# Setting up a Race Course

While setting up a race course is not required for a tracking session to run, it’s an essential step if you want to enable features like:

* Real-time classification
* Start time animations
* Post-race analysis and insights

### Creating a Course

If you already know the exact location of the marks for your regatta, use the web course editor under the `Configure > Course` menu to define your course.

If you don’t have precise mark positions in advance, we recommend:

1. Creating an approximate course using the web editor
2. Updating mark positions later using the Buoyer app

### Web Course Editor Overview

The course editor is a map-based tool that lets you place and configure race marks. There are three types of marks:

* Rounding marks
* Waypoints
* Doors

With these, you can design anything from a basic windward-leeward course to a complex coastal route. We suggest spending some time exploring the tool to understand all its features.

The editor supports entering coordinates in:

* Degrees Minutes Seconds (DMS)
* Degrees Decimal Minutes (DDM)
* Decimal Degrees (DD)

### Reusing Courses and Waypoints

* You can save commonly used setups as Frequent Courses, which makes it easy to reuse the same layout in multiple sessions.
* Use Frequent Waypoints to store named positions (e.g., common rounding marks) that speed up course creation.

If you need assistance while setting up your course, don’t hesitate to contact us.


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.estela.co/tracking-races-with-estela/setting-up-a-race-course.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.