Introducing sailboats into ship routing system VISIR

A prototype of sailboat routing system for least-time navigation is presented. The routing algorithm is based on an exact graph-search method, not requiring subjective optimization parameters. The temporal variation of wind fields during the sailing time is accounted for. The system also considers topological constraints such as coastline and shallow waters. The sailboat is modelled in terms of its polar plot. Wind forecasts from multiple providers are accepted as an input. Case studies show that the algorithm consistently computes tacking, jibing, and other route diversions functional to the maximum exploitation of the sailboat performance, as provided through its polar plot. The present version of the system targets races with path lengths in the range of tens of nautical miles or more.