Free race routing for offshore sailors. Eight forecast models, tidal streams, sea state and your own sail crossovers, worked through on your phone, tablet or computer. The route, the plan and the crew brief, ready before you slip the lines.
firstshiftsailing.com stuart@greenfield.co.ukTap to start · planning aid, not for navigation
Before you use Route
Route is a planning aid, not for navigation. Its forecasts, tidal streams, depths and routes come from computer models and can be wrong, late or incomplete. Check official charts, the sailing instructions and the latest forecasts, and keep a proper lookout. The skipper alone is responsible for the safety of the boat and crew. You use Route at your own risk.
Routes by itself when it opens, when new forecasts arrive and when you close Settings after a change.
Compare the routes
Each route sailed in its own forecast: time on each point of sail, the most wind and sea it meets, and the work for the crew. Upwind is under 60° true wind angle, downwind over 120°.
How sure is the forecast?
The ECMWF ensemble: the same model run 10 times with small changes to today's weather. Route sails your course in each one. When the 10 routes and finish times agree, trust the forecast; when they spread, keep your options open.
When to leave
For a delivery, a qualifier or your own course: the chosen route's models, routed from starts every 6 hours across the forecast. A quick route for each start, so allow a few minutes either way.
Ask Route
For the route selected under Routes. Sails from the crossover chart in Settings.
Send to the crew
Tap Send to crew. On a phone, choose WhatsApp (or Messages, or email) and the crew group.
The crew get the message below. When they tap the link, Route opens on their phone with the same course and start, and works out the same routes.
No app to install and no login: the link is all they need.
See the message
Put the route on the plotter or a chart app
For a plotter (Zeus, Axiom, Garmin): the plotter cannot take the route over the internet, so it goes on a memory card.
On a computer, tap Save GPX. The route file goes to your Downloads folder.
Put a microSD card in the computer and drag the file onto it.
Put the card in the plotter and import the route: How to load it has the menus for each make.
For a chart app on a phone or tablet (GeoGarage, C-MAP, Navionics): tap Open in chart app and pick the app. This button only shows on phones and tablets.
The file is a planning aid, not for navigation. GPX carries the route as waypoints at each turn plus the marks; KML shows the whole track in Google Earth and most chart apps.
B&G Zeus SR, Zeus S, Simrad NSS 4, NSX
Copy the GPX to a microSD card or USB stick.
Put it in the plotter, open the Waypoints & Routes app and choose Import routes.
Follow the prompts and pick the file. Older Zeus 3 and 3S: Files, then pick the card and the file, then Import.
Raymarine Axiom (LightHouse)
Copy the GPX to a microSD card.
Homescreen, My data, Import/export, Import from card.
Pick the card slot and the .gpx file, then OK.
Garmin
Copy the GPX to a memory card and put it in.
Where To, Menu, Manage User Data, Data Transfer, File Type: GPX.
Then Import from the same Data Transfer menu.
GeoGarage, C-MAP, Navionics and other phone and tablet apps
On a phone or tablet, tap Open in chart app and choose the app from the share sheet, or save the file to Files first.
In the app, use its import or open file option if the share sheet does not offer it.
If the app will not take GPX, try the KML.
Menu names change with software versions; if yours differ, look for Import in the plotter's user data or routes menu. Sources: Navico Waypoints & Routes guide (software 2.1), Raymarine LightHouse help, Garmin GPSMAP help.
AIS needs a data connection. Route's AIS comes from the internet, so it shows targets only while this phone or tablet is online: through the boat's Wi-Fi when that has internet (Starlink, a 4G or 5G router or satellite), or through the mobile network. With no connection, no AIS targets show.
AIS targets
Free online AIS, when Route is online. It shows targets over a wide area but not all of them, so never use it for navigation at sea. At sea, always connect Route to the yacht's own AIS receiver: the connect tool comes with the Route apps for Apple and Android in 2027.
Every boat you are racing, sailing your chosen route at its own TCC from its own start: who should be near you at the slider time if they went the same way. Ranked on corrected time.
No entry list for this race yet. Add the boats you are racing below, or tap Race boat on an AIS target.
Boats you are racing
Paste an entry list
One boat per line: name and TCC, for example Jolly Jack, 1.021. Copy it from the race entry list or a spreadsheet.
Download-
Sizes are compressed download sizes, already cut to the course band and race hours. Seabed depth is sent only where it is shallower than 20 m, and only needs downloading once per race area. Forecasts refresh every six hours.
