Quickly calculate the best day to depart on your next passage.

July 21, 2014 comment-icon 6 Comments

With PredictWind’s Departure Planning tool, working out the best day to leave for your next voyage has never been easier! In seconds, the site will generate what could take you hours to work out manually.

By simply placing your start and finish points on the map, this tool will calculate the best day for you to depart on your next offshore or coastal passage. Using the weather routing algorithm, the Departure Planning tool will perform an optimum route for departing on Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, or Day 4. A summary table is provided so you can quickly compare the differences for leaving in the next 4 days.

PredictWind’s Departure Planning is designed for trips as short as 15 Nm or for long offshore passages of 9 days or more. 

Boat Polars

You can select from preset boat polars or create your own, and the algorithm will use this information when summarizing the information.

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

Just like the Weather Routing tool, you can set your Departure Plan to either calculate the fastest or most comfortable route. 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 Departure Plan, 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 best day to depart on your next coastal or offshore passage.

Land Avoidance

For Standard and Professional accounts the Departure Planning tool includes land avoidance, essential for any coastal trip.

Waypoints

Standard and Professional accounts allow you to add waypoints to your voyage. Simply click to add another waypoint, and drag it into position. Your Departure Plan will now find the fastest or most comfortable route, over four days, 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 Departure Planning algorithm. This can increase route accuracy significantly especially for long passages or areas with strong currents.

 

Click the link below to test out a Departure Plan on PredictWind.com right now.

 

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