The first, and most important, thing with any routing is to have an accurate Polar for the boat being routed. A polar is a numerical representation of a boats expected performance capability in any given conditions. Without accurate polars, weather routing is just simply weather forecasting – you cannot route effectively without polars. At Ocean Race Logistics we can work with teams and help them build their polars so that the routing we then offer actually means something.
The next most important thing after the polars, is the actual weather forecast used. At Ocean Race Logistics we have access to very high resolution models as well as the low resolution models readily accessible on the internet (such as Windy.com). The low res models are great for getting a large scale feel for what is happening, but the high res models give the real detail and can make the difference between winning or getting the record, or not. Typical low resolution files average the weather over a 100km x 100km grid and compute up to every 3 hours. The highest resolution files we use can show weather over a 1km x 1km grid and up to every 1 hour, which means there are up to 10,000 individual forecasts compared to just one low resolution one in a 100km x 100km area, giving unprecedented accuracy.
HOWEVER, weather forecasting is just that – a forecast. The skill comes in interpreting the weather locally and working with your weather router to get maximum effect out of the data.
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