Wärtsilä adds weather data to voyage planning

By automating navigation and route-planning with weather avoidance technology, owners can reduce risks allowing seafarers to concentrate on other operational requirements. WNI currently supports around 10,000 vessels worldwide, delivering weather forecasting, risk analysis and routing advice around the clock.

Sailing through bad weather means containers can get lost overboard, fuel consumption increases and schedules can be compromised. “By having the fastest and most accurate advance warning of weather situations integrated into our navigational and voyage systems, these losses can be avoided,” said Kay Dausendschoen, head of product, fleet operations solutions & optimisation, Wärtsilä Voyage.

Under the partnership agreement, WNI’s forecasting models can be integrated, for example, into Wärtsilä’s fleet operations solution service and Wärtsilä’s voyage planning and optimisation system Navi-Planner. WNI weather forecasting will also be incorporated into future sustainable systems and solutions developed through the collaboration.

The partnership will also result in additional features, such as route overlays and charts, being developed once the weather service is fully integrated into Wärtsilä systems.