AUTOMATIC WAVE ROUTING, PredictWind’s newest feature,  allows you to see detailed wave data and how your vessel will perform in all wave conditions along your route.

Weather routing algorithms typically use wind and current only to calculate the fastest or safest route.  However, the biggest factor for comfort and safety is sea state. While the PredictWind weather router has always had the ability to input a manual wave polar, this functionality was rarely used. For most sailors, it’s simply too hard to predict their boat’s performance in all possible wave conditions.

PredictWind has made creating a wave polar for a vessel quick and simple. Using the boat’s characteristics (beam, waterline length, displacement and draught) a hydrodynamic model of the vessel is created for all possible sea conditions. This data is then factored into the weather routing and departure planning tools, giving a more accurate and informative routing output to deliver a safer and more comfortable route.

The boat’s roll, vertical acceleration and slamming incidence can now be calculated. These important safety characteristics can be plotted to know exactly how rough it will be for the crew. A vast amount of modelling data is used to calculate these safety metrics, including wind wave and primary, secondary and tertiary swell. Normally this data simply cannot be  downloaded on-board due to the large data size, but as the routing is processed in the PredictWind cloud there are no data constraints.

Automatic Wave Routing opens up a whole new world of detailed data, giving you the confidence to make the right decisions for a safe and comfortable trip.