The instruments display your boat's live data (wind, speed, heading, performance, energy, depth…) coming from the NMEA / GPS network. The gauges refresh continuously and can be arranged freely to suit your needs.
Where the instruments appear
All instruments live in a single, reorderable bar whose shape adapts to the screen orientation:
- Horizontal bar at the top of the screen (portrait mode);
- Vertical dock on the side (landscape mode), on the right by default;
- On the chart: any instrument can be detached from the bar and dropped onto the chart as a floating gauge (movable and resizable).
Show / hide: Settings > Instruments > "Visible", or the "Show instruments" option in the Navigation Mode dialog. Your choice is remembered. The "Bar visible" switch just below folds away the bar only: floating gauges dropped on the chart then stay visible.
The 19 instrument types
Each instrument is self-contained and can be present in several instances. The Numeric value, Needle gauge and Chart tiles let you choose the displayed data from some forty fields (SOG, COG, heading, TWS/TWA/TWD, AWS/AWA, VMG, current, depth, temperatures, pressure, route and performance data…).
- Numeric value: digital tile: label, large number, unit, and an optional trend sparkline.
- Dual tile: two related values in one tile (true wind, apparent wind, speed and course over ground, waypoint, depth and water temperature…) or a gap to the polar target (STW %, VMG %, TWA error).
- Wind dial: composite dial: heading-up compass rose, central TWA (tap → AWA), STW speed (tap → SOG), wind arrows, laylines, current.
- Close-hauled wind: ±60° upwind magnifier: TWA needle coloured by tack, optimal upwind angles from the polars.
- Wind plot: scrolling histories of TWD and TWS, TWD coloured by tack plus a smoothed trend.
- Steering compass: heading-up compass: HDG, COG, waypoint bearing, laylines and cross-track error (XTE) with a "which way to steer" arrow.
- Polar performance: polar plot: curve for the current TWS, current point, target, VMG marks and performance % (requires a polar file).
- Needle gauge: 240° analog auto-scaling gauge on a speed (STW, SOG, TWS, VMG…).
- Clinometer: heel: ±50° arc with comfort / warning / excess zones.
- Current rose: current arrow (length ∝ speed) in its direction, with speed & direction in figures.
- Chart (history): trend curve for any data (adjustable window, moving average, marker, colour); sounder rendering for depth.
- Barometer: aneroid barometer, needle on the NMEA pressure plus a 3 h trend.
- Barograph: pressure curve over 2 h, 8 h, 24 h or 10 days, with the current value and its 3 h tendency.
- Rudder angle: ±40° indicator, port red / starboard green (NMEA RSA / XDR).
- Energy (battery): battery bank: voltage, signed current, state of charge % (NMEA XDR).
- GNSS satellites: sky plot of the satellites by constellation (GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/BeiDou/QZSS), used/in view.
- Course tracking: table of what is left to sail, leg by leg: mark, distance, heading, wind angle, sail, passing time (see How do I follow my course leg by leg?).
- Sailchart: the boat's position on its own sail chart, with the trail of the last minutes (see Which sail should I carry?).
- AIS fleet: ranking of the fleet followed in the AIS tab against your boat.
Adding an instrument
- The round "+" button at the bottom of the chart › menu › "Add instrument";
- Right-click / long press on the chart: the grid opens in "drop at the clicked point" mode and places the chosen gauge there (floating).
The "Add instrument" grid shows each type with a live preview fed by your boat's real data; a card already in use carries a badge showing how many instances are present (duplicates are allowed). From the "+" menu, a prompt asks where it should go: "Add to instrument bar" or "Add to chart".
Configuring an instrument
Right-click (computer) or long press (touch) on an instrument opens its settings dialog, with a large live preview that updates instantly. Depending on the type you will find: Displayed data, Battery bank, Sparkline, Wind angle (TWA/AWA), Boat speed (STW/SOG), Time window (5 min → 3 h), Moving average, Marker, Curve colour, Square tile background, as well as Delete and Close.
Direct shortcuts (without opening the settings): tapping a chart's header cycles its time window; tapping the centre of a wind dial toggles TWA↔AWA (top) and STW↔SOG (bottom).
Reordering & moving
- Reorder: drag a tile along the bar: a ghost copy follows the cursor and an insertion slot opens. On touch, a long press first "lifts" the tile.
- Detach onto the chart: drag a tile across the bar → it becomes a floating gauge.
- Re-dock: drag a floating gauge onto the bar → release at the target slot.
- An alignment grid and blue guides appear while moving.
Resizing
- The bar: drag its inner edge (double-click / double-tap = automatic size); on touch, via the small handle on the border.
- A chart tile: handle at the bottom-right corner.
- A floating gauge: corner handle (mouse) or pinch (touch).
On touch, the bar and the layout are remembered separately in portrait and in landscape.
Preset layouts & orientation
Four built-in presets lay out a whole set of instruments in one go: GPS View, Cruising View, Upwind View, Downwind View. In Settings > Instruments you can Load a preset, save the current layout under a name with Save configuration, or remove one with Delete configuration. The Orientation setting (Auto / Horizontal / Vertical) determines whether the bar is a top strip or a side column.
To simply change which instruments of an existing preset are visible, see also "How do I change the instruments displayed?".