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The best sailing days are the ones where you leave the dock prepared.

You already know how the day is likely to unfold. You know how the weather will change when the current turns in your favor, and whether a small delay along your trip will mean a late arrival or a tougher journey in bad weather.

Good planning makes for a better day on the sea, especially for cruising sailors who travel longer distances.

That is exactly the kind of boating Orca is built for, and this guide will help you understand how to plan better sail routes and fine-tune your routes to better match your preferences and your boat.

An introduction to Sail Routes

Sailboats are slow, and once you commit to a longer trip, you are committed to the journey itself.

This makes planning important, and planning a sailing trip is an incredibly complex challenge that requires understanding the weather, currents, waves, and how you and your boat’s performance are affected by these conditions.

Orca’s Sail Routes is designed to help you solve that challenge. It combines weather forecasts, currents data, and your boat’s polar diagram to find the best path to your destination. To create a Sail Route in Orca, select a destination from the chart or via search and select Sail as your routing mode.

Sail Routing is not just about finding a path – it helps you understand how the trip is likely to unfold, lets you view forecasted conditions along the route, easily compare alternatives, and ultimately make better decisions.

Polar Diagrams

Polar Diagrams describe how quickly a sailboat can travel at a certain wind speed and direction. These diagrams are essential for Sail Routes, because they let the routing system understand how your boat will travel through the forecasted weather. 

A Polar Performance chart that shows expected boat speed at different wind speeds and angles.

To get better Sail Routes in Orca, the first step you should take is to select your boat’s Polar Diagram via Main Menu > My Boat > Polar Performance. Search for your boat’s sail number if you have an ORC rating, and if not, your boat type. If you do not find a match for your boat type, you can generate a polar by entering your expected boat speed at a few wind angles.

Customer Reviews

4.5 (162 reviews)

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The Tesla of chart plotters.

27/05/26

Orca CoreDenmark +3 moreSailboat35-45 feet (10.5-13.5 meters)Living aboard +2 more10 connected devices

More stable than I expected and new features every year without buying new devices. Initially considered upgrading my old Raymarine plotter to Axiom, but got frustrated paying around 2000EUR for a product that was essentially 5 years old. Decided to try Orca after trying the free app for a few weeks, and the Core 2 did not cost more than I was willing to loose if It did not live up to expectations. on third season with Orca now, and have not looked back. Using it with iPad Pro (1000 nits = quite usable in sunlight) & Iphone, as the Display 2 is simply too old to justify its price.

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Orca review

03/03/26

Orca CoreBaltic Sea +3 moreSailboat35-45 feet (10.5-13.5 meters)Long trips +1 more12 connected devices

Superfornøyd med Orca

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Great to getting an overview, not so great for navigation

27/02/26

Orca CoreDenmarkSailboat35-45 feet (10.5-13.5 meters)

It's very nice and simple to use. It's great that you can have all your n2k data on you tablet/phone But for navigation I wouldn't use it. It simply doesn't have the needed settings to display all information. In my instance I'm sailing in an area where there is a DW route, it comes up clearly on my Garmin active captain app. Overall is fell like it's way to limited in the settings for your display of the chart When working on an transas ecdis you as an example have the option to hide spot soundings at a certain depth. Eg your boat draft is 5 meters, and spot sounds of more then 12 meters is not needed in the chart

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Promising product held back by atrocious customer support

26/02/26

Orca CoreUnited StatesSailboat35-45 feet (10.5-13.5 meters)Long trips13 connected devices

Clearly entered the market half-baked and relied on user feedback to identify bugs. The marketing is decades ahead of the actual user experience. Written promises to bring Garmin radar support unfulfilled. If you need customer service, you're better off jumping off a bridge. What a shame, the product holds such promise.

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ASTRA II

24/02/26

Orca CoreOrca DisplayMediterraneanSailboat45-55 feet (13.5-16.5 meters)Living aboard13 connected devices

Orca has been my guide to show me the path on the ocean.

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