on 26 Apr 2023
Orca delivers purpose-built routing for sailboats
Marine tech startup Orca has launched its new Sail Routing feature. The Norwegian firm says Sail Routing offers a new, better way for sailors to plan and prepare their trips by incorporating weather forecasts and polar diagrams to accurately deliver route options for sailors.
Orca says its new Sail Routing feature compares thousands of alternative routes for the desired destination and gives sailors the best route for their boat. To accomplish this, Orca estimates the boat’s speed based on the forecasted wind and tides to pick the best route. The result is fine-tuned to avoid excessive tacking and navigation hazards, and is said to be the most efficient route.
Sail Routing is designed to be easy to use, with sailors needing only set a starting point and destination before Orca plots a route. An important part of route planning is understanding the upcoming weather and tide conditions along the route. Orca says its new feature solves this with its Route Timeline, which shows a summary of the entire route and the conditions along the route.
Sections with heavy waves or strong tides are colour coded, making them easy to spot. The Route Timeline also indicates where sailors need to tack or gybe, making it easy to spot demanding sections along the route.
“We’re incredibly excited to launch Sail Routing,” says Amir Borovac, co-founder of Orca. “Until now, sailors have had to use a PC or tablet with specialised routing software to plan sail trips, and those tools don’t talk to chartplotters. With Orca, sailors can finally plan and sail with a single tool.
“Sail Routing has been built with feedback from sailors all over the globe, and it has been fine-tuned by Orca customers for more than six months ahead of its official launch. Moving forward, we will use real-time wind data from your boat’s wind sensor to make routes far more accurate than all other routing systems.”
Sail Routing is available for all Orca customers with the Orca premium subscription.
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