Legal
Terms of Service
Last updated: July 12, 2026
Safety first. WindCaster is a planning aid for situational awareness. It is not a substitute for official forecasts and warnings, formal navigation products, or your own judgment and experience. Always check the official NWS marine forecast, active warnings, and Local Notices to Mariners before departure. The captain is solely responsible for the decision to go out and for the safety of the vessel and crew.
These terms are an operator’s draft. Liability, dispute-resolution, governing-law, and subscription clauses (marked below) require final attorney review before they are relied upon.
1. Acceptance
By accessing or using WindCaster — the WindCaster.ai website, the interactive map, or the WindCaster app — you agree to these Terms of Service. If you do not agree, do not use the service. WindCaster is operated by WindCaster LLC.
2. What WindCaster is
WindCaster combines public weather-model data, official marine alerts, and live observations into a risk assessment for recreational boating and outdoor activity. Risk levels, scores, and briefings are generated automatically from forecast and observational data. Forecasts are inherently uncertain, and conditions can change faster than any forecast.
3. Acceptable use
- The service is provided for personal, recreational planning use.
- Do not rely on it for navigation, commercial operations, or emergencies. In an emergency, contact the U.S. Coast Guard on VHF channel 16.
- Access codes and accounts are personal and may not be shared or resold. We may revoke access for abuse, including automated scraping, reverse engineering, or attempts to overwhelm the service.
4. Your account
You are responsible for activity under your account and for keeping your sign-in details secure. We may suspend or terminate access for violations of these terms or for abuse. See the Privacy Policy for how account data is handled and deleted.
5. Subscriptions
WindCaster does not currently offer paid subscriptions. If paid tiers launch, the subscription terms — billing, renewal, cancellation, and refunds (processed through the applicable app store) — will be published here before they take effect.
6. Intellectual property & your content
The WindCaster software, brand, and the design and presentation of its assessments are the property of WindCaster LLC and its licensors. Weather and observational data belong to their respective sources (see §10). Content you submit — questions, saved spots, profile details — remains yours; you grant us the limited right to process it to provide the service.
7. Service availability
This is an early-access service. Features, risk thresholds, and availability may change, and the service may be unavailable at times. We do not guarantee uptime or that data feeds will be timely or complete.
8. No warranty; limitation of liability
The service is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied — including accuracy, completeness, timeliness, fitness for a particular purpose, or uninterrupted availability. Data feeds and forecasts can be wrong, late, or unavailable. To the maximum extent permitted by law, WindCaster LLC shall not be liable for any damages — including personal injury, death, property damage, or losses of any kind — arising from use of, reliance on, or inability to use the service. Your sole remedy for dissatisfaction is to stop using the service.
9. Governing law & disputes
Governing law: the laws of Texas. Dispute-resolution terms (venue, arbitration, class-action waiver, as applicable) will be finalized after legal review.
10. Changes
These terms may change as the product evolves. Material changes will be reflected here with a new “last updated” date. Continued use after a change constitutes acceptance.
11. Data sources & attribution
- Forecast data: ECMWF IFS/AIFS open data, licensed CC BY 4.0 — © European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
- Forecast data: NOAA GFS, GFS-Wave (WAVEWATCH III), and HRRR (public domain).
- Forecasts & alerts: NOAA National Weather Service (api.weather.gov) and Open-Meteo (open-meteo.com, CC BY 4.0).
- Observations: NOAA NDBC buoys (public domain).
- Tide predictions: NOAA CO-OPS (tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov, public domain).
- Navigational warnings: NGA Maritime Safety Information, NAVAREA IV (public domain).
- Geocoding: Open-Meteo Geocoding API. Radar/satellite imagery: RainViewer, NOAA/NASA GOES & Himawari.
WindCaster is not affiliated with or endorsed by NOAA, the National Weather Service, ECMWF, or any government agency.
12. Contact
Questions about these terms: support@windcaster.ai.