Wärtsilä Voyage and Japan based weather routing provider Weathernews Inc (WNI) have signed a strategic partnership agreement enabling the integration of WNI’s weather forecasting data and Optimum Ship Routeing (OSR) service with Wärtsilä’s products and solutions. According to Wärtsilä, the move aims to increase navigational safety and support the decarbonization efforts of ship owners and operators.
By automating navigation and route planning functions with weather avoidance technology, owners can reduce risks and allow seafarers to concentrate on other operational requirements. WNI currently supports around 10,000 vessels worldwide using risk communicators and meteorologists to deliver advanced weather forecasting.
“Sailing through bad weather has numerous downsides. 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. This is why this agreement with WNI is so important,” said Kay Dausendschoen, Head of Product, Fleet Operations Solutions & Optimization, Wärtsilä Voyage.
Under this agreement, WNI’s forecasting models can be integrated, for example, into Wärtsilä’s Fleet Operations Solution (FOS), a service that automatically optimizes a ship’s route by providing the fullest and latest voyage data, at the same time keeping both the onboard and shore-based personnel informed and notified.
Wärtsilä said another of its solutions likely to be enhanced via this agreement is Navi-Planner, the company’s complete voyage planning and optimization system, which is connected through the ship’s electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS). Advanced weather forecasting will also be incorporated into future sustainable systems and innovative solutions developed through the collaboration between Wärtsilä and WNI.
The partnership will result in additional features, such as route overlays and charts, being developed once the WNI weather service has been fully integrated into the Wärtsilä systems.
WNI’s advanced weather forecasting solutions harness the power of AI supported by human reason and logic. © WNI
