Upwind racing tactics opinion?...

[Chris Miller]

Along with my eternal pursuit to improve my boat handling skills, I've been trying to learn as much as possible about tactical stuff as well. I've run across a difference of opinion on something and would like the opinions of you guys who spend time on the race course.

Upwind, one design (or close enough rated in handicap), behind at the leeward mark by 5 boatlengths or more---
Do you cross tacks? Work under the theory of "I can't win by following"?
Or, do you follow? Under the assumption that because they are ahead of you, they are going the right way? Work as best you can from behind and hope they make a mistake?

In the past week, I've heard/read major arguments for both from two well respected guys (Gary Jobson and Bill Gladstone), and I wanted to see what you all thought.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Seth]

Depends

It is not a one or the other question..

If you round the leeward mark behind your comp. (but fairly close), you obviously have 2 choices: split away and head for the other side of the course, or follow. The answer depends on what the wind is doing-unfortunately it is not as simple as a one or the other choice.

Assuming a port rounding, if the boat ahead continues on port tack (towards the right side of the course), you will decide which course of action based on wind shifts.

If you have detected that the breeze is tending to shift to the left ( as seen looking upwind), then you should definitely tack away to starboard. You will be sailing into a progessive header. The leader will tack to cover you, but you have the advantage now since you are the leeward boat sailing into a header. Gradually, he will "sag" down towards your stern as the shift progresses, and when you think you might be able to cross him, tack. If things went great, you will be ahead (although if the breeze is still going left, you should tack close to leeward of him-if you get to the right of him in this example, he will now be able to do to you what you did to him!! Protect that side of the course!). Either way you have gained. The limitation on this that you must be careful not to get so far off to one side of the course while taking advantage of that header that you end up overstanding the windward mark once you tack..

If the breeze is going right, then you should follow, BUT ease sheets and try to foot through his wind shadow. If you do this correctly, once you break through the shadow into clear air, you can then sheet back in and you will now be the leeward boat sailing into a header-gaining as the breeze goes farther right. At some point, he will begin to sag into your stern (you will now be "bow out" and slightly ahead), and get bad air from your rig, and be forced to tack off to the left (bad in this case for him) for clear air. When he tacks back, you will be gaining even more since all that distance going left (in a right shifting breeze) is a loss to him.

Again-beware of getting caught too far out on one corner or the other!

That was the easy solution. If the breeze is occillating (as opposed to a persistent shift), then you should tack away for clean air, and if you have not already figured out the period of the occilations (they are always shifting on a regular interval, say 10 minutes from max left to max right, or 4 min or 15 min, but it is always consistent), watch the compass or TWD indicator. You may have to sail through one or two periods to get the timing down, but once you see the right side shift, for example, has maxed out, and is now starting to go left, get on port tack and ride it(the lift for you) until it has maxed and the breeze is now starting to go right, then tack to starboard, etc. This way you will always be sailing on a lift-hence the adage "tack on the headers". This is what is known as being "in phase" with the shifts. If the leader just plugs away to the right, you will eventually catch him by staying "in phase" with the shifts, and sailing the shortest course upwind. The bad news is that he will do this as well if he knows what he is doing-but you still have an option (as long as he is concerned with covering only you). As you approach him on the opposite tack(but still behind), and you see you are beginning to sail into the lift (which you would normally want to stay with), tack to leeward of him. This will confuse, him, make him happy thinking you are too dumb to know what tack to be on..What will happen, though is you will be again "leading" him into a header, and gaining all the time. If you are basically match racing one boat, and behind, you should tack on each lift (the opposite of what you want to when sailing against the clock or not being covered). This makes him the windward, outside boat while the both of you are sailing into a header. In this case, the windward, outside boat loses to the other boat. Eventually you will come at him on starboard and he won't be able to cross you!! Once you have done this, get back in phase and tack on the headers again to keep gaining up the course..

Whew! We just covered a lot of stuff, and there are more nuances to this process, but this is the basic approach.

Final exam is tomorrow!
Seth

 

[Chris Miller]

gamble either way...

Thanks Seth, I had just gotten my eyes un-crossed from the tactics class I took this weekend and you had to go make it complicated again

I understand that conditions need to dictate (and I learned all about digging in the persistant header- I'll never feel good about that) your decision. I just thought the differing opinions were interesting when you pare it down to the basic question.
Thanks for the insight!
Chris

 

[Seth]

I hear you

I understand-these things can make you crazy sometimes...I guess I wanted to make the point that it cannot be a one or the other, or "basic" question-because in one set of circumstances it makes sense to split away, and in another it doesn't.

The 3 things I try to live by when going upwind are:1). Always sail in clean air (or the cleanest air you can find), and 2). Lead your competition to the next shift and/or get your butt to the favored side of the course, and 3). Pressure trumps angle. This means that more windspeed is more important than being in phase or getting the better side (from a wind direction perspective) of the course. I would rather be sailing 1-2 knots faster than someone else who is on a nice lift but going slow! Stay in the dark water!!!

BTW-A neat way to determine the best side of the course (in terms of wind direction) is when on or near the starting line, turn head to wind and note the wind direction. Then note the bearing to the windward mark. If the wind direction is to the right of the bearing to the mark, the right side of course should pay off, and vice versa.

