> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.estela.co/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.estela.co/managing-courses-and-marks/creating-and-saving-courses.md).

# Creating and Saving Courses

Every tracking session in eStela is assigned a single course, made up of one or more:

* Buoys (rounding marks)
* Waypoints
* Doors

Courses define the structure of the race and are essential for features like real-time classification and performance analytics.

### Reusing Existing Courses

You don’t need to create a new course from scratch every time. eStela provides several options to reuse or adapt existing courses:

* `Clone course`: Duplicates the current course layout so you can make changes without affecting the original
* `Inverse course`: Automatically reverses the order of the marks to run the course in the opposite direction
* Load from another session: In the course editor, you can import a course from any previous tracking session

These tools help save time and ensure consistency across races that use similar layouts.

### Using Frequent Courses

For more flexible planning, use the Frequent Courses feature. These are standalone courses not tied to any specific tracking session.

They are especially useful when:

* You have multiple course options for a regatta
* The final course is chosen on the day of the race
* You want to avoid creating multiple tracking sessions in advance

With Frequent Courses, you can:

1. Create and save all possible course options ahead of time
2. When ready, assign the selected course to a single tracking session

This setup allows the committee to make last-minute decisions without having to reconfigure the session on race day.