What Premium gives

Beginner

The essentials

Premium is the eSail4VR subscription. You buy it from inside the app and it is checked at each launch. Without it you can calculate routings and look at the weather; with it the app opens its full tools.

On the Apple side, the “Premium Subscription” window lists these benefits:

  • advanced routing up to 16 days;
  • competitor routing calculation;
  • cloud storage;
  • direct order submission to Virtual Regatta;
  • expert routing tools.

Without a subscription the app offers it when you touch one of these functions: a window says “This feature requires a valid subscription” with the buttons “Subscribe” and “Cancel”. As long as you are not subscribed, a round button with a purchase icon is also shown on the map, below the top right corner. It opens the subscription window.

The subscription button on the map and the subscription proposalThe subscription button on the map and the subscription proposal

Going further

What the app reserves for subscribers:

  • Orders. Touching the send button of a routing without a subscription shows the subscription proposal. The order editor opens with Expert mode.
  • Competitor routings. Right-clicking a boat on the map (long press on a touch screen) to calculate its routing needs a valid subscription. Without one, nothing happens and no proposal is shown.
  • Expert mode. The “Expert mode” switch (Settings > Routing) is refused without a subscription. If it stayed on after a subscription ended, it would do nothing: the app does not turn it off by itself, but does not use it.
  • Pivot points. Right-clicking a point of a routing (long press on a touch screen) to start again from that point needs a valid subscription.
  • GPX export of the routing table. It is refused without a subscription.
  • The cloud. The “eSail4VR cloud” switch is only active with a subscription (see the page Account and devices).
  • Full weather. Without a subscription the app downloads weather files limited to 5 days; with a valid subscription it takes the full files of the race.
  • Projection lines. The first time the app finds your subscription valid, it switches on the “constant heading” and “constant TWA” lines from the boat. You can switch them off afterwards.

The number of programming points Virtual Regatta accepts depends on your status in the game (Full Pack, VIP), not on the subscription: see the FAQ question.