Polar

In sailing, a polar is a boat performance table or diagram showing expected boat speed for combinations of true wind speed and true wind angle. It describes how fast a specific yacht should sail on different points of sail, often for particular sail plans, displacement and sea conditions.

Polars matter because routing software and crews use them to compare possible courses, estimate ETAs and choose faster, safer angles. Accurate values help optimise VMG, decide when to change sails, and avoid overestimating progress in light air or heavy weather. They are closely tied to True Wind Speed, True Wind Angle and Weather Routing.

In PredictWind, polar data can feed Weather Routing and Departure Planning so route calculations reflect your vessel rather than a generic speed assumption. DataHub can help build an AI Polar from logged sailing performance, improving predictions as more real-world data is collected.