Voyage optimization

A typical Suezmax may burn up to 1,500 tonnes of fuel on a trans-Pacific voyage. With the weather known across the whole route space, a smart algorithm can choose the route and speed schedule that use the least fuel and still arrive just in time. Unlike traditional weather routing services, ours explores every combination of speed and course to find the best voyage plan within the agreed charter party terms and safe navigation guidelines. Our track record is an average fuel saving of 5–7%, measured against a transparent benchmark.

Methodology

BOSS explores every voyage scenario on a weather-indexed grid and uses a combination of dynamic speed scheduling and weather routing to plan the most optimum voyage schedule. Dynamic speed scheduling allows the vessel to speed up or slow down in order to avoid exposure to adverse weather. Speed scheduling when combined with weather routing, further increase the scope of optimization by not only reducing bad weather exposure but also exploiting favourable winds and ocean currents during the passage.

Voyage simulations are performed using a vessel-specific hydrodynamic model based on data from previous voyage abstracts, vessel performance tests and incoming noon reports through our MIRROR reporting system. Our dynamic programming based optimization algorithm takes into account several constraints including, but not limited to, the following:

• Charter party terms
• Navigational hazards and ice limits
• Vessel-specific limits: maximum and minimum RPM, roll and pitch
• Speed limits in certain areas
• Bunkering stops

These constraints ensure that the generated voyage plan is feasible in a real-world scenario and the estimates we get before voyage commencement are as accurate as possible. Once the exhaustive simulation is complete, BOSS finds a range of achievable arrival times under the given constraints and an optimum voyage plan can be generated for any given arrival time within this range.

What sets BOSS apart from other weather routing services:

• Nothing to install or retrofit on board.
• Vessel-specific simulations, so estimates are accurate and plans are practical.
• The vessel can reach Blue Water’s technical experts around the clock.
• The plan is updated with the latest forecast every five days, or sooner if the voyage deviates from it.
• Objective monitoring by people and machines together, to find the next saving.

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Voyage comparator

The voyage comparator turns the optimizer’s scenarios into a decision. A voyage manager can compare arrival times by fuel, cost and earnings, and invite every stakeholder in to agree the plan.

Because costs and earnings are part of the calculation, the comparator shows which arrival time earns the most per day, and what each extra knot really costs.

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Features

• Freight calculator: freight on a Worldscale rate or per day.
• Demurrage calculator: enter the daily rate and demurrage is calculated automatically.
• Bunker prices: live prices at major bunkering ports, or your own.
• Berthing window: enter the earliest and latest berthing times and compare the options within them.
• Best speed plan: the least main engine fuel that still makes the latest berthing time.
• Max TCE plan: the arrival time with the highest voyage earnings.
• Minimum expense plan: the arrival time with the lowest voyage expenses, designed for charterers.

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VAJRA

VAJRA, the Voyage Analysis and Joint Routing Assistant is a light-weight offline application that serves as an interactive extension to the Voyage Plan PDF sent to the vessel. VAJRA offers an easy way to observe the weather forecast along the vessel’s intended route, BOSS recommended route and standard shipping routes to make well-informed decisions regarding the next course of action. The user may select the date and time and load the vessel’s expected position and weather on different routes for that date and time on the map. The user can also hover the mouse on any position on the map to see the forecast significant wave height and wind speed at that position. VAJRA also provides a detailed comparison of simulation results such as estimated fuel consumption, weather conditions, distance, time of arrival, and speed throughout the passage along various routes. The interactive nature of VAJRA removes the need for both tedious excel sheets and evaluating static weather charts. Instead, an interactive interface provides a much simpler way to conduct route comparisons.

Here are some key features VAJRA offers:

• A simple, fast and lightweight HTML attachment which is compatible with all web browsers and does not require any internet connection.
• Interactive interface - The interactive nature of VAJRA offers a simple and intuitive way of conducting route comparisons.
• Prompt comparison between various route options on parameters including Time of Arrival, Main Engine Consumption, SECA/ECA Fuel Consumptions, Average speed and RPM; which in turn aids in the selection of optimum route according to one’s priority.

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Benchmarking

Our transparent benchmarking makes the savings easy to verify. When a voyage ends, we compare it day by day with a benchmark voyage: the same passage at constant charter party speed on the standard route. The comparison covers RPM, speed, consumption, weather and currents in both.

An interactive map shows where BOSS recommendations avoided the bad weather the benchmark would have met. Contact us if you are interested in reading our white paper which elaborates our benchmarking methodology and provides a solution to account for the inaccuracy in the vessel simulation model.