course template” drop down

5. The “Course settings” screen allows you to fully adjust the course settings, the template settings are pre-loaded including the course location if the “Start boat location” has been set to “Manual course location”. Tap “Set Course” to view the course