This paper introduces WeatherRouting Bench 1.0 to fill a gap in weather routing research: the lack of a common standard for comparing algorithms. We provide a website with code in Python that will assist researchers in using weather data, testing routes, and employing a fair cost function for comparing different methods: http://benchmark.weathernavigation.com/. We also suggest optimization problems based on real shipping routes, each including a standard route as a baseline for comparison. Furthermore, our paper investigates how the choice of a problem affects the optimization by analyzing how the average cost of a journey varies across different sailing speeds, regions of the ocean and times of the year. By offering this benchmark, we aim to make it easier for researchers to compare their work in weather routing. As a first entry to the benchmark, we propose A*-FMS: an algorithm based on A* graph search followed by a discrete Newton-Jacobi method, which combines the power of graph methods for global search and gradient descent methods for local optimization. The hyperparameters of this new method are discussed. With the best configuration and compared to the orthodromic route, the method reduces travel time by 1.4% when sailing at 12 knots, and 3.6% at 6 knots.