UTC --:--:--Local UTC+0--:--
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New forecast
MAN OVERBOARD
Shout, point, throw the danbuoy and lifebuoy, press the DSC distress button on the VHF, call the Coastguard on channel 16. Keep a crew member pointing at all times.
Set up your race
Step 2 of 5: choose the race
Share with the crew
Crew: point the phone camera at the code and tap the link. Route opens on its first page with the same race and start.
Races
Route help
Each topic has its own Listen button. Route is a planning aid, not for navigation.
Settings FirstShift Route v0.12.3
Boat speed from
FirstShift's generic polar, scaled so the boat sails at its TCC. Use Boat type or Own polar for a truer shape.
Your own data: ORC rating data (JSON) or the polar table copied from your ORC certificate, an Expedition, B&G, OpenCPN or qtVlm polar, or any table with TWA down and TWS across. Paste it below or load the file; edit any number in the table.
Wind height
m above the water
Forecast wind is the wind 10 m above the sea, the height ORC and most designers use for polars, so a 10 m polar needs no change. A polar made from your own instruments is against the masthead wind, which is stronger: about 3% to 5% at 15 to 18 m in ordinary air, 1% to 4% when the air is colder than the sea (autumn and winter), and 5% to 20% when warm air lies over a cold sea in spring and early summer, most in light winds. Choose The masthead and enter the sensor height, and Route raises the forecast wind to that height, using the ECMWF air and sea temperatures where it has them. In light stable air the raise is held to 10% at most, because neither the theory nor the forecasts are reliable there.
Tuning for the day
100%
100%
100%
Below 100% for a light or new crew, tired sails or a sea the forecast misses; above it for a strong, heavy crew. Upwind runs to 55° TWA, reaching 70° to 110°, downwind from 130°, blended in between.
If you think the forecast is wrong
Applies to every route, over the whole race or an area you draw. Wind and tide arrows on the chart still show the forecast as published.
No area yet.
Local knowledge: the changes apply inside the area and fade out over 3 nm beyond its edge. Use it for a sea breeze that the forecast misses, or a headland where the tide runs harder.
Overrides on: Route works them in when you close Settings.
Start and manoeuvres
s
s
Each tack or gybe costs this many seconds of sailing. Route charges it at every change of tack, so it only tacks or gybes when the gain pays for it.
°
Optional. Polars measure the wind angle against the boat's track through the water, so the route already allows for leeway and this does not change it. Enter your boat's leeway close-hauled (from your instruments, Polar Live or the sailmaker) and Route shows a Steer heading to windward of the track, tapering to none on a beam reach. 0 leaves it off.
Wind models to route on
Each wind model is a separate forecast from a different weather service, and Route sails a route in each one. Combined averages the wind of every chosen model at each place and hour. Finest first uses the most detailed model that covers each place and hour, then the next. When a model’s forecast runs out, the others carry on.
On: Route takes the tide out of the forecast wind, so the boat sails on the wind it feels. Wind against tide blows harder, wind with tide softer, and a cross-tide shifts it. Off: the forecast wind as it is.
Sea state effect
% per m
% per m
% in 1.5 m+
Waves come from the sea-state forecast. Heading into them, Route takes the upwind loss off the polar speed for every metre of wave height above half a metre; with the waves on the beam, the reaching loss. Running before waves over 1.5 m, it adds up to the downwind gain for surfing.
Only downloaded models can be used. Choose what to download under Results, Data.
3.0 m
The router keeps out of water shallower than this, shown red on the chart. EMODnet depths relative to lowest astronomical tide; no tide height added. Not for navigation.
While racing
Live GPS (the GPS button by the timeline) shows the boat on the chart from this phone's own GPS and compares it with the chosen route: off track left or right, ahead or behind the plan, the course and distance to where the plan says you should be now, and the fastest way back. It needs no boat wifi, but the page must stay open with the screen on. Heading is the GPS course over the ground. Alerts are 0 to turn off. Not for navigation.
After From here has found the boat by GPS, Route routes again from the new position on this timer, while the screen is on. It stops if the GPS fix is lost or the position leaves the forecast area.
Needs a boat code (tap the race name, Boat code). While Route is open it sends the boat's GPS position every five minutes and the chosen route to FirstShift's server; anyone with the code can watch on the follow page. Nothing is sent when this is off.
