HomeCalculatorsWeather Routing Savings

Weather Routing Savings

Optimised track selection through varying wind/wave/current fields instead of rhumb-line or great-circle. Fleet-average savings 2–5 % on trans-ocean legs; higher on wind-driven trades like North Atlantic or South Pacific crossings.

OpsWeather

Baseline voyage

Great-circle distancenmME fuel rate at reference speedt/dayReference speedkn

Routing benefit

Average fuel reduction from routing%Trans-ocean 2–5 %, monsoon trades 4–7 %, coastal 0.5–1.5 %.Extra distance accepted to avoid weather%Typically 1–3 % extra nm for a 4 % fuel saving.Fuel

Baseline fuel

1,116.1t

Routed fuel

1,092.9t

Net fuel saved

23.2t

2.1 %

CO₂ avoided

72.3t

Formula, assumptions, and limits

Extra distance costs fuel proportionally but at the reference rate, not cube-law - the ship still runs at the same speed, just further. Weather-routing pays when p_save > p_extra / (1 + p_extra), i.e. the saving more than offsets the extra-distance cost.