What is the problem?
When you’re out on the water—wind in your hair, salt in your eyes—you want to focus on sailing, not fiddling with your watch screens. Most sailors using a Garmin smartwatch have to switch between multiple data screens or fields just to see speed, course, battery, barometer, etc. It’s annoying. Every extra tap, every screen change is a little delay, a little distraction. And if you have to squint at tiny numbers, or the display isn’t optimised for quick readability, things can get even worse.
What need is solved by the product
Enter SailEver. It solves exactly that: give sailors everything essential in one single screen, one data field, so there’s no switching screens mid-tack, no delay checking what’s happening. Key points:
- Single screen, many metrics: SailEver displays 13 essential sailing metrics in one data field: speed, speed history chart, course over ground (smoothed for better readability), tack/jibe angle, average speed, distance sailed, barometer, barometer trend, GPS position, timer, time of day, GPS quality, battery status. sailever.com
- High contrast / readability: Big numbers where they matter (e.g. speed in knots, distance), smoothed data where needed. It’s not just “show all the stats,” it’s “show them well.”
- Flexibility: Works as a data field, not a full app, so it fits into your existing Garmin watch setup. You choose what other screens to have; you just add SailEver as the one data field you want to use often. sailever.com
- Support for many devices: Compatible with ~25 Garmin devices, so it’s not limited to the newest or fanciest ones. sailever.com
Within a few months - SailEver climbed to the top of Garmin's "Out to the Sea" category in the app store. Here's my post about it.
What is the business model
SailEver is built as a passion project, for sailors, by a sailor. So the model is lean, community-oriented.
- Free / Donation-based: The datafield (all 13 metrics) is offered free. People who love it and want new features or improvements are encouraged to support via donations. Your feedback or support helps prioritize what comes next. sailever.com
- Community feedback powered: New features, fixes, device compatibility depend heavily on user feedback—so sailors contribute not just money but suggestions.
- Pro App: more features - especially focused on easing writing your logbook - together with a companion app might come in future.
Technology behind it
What under the hood makes SailEver tick.
- Platform: Built using the Garmin Connect IQ SDK; the datafield is written in Monkey C, Garmin’s language for watch apps / fields. If you aren’t familiar, Monkey C is lightweight, with limited memory and CPU, so efficiency is essential.
- Metric smoothing & interpolation: Some metrics, like Course over Ground (CoG) and speed history, are smoothed / averaged / filtered to avoid jitter and noisy readings. That means less jumping numbers when waves, wind gusts, or imperfect GPS cause fluctuations.
- Real-time sensor integration: Pulling data from the watch’s GPS, barometer, timer, battery sensor, etc. Also calculating derived metrics (average speed, tack/jibe angles)—which means math, calibration, thresholds: e.g. what counts as a tack or jibe (angle change, time window) etc.
- UI / UX design: High contrast text / numbers; legible under sun glare; minimal flicker; a speed history chart that updates realistically but doesn’t overload the watch’s refresh. Good test-cases on multiple Garmin device sizes.
- Testing / device compatibility: Garmin devices vary (battery, sensor accuracy, screen size). Testing across multiple devices. Ensuring errors (e.g. GPS dropout, barometric drift) handled gracefully.
- Distribution via Garmin Connect IQ Store: Users install the datafield via Garmin’s official store; that gives compatibility, updates, notifications etc. sailever.com
Why it’s fun
- There’s something deeply satisfying about creating a useful tool for your favorite outdoor activity - just because as a developer > you can!
- Working with hardware constraints (watch CPU, battery, memory) is always fun/annoying in equal measure. (“Did I just crash the Fenix memory? - oh 28kb is too much!")
- Watching how people use it out on the water: feedback from folks on different boats, in different seas, different wind — getting the reviews from the community just feels sooo good
Summary
SailEver solves the problem of fragmented sailing data on Garmin watches — switching screens, missing context, negligible real-time feedback. It gives sailors a single data field with 13 essential metrics, readable, reliable, efficient. It’s free / community-supported, built by sailing needs, refined by feedback. Under the hood it’s Monkey C, efficient sensor usage, smoothing, watch UX design, cross-device compatibility.
If you like sailing and have a Garmin smart watch - SailEver is your little sailing co-pilot.