Wärtsilä Voyage and Weathernews sign strategic partnership

The partnership aims to increase navigational safety and help cut carbon emissions by providing risk analysis and routing advice based on weather data. Carbon emissions are cut by reducing fuel consumption through optimised routing, and safety is improved by avoiding adverse weather and freeing up seafarers to concentrate on other operational requirements, the companies said.

Wärtsilä’s Fleet Operations Solution (FOS) could be one beneficiary of the agreement. FOS optimises a ship’s route using the latest voyage data, and notifies personnel onboard and ashore of any changes. Extending the range input data by adding Weathernews’ weather information will improve FOS decision making.

Wärtsilä’s ECDIS-connected voyage planning and optimisation system Navi-Planner will likely also benefit from enhancements, said the companies.

“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 & Optimisation, Wärtsilä Voyage.

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Once the Weathernews service is fully integrated in Wärtsilä Voyage’s products and services, additional features will be developed such as route overlays and charts.