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Introducing a brand new weather experience
May 27, 2026 • 3 min read
The only navigation system that truly understands weather.
A sailing trip often starts with two simple questions: Where should we go, and what will the conditions be like along the way?
Answering those questions requires both charts and weather forecasts — but planning around weather, especially on longer trips, has traditionally been difficult. You need to understand weather, tides, and currents in relation to your route, compare conditions at different points along the journey, evaluate departure times, and piece everything together into a plan.
Until now, much of that work has been left up to you. Traditional chartplotters focus primarily on charts, forcing boaters to switch between multiple tools and devices to make informed decisions.
Orca’s latest update introduces a completely redesigned weather experience, deeply integrating weather, currents, and tide forecasts directly into the planning and navigation experience. With Orca, you can better understand conditions along your route, make more informed decisions on the water, and ultimately enjoy a better boating experience.
Understand the big picture and the details
Weather forecasts are inherently uncertain. A weather front may arrive earlier than expected, move along a different path than forecasted, or develop differently than models initially predicted. Understanding that uncertainty is an important part of making good decisions on the water, which in turn means you must understand both the big picture and the local details.
Orca’s new weather experience is designed around exactly this.
Understand how the weather systems evolve with Orca's weather experience.
Orca now overlays high-resolution weather forecasts directly on top of your navigation chart, helping you understand how the weather will be at your exact location and your general surroundings. Animated weather layers make it easy to quickly understand how weather systems move and develop over time, letting you know if you are close to a weather front or if the conditions in your region are stable.
The new weather experience makes it easy to evaluate the conditions that matter most for your trip: rain, wind, waves, currents, and tidal heights are all available just a tap away from your navigation experience in Orca.
Planning routes with weather in mind
When planning a trip, you want to understand what the conditions will be along your journey. Orca’s Route Engine gives you a great overview of the forecasted weather along your route, but it will only give you the forecast along the route if you execute the trip precisely as planned.
To better understand if you have a wide or narrow weather window, or what happens if you deviate from your planned route, you need to understand the weather systems more broadly.
A Channel crossing. A local weather front builds up at three-quarters along the route. The current route proposal barely escapes this weather front and sees 7 m/s peak wind speed, but a delay of 1 hour would give 14 m/s wind speeds.
Orca’s new weather experience shows you how the weather systems evolve as you progress along your route. This lets you easily discover if the wind will die down just as you reach your destination, or if you should have a backup plan because a weather front is passing near your intended route.
Understanding this context is especially valuable in areas with strong and complex currents.
You can now view currents along your trip.
For example, when crossing the English Channel, currents will affect arrival time but also comfort. By visualizing how currents change and cross-referencing against waves, you can now easily understand when you will face wind against tide, so you can better time a harbour approach.
Better boating starts with better data
There are many different weather models out there, and some are better than others for a given area. Orca’s new weather experience builds on top of leading global and regional models, but you do not need to be a model expert to get a great experience.
By default, Orca automatically selects the most appropriate forecast model available for the region you are viewing. This helps ensure you get reliable and relevant forecasts without needing to think about model selection yourself.
For the English Channel and Solent, Orca uses the AMM15 Operational Model, which takes into account atmospheric conditions and forecasts to deliver an incredibly accurate wave and currents forecast. This model is available to all Orca users.
At Orca, we believe boaters should never have to compromise on data quality. Where other weather apps and navigation products often offer low-accuracy models to their free and entry-level plans, Orca does the complete opposite. In Orca, the very best models are available for all users, including those on the free Orca plan.
For free and Plus members, Orca’s forecasts are capped at 5 days. For boaters who want longer forecast horizons and manual model selection, the Smart Navigation plan unlocks forecasts up to 10 days. The Product Guide contains full details about features by subscription plans and forecast model availability.
The only navigation system that truly understands weather
Orca is the only primary navigation system that deeply integrates weather forecasting into its planning and navigation experience. It delivers high-accuracy weather and tide forecasts, powerful boat integration, all packaged in a robust marine-grade experience that makes complex weather planning easy and fun.
Orca is the only navigation system that truly understands weather.
Orca is available with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee and free express shipping via the Orca Store. Order your Orca today to experience the modern way of boating.
