Last Update by Jon 14/02/2022

Sailwave is primarily a Windows app and typically it is run on a Windows Laptop or Desktop.  It runs on XP, Vista, Windows 7,  Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10 and Windows 11.  Sailwave is a 32 bit App but runs fine on Windows 7/8/8.1/10/11 64 bit operating systems.

You can also run Sailwave on Windows Tablets but not tablets that run Windows RT.

It can be run on an Apple Mac or MacBook using various methods.
PlayonMac is free and many users have used it very successfully.
If you are looking for a Free solution give PlayonMac a try.  Crossover is a commercial product that has a free trial period and is low cost if you decide to purchase it.

It is also possible to dual boot most Intel-based Apple Mac’s with OSx or Windows but this requires Obtaining a Windows license.

You can also run Windows on your Mac using Parallels but again this requires a license. This works great on all the Macs both Intel and Apple Silicon (M1) I personally have Sailwave running on an Apple Silicon Mac with Windows 11 and it runs perfectly.  If you already have either of these options on your Mac then install and run Sailwave as you would any other Windows App.  There are some details of installing a free Virtual Machine on the Sailwave Facebook page.

If you are using the Catalina, Big Sur or Monterey version of the MacOS see this section

For Mac OS Catalina – Apple removed support for 32bit applications which prevents it running many applications such as Winebottler however you can use
PlayonMac  https://www.playonmac.com/en/ or Crossover https://www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover-mac – see the Sailwave User Group  forum.sailingresults.co.uk for support, but don’t forget you can always run Sailwave on any old PC and use the Chrome Remote Desktop (https://remotedesktop.google.com/access ) to use it on your Mac – it does work really well.

For some of the older Intel based Macs running the OS prior to Catalina  WineBottler will allow you to run Sailwave on your Mac free of charge.   For more details please see the Sailwave User Group which contains links to a video.  Note – when the video was produced you had to use the Beta version of WineBottler but the standard version is now fully capable of running Sailwave.

There is a commercial product similar to WineBottler called Crossover which has a free trial period and can be purchased for a small amount.  Some users feel this is easier than WineBottler if you are not very technical.

Sailwave can also be run on Intel-based  Chromebooks with the use of Crossover for Chromebooks.  Please see the Sailwave User Group for details of how a user install Sailwave on a Chromebook

You can run Sailwave on Linux PC’s by using Wine to emulate Windows.

You can also run Sailwave on a Webserver (Windows or React) that you own.  (contact jon@sailwave.com for more details).

You can’t run Sailwave on an iPad/iPhone or Android tablet but you can view the output of Sailwave on these devices.  It is not recommended as the most usable option, but it is possible to run Sailwave on a PC somewhere (or Webserver) and then use Chrome Remote Desktop or similar ( https://remotedesktop.google.com/access ) installed on the PC, then on the iPad/iPhone or Android device install the App to connect to the PC and control the Sailwave running on the PC.  It is useable but not as convenient as running on a Laptop.

There is at least one user who has been developing an Android app to collect the data which can be imported into Sailwave later.

Recent versions of Sailwave have a messaging system built-in which allows data to be sent to and extracted from Sailwave by other apps.  One user has developed a system where the entries can be directly entered into Sailwave from a Web-based registration and also results can be entered into a web page (Typically on a Tablet or iPad) These results are then entered into Sailwave automatically via the messaging system.

National Handicap for Cruisers – NHC is a progressive handicap system with the specification provided by the RYA.   A list of base handicaps is available for download from the RYA site.  After each race Sailwave adjusts the handicaps based on the rules of the NHC specification.  Sailwave supports dual scoring with only the inputting a single set of results, so that results could be scored as a fix handicap such as IRC and progressive handicap NHC.  The intention is to encourage sailors by making the competition closer.

To use the NHC rating system select it from Scoring system – Rating system and typically select the internal calculation mode.

If you have Excel installed then you can select the External mode and Sailwave will use Excel to perform the calculations allowing you to see how the calculations are performed and verify – If you want to get a bit more advanced and are familiar with Excel you can even modify the template so that you can perform virtually any custom handicap system.

The NHC calculations for 2014 have been revised and use simplified.  The Sailwave version with support for the new 2014 algorithms is now available in Beta via the Sailwave User Group and will be released here very shortly.  Version 2.9.7 installer here has the NHC 2013 algorithms although it can support NHC 2014 with a new SWHelper file and Template available at the Sailwave User Group.

TBC