Yachts & Yachting — February 2018

What’s the big picture?

We don’t have to process all the

information all the way around the

course. An informed look (and if possible

a practise beat) before the start can

usually narrow the basis for ‘staying’

or ‘going’ to one or two key factors.

Where are the gains?

A winning strategy for the beat weighs

up the potential gains available from

any environmental factors a
ecting

the wind and water on our race course.

Questions we might aim to answer are:

znCan I see more pressure (wind

strength) on one side of the race

course compared with the other?

znIs there any tidal or current

gradient over the race course? Does

the tide strength or direction vary

from one side to the other and does

that give an advantage to one side?

znIs there any possibility of a

wind bend (the wind is blowing

in a di
erent direction at the top

of the course to the bottom)?

znAm I expecting the wind to shift

persistently in one direction?

znIs the water flatter on one part of

the course compared to another?

For each ‘yes’, there are further

considerations: how certain am I and

how big is the advantage available

from each? It’s surprising how

often the process of asking these

questions is enough to draw some

simple conclusions about what is

going to be important on today’s

IN ASSOCIATION WITH MANUFACTURERS OF PERFORMANCE HARDWARE

it in the race is an e‘cient way to build

experience of what works and when.

Hopes and fears

Am I happy to risk everything to try to

win the race by a leg, or just happy to

arrive at the windward mark in touch

with the leaders? How confident am

I that my gains prediction is correct,

or that the wind will continue to shift

regularly about a mean? If I’m less

certain, or less willing to take a chance

on a big gain on my own, the position

of the next mark and the rest of the

fleet will take a bigger part of my ‘stay

or go’ decisions. Even if you’ve spent

most of the beat chasing the gains or

tacking on the shifts, positioning rules

will take over as the beat progresses.

Time to choose

The choice to tack or continue can

be based on any one of three areas

of influence: sailing to an area of the

race course that gives a gain; sailing

the shortest distance by keeping

on the lifted tack, or minimising

risk and maximising opportunity if

something changes through positioning

against the fleet or the course.

znLooking for the gains? Don’t get

pushed around by the other boats:

take every opportunity to work toward

the favoured side of the course,

and keep going till you get there.

znTacking on the shifts? So long

as there is a regular pattern and

you are confident that there will be

at least two cycles per beat, tack

whenever you are headed below

the average heading on that tack.

znNot confident about what is

going to happen next? Use the safe

positioning rules: start on the tack

that takes you closest to the mark,

keep away from the laylines, and tack

and cross or close gauge on boats to

windward whenever the wind heads.

race course, and if there is time to

test it before the start, even better.

How is the wind shifting?

The character of the wind shifts on

race day have a significant e
ect

on how we might react to them:

znWhat is the shift range? Small

(up to 10 degrees range), or large?

znIs the pattern regular and repeating,

or apparently completely random?

znAre the shifts oscillating in a

smooth continuous pattern, or in

a discrete, instantaneous way?

znHow many shifts will we

experience on average per beat?

The bigger and more regular the shifts,

the more likely they are to a
ect our

choice of whether to tack or carry on.

One of the things that makes sailing

tactics and strategy so interesting, and

means there is a chance for everyone to

win a race on the day, is that the gains

from the factors listed above can be very

similar: I’ve seen plenty of races where

the boat that stayed in phase with the

wind shifts arrived at the first mark neck

and neck with the one that headed for

the edge of the race track for the extra

pressure. Some classes gain so much

from a bit of extra pressure that shifts

have to be huge to dominate; others lose

little tacking but sail at the same speed

through a range of wind strengths.

In small boats we can’t rely on

calculations to prioritise or rule out any

specific factors, but coming up with

your own practical model then testing

An informed look can narrow the basis for

staying or going to one or two key factors

Above

The decision to

tack is the result

of considering a

number of factors

Below

Fleet positioning

can be just as

important as

picking the

right shift

TOM GRUITT; RICHARD LANGDON

09

NEXT MONTH

The rules of

positioning

On sale

09 February

58 Yachts & Yachting February 2018 yachtsandyachting.co.uk

How to win_AC_GC_TH.indd 58 18/12/2017 11:24