Race
Keep-out areas
The router treats the lanes and separation zones near the course as no-go, as most sailing instructions require; the race's own keep-out boxes always apply. Source: OpenStreetMap, Shom and Rijkswaterstaat. Not for navigation: check the sailing instructions.
Marks and rounding
Copy each sail from your sail log or your sailmaker’s crossover chart: the true wind angles and true wind speeds you use it in. Route names the sail and the reef for every stretch of the route. Rows are checked from the top and the first that fits wins, so put the special cases first.
Headsails and downwind sails
Mainsail reefs
The true wind speed at which each reef goes in. Reef earlier upwind, where the apparent wind is stronger. Leave a box empty if you do not carry that reef.
Starting points from John Jourdane’s Pacific Cup guide: “Reefing begins sooner upwind than downwind because the apparent wind is greater sailing a beat or close reach.”
Crossover chart
Tap the chart to see which sail it picks for that wind.
Edit as text, or paste a chart
One sail per line: name, TWA from, TWA to, TWS from, TWS to. You can also paste a grid from Expedition, PredictWind or SailGrib (first line the wind speeds, then one line per wind angle with the sail for each speed) and Route turns it into rows.
Mainsail, the same way.
What the chart shows now
Land and coastline, worked out from EMODnet seabed depths.
Water shallower than your safety depth (Course tab), shaded red: the routes keep out of it. Depths are EMODnet survey depths below lowest astronomical tide, with no tide height added.
Traffic separation schemes, from OpenStreetMap, Shom and Rijkswaterstaat, and lighthouses and main buoys from OpenStreetMap.
Your course, marks and waypoints, the routes, and the wind, tide and weather from the forecasts.
If you turn them on: buoys, beacons and lights from OpenSeaMap, loaded from the internet as you zoom in to a few miles across.
How to change it
Tap the layers button at the top of the screen (two stacked layers). Under Chart, turn the OpenSeaMap buoys, beacons and lights on or off. Under Weather and race, choose wind, tidal stream, traffic separation schemes, lighthouses, laylines, isochrones and the forecast weather, and which routes to show. Show all, Just the course and Just the route set several at once. The wind and tide symbols and AIS are in the Display tab.
Not for navigation
This chart is not an official chart. It is drawn from free public data that may be incomplete, out of date or wrong, and it leaves out much that an official chart shows. Use it to plan and to compare routes, never to navigate: navigate with your official paper or electronic charts and your boat's own instruments.
Coming soon: official charts from GeoGarage
Official charts from GeoGarage, from national hydrographic offices such as the UKHO, shown on this chart.
AIS
AIS needs a data connection: the boat's Wi-Fi when it has internet, or the mobile network.
Free online AIS, when Route is online. It shows targets over a wide area but not all of them, so never use it for navigation at sea. At sea, always connect Route to the yacht's own AIS receiver: the connect tool comes with the Route apps for Apple and Android in 2027.
nm
min
Test fleet: eight race boats sailing near your route and ships crossing the area, sent as real AIS sentences through the same decoder the boat's feed and the online feed will use. They move with the replay time. CPA is worked out from your position: the phone GPS when it has one, otherwise the boat on the chosen route.
Screen
Auto follows the phone or computer. Light for bright sun, Dark for dusk and the nav table, Night red keeps every colour at the red end, at low brightness, to protect night vision on deck; turn the screen brightness down too. The Night button on the chart switches between Night red and your day setting.
Barbs: the staff points into the wind; half feather 5 kn, full feather 10, pennant 50. Tide arrows point the way the water flows, rate in knots (atlas arrows in tenths).
Data sources
Forecasts, tides, depths and charts used by Route
Wind: Met Office UKV and Global (British Crown copyright, Met Office, CC BY-SA 4.0); ECMWF IFS, AIFS and ensemble (ECMWF, CC BY 4.0); NOAA GFS; DWD ICON-EU (Deutscher Wetterdienst); Meteo-France AROME and ARPEGE (Licence Ouverte); Open-Meteo when the device fetches wind itself (CC BY 4.0). Tides and waves: Generated using E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information (NW Shelf and Iberia-Biscay-Ireland models); Ifremer MARS2D (Licence Ouverte); ECMWF waves. Depths: EMODnet Bathymetry. Lanes and lights: OpenStreetMap contributors, Shom and Rijkswaterstaat (CC0). Outline coastline: Natural Earth. Each source is provided without warranty. Route is not for navigation.
