Sailing Race Course Designer

Draw sailing race courses in the style of RYA and World Sailing course cards, right in your browser. Place marks and gates, add the rounding arcs, and the signal and lap table build themselves. Export a finished course card as SVG, PNG, or PDF for your race notice or sailing instructions - or as JSON to reopen and keep editing. Free, no signup required.

Your course is saved to this browser only - nothing is uploaded. Export it whenever you're ready to share it.

Who it's for

Built for race officers, PROs, and sailing committees who need a course diagram for a race notice, sailing instructions, or the clubhouse noticeboard - without fighting Word or PowerPoint to get the marks in the right place.

How to use it

  • Start from a preset or a blank canvas - see the pre-designed courses below, or place your own marks from scratch.
  • Place marks and gates - drag onto the canvas, choose a mark shape and colour, and label each one.
  • Add rounding arcs - pick port or starboard at each mark and draw the arc yourself, rather than have one guessed from the course order.
  • Add course variants - define a signal and lap count for each variant (e.g. "AP 3", "AP 4") shown in the course card's signal table.
  • Fill in the course card - course code, name, and notes appear on the printed card.
  • Export - download SVG, PNG, or PDF for a race notice, or JSON to keep editing later.

Pre-designed courses

Start from one of six built-in templates covering the shapes most clubs sail - windward-leeward, trapezoid, and their gate, spreader-mark and reaching-finish variants.

  • Windward / Leeward (L) - a beat to a windward mark and a leeward gate, with a combined start and finish line.
  • Windward / Leeward with spreader mark (LA) - as above, with a spreader mark set to port of the windward mark.
  • Windward / Leeward with reaching finish (LR) - as L, finishing on a separate reaching line.
  • Windward / Leeward, spreader mark and reaching finish (LRA) - combines the spreader mark and reaching finish.
  • Inner trapezoid (I) - an inner loop with a leeward gate, then a reaching finish.
  • Outer trapezoid (O) - the full outer loop, for bigger fleets or more wind.

None of this is locked in once you've picked a preset - drag a mark, add or remove a gate, or flip a rounding from port to starboard until it matches the course you're sailing.