Troubleshooting Weather Routing

If you are having trouble calculating a Weather Route, work through the checks below before trying again.

Make sure your start and finish waypoints are positioned in clear, sufficiently deep water.

PredictWind uses C-Map depth contours when calculating routes. If a waypoint is too close to land, in shallow water, or inside a marina or harbour, Weather Routing may not be able to calculate a route.

Try moving the waypoint farther offshore into deeper water and calculate the Weather Route again.

Check the Depth Avoidance setting in your Weather Routing Preferences.

You can select Land, 2m, 5m, 10m, 20m, or 30m. If the selected depth is too restrictive for the area you are routing through, the router may not be able to find a suitable route.

Select the lowest safe setting appropriate for your boat and route. If necessary, you can also add intermediate waypoints in deeper water to help guide the route away from shallow areas.

Weather Routing uses your Boat Polars to calculate how your boat is expected to perform in different wind conditions. Check that you have selected the correct boat and that your polar information is complete and accurate.

Review your Wave Polars and make sure all your boat dimensions have been entered correctly.

Please note that the draught should be measured from the waterline to the top of the keel only. Do not include the depth of the keel itself.

Incorrect or incomplete Wave Polar information can affect the routing calculation or generate an error.

Review your Weather Routing Preferences and make sure the settings are appropriate for your boat and intended passage. Pay particular attention to settings that may restrict the routes available to the router, including:

Very restrictive settings may prevent the router from finding a route that meets all your selected criteria.

If Weather Routing displays an error or warning message, read the complete message carefully. The message will often identify the setting or condition affecting the routing calculation. Below are some of the most common Weather Routing messages and what they mean.

This message means the router cannot find a route through water that meets your selected Depth Avoidance setting.

Check your Depth Avoidance setting and make sure your start, finish and any intermediate waypoints are positioned in sufficiently deep water. If necessary, move your waypoints farther from shallow areas or the coastline, or add intermediate waypoints in deeper water.

Weather Routing takes your selected Comfort Settings into account when calculating a route. If the forecast conditions along the available routes exceed your selected comfort limits, PredictWind may be unable to calculate a route using these settings.

Weather Routing will then try again while ignoring your Comfort Settings. If a route can then be calculated, you will see the message “Didn't Succeed to Find a Route Until Max Motion Limits Were Ignored”. The routes displayed are therefore the fastest routes and do not take your selected Comfort Settings into account.

This message is displayed independently for each forecast model affected, so you may see it for some forecast models but not others.

If you see the “Invalid Boat Dimensions” error message, your boat dimensions have not been completed under your Wave Polars.

To resolve this:

If you see the warning “Few or Suspicious Polar Data”, check the Boat Polar selected in your Weather Routing Preferences. Review your polar data to make sure the values are complete and realistic for your boat.

If you are using Advanced Polars, pay particular attention to any missing or unusual values.

If you set your Weather Routing departure date beyond the available forecast model runs, you may appear to see only one route on the map instead of the usual eight routes.

This is expected. For departure dates beyond the available forecast model runs, all routes use the same ensemble weather data. As a result, all eight routes calculate the same path and overlap each other on the map, making them appear as a single route. The section of the route calculated using ensemble weather data is displayed as a dotted line.

As your departure date gets closer and individual forecast model data becomes available, the routes can use the different forecast models and may show different routing options.

Once you have checked your waypoints, Boat Polars, Wave Polars and Weather Routing Preferences, calculate a new Weather Route.

If the problem continues, contact PredictWind Support and include the exact wording of any error or warning message, or provide a screenshot.