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Make your best routing decision.

Compare weather forecasts for your course, explore route choices, and prepare a passage plan. Offwind shows the forecast used for each route so you can see where the models agree and where they differ.

Our ambition is to set the state of the art in sailing routing. Explore our independent approach to ORC RaceFlow 2.0, routing and scoring evidence.

Maverick · Chicago–Mackinac 2024 · 22h 24m 23s

Models compared

6

Route calculations

Unlimited

Forecast window

16 d

Re-route cost

Free


01

Compare forecast routes

Offwind routes every wind model available for your plan, course, and forecast window. It opens on the consensus track and identifies its model.

Step through the routes to compare their tracks and predicted finish times.

When routes differ, the chart shows where they separate so you can compare the choices before the start.

Departure-time scans solve the course from up to 24 starts and show the resulting finish times.

Turn on the search frontiers to see how far the boat could reach at each step.

Cal 40 / J/111 · computed routes, 2024 Explore the race study → Shoreline: Natural Earth · © OpenStreetMap contributors

02

Forecast data for your route

Offwind requests a corridor for the course and shows which forecast run and source it used. Availability, coverage, and freshness vary by model and location.

Offwind downloads a compressed corridor of forecast data around your course. A coastal-race download is typically a small fraction of a megabyte.

Reuse the downloaded data to test different starts, search settings, or course changes within its coverage and forecast window.

Currents come from the NOAA forecast that covers your water, whether that is a bay, the Great Lakes, or the open ocean.

HRRR · 13 Jul 2024, 18:00 UTC Explore the race study → Shoreline: Natural Earth · © OpenStreetMap contributors

NOAA GFS

Global

Global. Updated several times a day.

NOAA HRRR

US

US coasts and the Great Lakes. Updated hourly.

NOAA NAM

US

The same US coverage as HRRR, from a second forecast system.

ECMWF IFS

Global

Global. The European model.

ECMWF AIFS

Global

ECMWF's AI forecast system.

NOAA OFS

Tides

Tidal currents for US coastal waters and the Great Lakes.

NOAA RTOFS

Currents

Set and drift on the open ocean.

NOAA GFS-Wave

Waves

Wave forecasts for route comparison and wave-height limits.

GEBCO + ENC

Depth

Depth data for draft and clearance limits.


03

Test route sensitivity

Test how far a route moves when wind strength and boat speed shift slightly from the forecast and polar.

Each result shows the change in predicted finish time. When a route differs from the baseline, the panel gives the place where the tracks first separate and overlays the alternative on the chart.

Use the results to see which conditions and places make routes diverge. It runs in your browser against the forecast already downloaded, with no further network request.


04

Use race mode on the water

Use a phone, GPS fix, and the share link for the route you planned ashore.

Open the route, take a fix, and name the mark you still have to round. Race mode solves the rest of the course from the boat's current position and returns a heading, upcoming tacks and gybes with their times, and a predicted finish.

Race mode solves ashore and sends a small readout to the boat. Re-route from a fresh fix when conditions change, or set it to re-route on a timer.


05

Set wave and depth limits

Set a wave ceiling to exclude water above it, or prefer calmer water when comparing routes.

A wave ceiling excludes water above the limit from the route. A calmer-water preference lets the search favor lower sea state when comparing routes.

Every route reports the sea state it meets along the way, including how long it spends in rough water. Set your draft and a depth margin to exclude water that does not meet them.


06

Choose a boat polar

Search your ORC certificate by sail number and the VPP polar comes with it. Or paste your own measured polar.

Import a polar in matrix CSV, TSV, .pol, or Expedition or PredictWind angle-speed format. The format is detected automatically.

A pasted polar is temporary unless you explicitly save it to your private account. Shared shared routes carry the track, never the speed table that produced them.


07

Plans and forecast limits

Route calculations are unlimited on every plan. Plans set course length, forecast duration, and available models.

PlanCourseDurationForecast detailPrice
Anonymous60 nm24 hStandardFree
Free150 nm48 hStandardFree
CreditsAny passage16 daysAll-out$15 / 10 forecasts
ProAny passage16 daysAll-out$79 / year

Offwind is a planning tool, not a navigation system. See the terms and the data attributions.


08

About Offwind

Offwind is a Leebow planning tool for sailors who want to inspect the assumptions behind a route.

Routes are worked out in your browser from your boat's performance: an ORC certificate, a polar table you provide, or one saved to your account. See the reference docs for setup and data details.

Leebow also publishes Saildex results and hosts regattas. For Graham's sailing projects, visit Leebow.