Also, you said you will never feel good about digging into a header-think about this: The wind is trending left all day, so port tack will be lifted, right?
If you take off on port tack(lifted), and sail out towards the layline, you will end up way out on one side of the course, and have to come ALL the way back sailing on a header-ultimately falling below layline again and having to repeat the process. This could double the distance you sail, since if you take off on stb into the header, you can tack back MUCH sooner and below what you think the layline is, because you will get progressively more lifted as you come back across on port tack-much less distance sailed! Another "basic" premise is that you want to spend the highest percentage of time on the lifted tack, and that won't happen if you take off on the lifted tack first.

So, I guess it boils down to me feeling that this "basic" question does not mean much without the situation being taken into account-you can't really say one is right and the other is wrong, nor do any answers tell you very much..

Not that I have an opinion!

 

[windjunkee]

Great emails on tactics here. I love it.

Having just returned from J-World, and having an innate fascination with race tactics, I largely agree with Seth. I say largely because one of my golden rules is that splitting widely from pack is a tremendous gamble. Sometimes gambles pay off, most of the time they don't. If the boats are equally matched, then its likely you're 5 boatlengths down because of mistakes you've made. Better not to compound the mistake by gambling. Just try to improve boat handling. If there are a group of boats ahead of you, you have to figure they're fairly competent sailors who will have their heads outside the boat and will notice pressure differentials before you. If you tack away, they'll try to figure out why and if you have a good reason, they'll go too.

I say race your own race, but don't let the boats in your class get too far away. If the other boats are ahead, concentrate of squeezing every tenth of a knot, sail fast and don't make mistakes. You can hope they make a mistake, but if they don't you're not going to win anyway. Fliers don't pay.

Just my two cents.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 Hull #134

 

[Seth]

Sure, but....

Jim,

If I gave the impression that taking fliers is a good idea, I humbly apologize!!!

This is exactly why it is not possible to answer that question with one or the other of those 2 choices.

Tacking away just because you are behind is just as pointless, maybe more pointless than following.

I would say that if you are close behind, and really have no idea what the wind will do on the next beat, then the move should be: round the mark, get up to speed, and then make a short, 2 minute tack away to clear your air from the boats ahead, then tack back and follow. If the breeze goes left you will gain a little, and if it goes farther right (more likely if the boats ahead are plugging along on port tack heading for the right side of the course), you won't lose too much, and in fact will gain on the guys who did take that flier out to the left!!

Just to be clear, my suggestions were to be taken when you have made a best guess as to what the breeze is likely to do. And let me add: This is rarely just a guess!!! The breeze is NOT that hard to figure out if you pay attention. One of 2 things will be happening: 1). The wind will be occillating back and forth, or 2). One side of the course will be favored-meaning the wind is persistently and consistently shifted (and/or there is more pressure there) to that side at the top of the windward leg. So, the choices are: 1). Figure out the shift interval and get "in phase", and tack on the headers to minimize your distance (yes-sail your own race!), or 2). Having figured out which side pays, GO THERE. It is OK to take short tacks to clear your air if you get tacked on, but keep the focus on getting to the better side of the course.

BTW-An easy way to tell which side of the course pays is to look up the course from the starting area (this assumes there is a class or 2 starting ahead of you!) at the class ahead. Look at the boats on port tack(going right). If they look "bow down" or heeled farther compared to boats closer to you on the same tack, you know there is a right shift or more pressure over there, and that is likely the way to go-if the top boats in that class are over there, even better. You might also see that the guys on the right side of the course who have already tacked onto starboard look "bow up" and/or heeled over more than boats on the same tack who are closer to you-again-suggesting that side of the course. Same theory looking at the left side, of course.

One other thing as a rule: At locations on both coasts and the Great Lakes, early in the day, when a sea breeze is starting to fill in from a calm morning (and still spotty), more often than not you will see more puffs on the left(offshore) side of the course, and a nice left shift near the top mark. The percentage move is to go left on the first beat if a seabreeze is just starting to fill. After an hour or so, the breeze will settle down and build. Once it is evenly over the race course, more often than not you will see a trend for the right side (towards the nearer shore) to have more pressure and a right shift near the top. This is not universal, of course, but a pretty good percentage approach. Keep your eyes out for indications to the contrary, and if you see something different, change the plan accordingly!

Sorry to be so long winded!!
S

 

[windjunkee]

Seth,

We really need to party together sometime. I'm buying.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 Hull #134

 

[Seth]

I'm in!

Sounds great to me-next time I am in SoCal (Ensenada Race for sure) maybe we can hook up!

To continue that right/left discussion in my last post, I want to clarify that the situation I described has to do specifically with a "normal" weather pattern where a daily seabreeze, created by the temp. differential between land and water, is occurring.

This does NOT apply during or just before and after a frontal passage, or other significant weather system. These will disrupt the normal seabreeze patterns, and those "rules" (really just percentage guesses) will not apply.

Also, these assume little or no current is present. In the SF Bay and Chesapeake, these rules work well in slack water or when the whole race course is in the same current, but when part of the course has current and part of it does not(or has a lot less), then the current effect must be added to the right/left equation, and in many locales will trump the wind direction impact on where to go!

If you like, I could give a short review for those conditions, but don't have time right now-let me know.

Jim, will I see you in Mexico?

Cheers!

 

[windjunkee]

Seth,

We're not going to be doing Ensenada this year. I know, I know ... so many sports, so little time. I'm doing an Ironman Triathlon in April and will be gone from my office for a week and a half. Can't have two lengthy vacations within a month of each other.
We'll definitely be doing Santa Barbara-King Harbor though.

Jim McCone
Voice Of Reason E-32-2 Hull #134