Online weather routing - possible? Predict Wind says yes

by Nancy Knudsen on 1 Jul 2014 Everything else is getting automated, why not weather routing? PredictWind tells us that with their new weather routing tool, working out the fastest or most comfortable passage has never been easier.

Once you have experienced the power and simplicity of the PredictWind Weather Routing, they say, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it! Naturally, if you're a paying customer you will get more features.

One thing I am very sure of, it's worth trying on your next passage. Here are some of the features and then below, you can watch the video they have made on how it works:

Boat Polars:
You can select from preset boat polars or create your own, and the algorithm will calculate the fastest route for your boat to sail.

Wave Polars:
For light displacement boats you can use the wave polars to adjust the boats performance in different wave conditions.

Fastest Time vs Comfort:
You can set the weather routing to either calculate the fastest route or choose comfort settings. When the comfort option is selected, you can avoid heavy winds or swell to ensure a smooth trip.

Model Comparisons:
To ensure you have the highest confidence in the route, you can compare the PWC/PWG and GFS/CMC forecasts. If the models are showing a similar passage, it is likely this will be the quickest route for you to take.
Land Avoidance

For Standard and Professional accounts the weather routing includes land avoidance, essential for any coastal trip.

Waypoints:
Standard and Professional accounts allow you to add waypoints to your trip. Simply click to add another waypoint, and drag it into position. Your weather route will now find the fastest route that passes by your waypoints. However where possible you should avoid waypoints so the algorithm can find the fastest route.

Ocean and Tidal Currents:
Professional accounts include Ocean and Tidal currents in the routing algorithm. This can increase route accuracy significantly especially for long passages or areas with strong currents.
Email

Professional accounts can simply email your location and destination coordinates and you will receive a weather route via email. The size of these requests are incredibly small compared to GRIB files, and will revolutionize the cost of getting your weather data whilst Click here to test out a weather route on PredictWind.com now.

Weather routing can be found under the Tools section of your PredictWind account, but watch the video here to see how it works.