Setting you boat polars up in your PredictWind account is important for an accurate weather route.

You must set the boat polars up in your PredictWind account before using the weather routing and departure planning tool on any of the PredictWind platforms.

Setting up your Polars in your PredictWind account must be completed on the PredictWind forecast website or within the PredictWind App. Once you set these up, they remain in your account for use on all platforms, including the Offshore App.

See below the wind angles we use to define upwind/reaching/downwind.

% time upwind = True Wind Angle is 55 degrees or less.
% time reaching = True Wind Angle is between 55 and 135 degrees.
% time downwind = True Wind Angle is 135 degrees or more.

We have a large selection of sailboat designs with their own complete set of performance polars; you can select your sailboat from the list or one that you know has a similar performance to your sailboat. This method is preferred over Sail Polars. You can always apply the polar speed adjustment to make adjustments as necessary.

Sail Polars are very simple to set up and are suitable for cruising boats, where you cannot select a Predefined Polar. Enter your boat speed at 50. 90. And 160 degrees true wind angle in average 15-knot wind speed conditions. We assume this is the max speed for the vessel, and the boat speed decreases as the wind drops.

Advanced polars are great if you have a performance yacht and wish to define your polars for all points of sailing with different sail combinations. The format for Advanced polars can be seen here. You can add more columns and rows. (Do not copy in the TWS, TWA and Boat Speed labels). The first TWA column is your upwind target; the last TWA column will be your deepest downwind angle.

We now have a Polar Import Feature. On the Advanced Polar section of the Weather Routing Preferences, you can import a '.txt' file (PredictWind format) and a '.pol' format polar. The imported polar will automatically fill the Advanced Polar Text Box. '.pol' polar files will be converted to the PredictWind format before being pasted into the Text Box. You can then calculate a route as usual using the imported advanced polar.

To use AI Polars, you must have a DataHub and PredictWind Professional Forecast subscription. Select AI Polar on the Routing Preferences page, then select Use my latest AI Polar to run future routes from DataHub collected Polar Data. To get started, click Edit Base Polar, then set your boat's predefined settings as a base data set to be improved upon and click Save Base Polar.

For more information about AI Polars, please see this article.

If you are using the weather router for a Power vessel, then use the Power option.

The optimal route will deviate based on the weather and waves to minimise the total fuel used over the whole route. In the Summary Tables on the Wind and Summary tabs, you'll find a row detailing the fuel used for each route.