The encyclopedia · Software & IT · Technical decision · 1960s–2010
Weather routing sails around the storm instead of racing the shortest line
Routing services pick the fastest safe path through wind and current; Odfjell's first 90 days saved 30 sailing days and about 1,000 tonnes of fuel.
Applied Weather Technology (AWT) · Odfjell Group
The solution
On the open ocean, the shortest line between ports is often the slowest and most dangerous, because wind, waves and currents move the medium the ship crosses. Weather routing is the commercial service that plans passages against the forecast rather than the map.
Providers analyze wind, sea and ocean currents plus vessel characteristics — type, age, stability, cargo and speed — and recommend the safest, most time-efficient or fuel-efficient route. Wikipedia describes the service as primarily protecting owners and charterers from speed claims, with reduced fuel and better ETAs as secondary gains.
The numbers come from the Bunker Index report on Odfjell: in the first 90 days of routing on about 65 tankers, AWT showed 30 sailing days saved and roughly 1,000 tonnes of fuel oil, worth about US$475,000 and 3,000 tonnes of CO2. AWT routes more than 35,000 voyages a year.
Why it worked
- The ocean is moving weather, so the fastest path is a forecast problem.
- Fuel is a ship's biggest variable cost, and currents decide fuel.
- Onboard software turns advice into a comparison the master can act on.
- Safety gains ride along: routing steers ships clear of severe storms.
What can be applied
When the medium moves, shortest does not equal fastest — optimize against the environment you will actually cross, not against the map.
Aftermath
Weather routing is standard practice for large cargo fleets, and routing tools now feed voyage optimization, scheduling and emission reporting. Mariners remain skeptical of some claims after disasters where routing advice did not prevent damage, so the industry keeps refining models and ship-specific response data.
Sources
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