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How to Interpret Sail Planning Results

Departure Planning for Sailboats

Lisa McDonald avatar
Written by Lisa McDonald
Updated over a month ago

The Sail Planning 'Table' view shows the weather information for all four of the forecast models you have selected and allows you to quickly compare Days/Times to depart.

  • For each Departure Day/Time, four forecasts can be selected. If all forecasts are similar, you can have a high degree of confidence in the Sail Planning results.

  • The Table makes it quick and easy to get an objective summary on leaving on the different times or days. You can use the Summary View of Tables which is the results averaged, or a more Detailed View of each of the four forecast models selected.

  • For most a high percentage of upwind and a high percentage of winds over 30 knots would not be a good time to depart.

  • For Professional forecast subscription users the Roll, Vertical Acceleration and Slamming Incidence output should not be overlooked. Eg, a 100 percentage of time over 4 for Roll will make for a very uncomfortable and possibly dangerous passage.

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 degrees and 135 degrees.
% time downwind = True Wind Angle is 135 degrees or more.

TIP: Once it has become obvious which day to leave switch to the Sail Routing for the finer detail. Calculate a Sail Route for the Day and time in the future and have a good look at the Sail Routing Table output starting with Graphs.

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