About
What Whitecap is
The field guide and the chartplotter — one instrument that answers the only question that matters at the ramp.
Whitecap reads the buoys, the wind, the waves, and yourboat, then gives a plain-spoken verdict: go or stay, when to leave, when to be back. One number, 1 to 100, and the reasoning behind it. No scrolling seven tabs of marine forecasts to guess whether a Tuesday evening cruise is a good idea.
Why it exists
The data to answer “should I take the boat out?” has existed for decades — NOAA buoys report wave height every half hour, the National Weather Service writes marine forecasts twice a day, wind models update hourly. But it's scattered across buoy pages, gridpoint forecasts, and apps built for sailors and surfers who already speak the language.
Whitecap started on southeast Lake Michigan, with a family bowrider and a simple problem: three-foot waves mean a fine afternoon for a 26-foot cuddy and a miserable, borderline-unsafe one for an 18-foot open bow. The forecast doesn't know your boat. Whitecap does — hull, length, and the wave heights your crew actually tolerates — and it scores the water against that, not against a generic small-craft advisory.
How it works
Every number is computed by deterministic code from public sources — NOAA NDBC buoys, National Weather Service forecasts and alerts, Open-Meteo weather and marine models, USGS water data. Wave height, wind, gusts, period, water temperature, visibility, thunderstorm risk: measured or modeled, then scored against your boat's limits.
AI writes only the prose — the short read that explains what the numbers mean for your trip. It never invents a figure. If the language model is wrong, the instrument above it still stands.
What it is not
Whitecap is a recreational planning tool, generated by software from third-party weather and water data that can be wrong, late, or missing. It is not endorsed by the Coast Guard, NOAA, or any safety organization. Before and while you're out, monitor official broadcasts — NOAA Weather Radio and VHF marine channels — and trust your own judgment over any number here.
Where it's headed
An iOS app, boat profiles that follow your account, alerts when your window opens or the water turns, and a fishing mode for the days the answer is “go.” The instrument stays free; the written read is where the meter runs.