What makes a great tack? It’s simple: whatever technique allows you to maintain the optimal combination of the best VMG during the tack and the fastest acceleration out of the tack. That’s easy to say but tough to do well. In my Interclub dinghy days, in light air, we often looked for opportunities to start a tacking duel with nearby competitors. It didn’t matter which way each boat was going; all we wanted to do was grind them down—keep tacking, gaining on every tack. Eventually, someone prevailed. That’s the power of being able to tack really well, and although you may seldom be in that type of tacking combat, tacking better than nearby boats can give you that extra couple of boat lengths that make the difference between rounding just ahead of a pack or rounding in the middle of it.

There always needs to be a reason to tack. It can be for a windshift, to find more wind, to head toward an advantaged side of the racecourse, to avoid a starboard tacker, being at or near the layline, for a navigational hazard such as a shoreline, shoal or oncoming freighter, to cover the fleet, to consolidate on a gain or minimize a loss, and even to take a flyer if in poor position. When in doubt, don’t tack. Many racers, including myself, tack too much—it’s a fatal flaw.

A few of my rules: Don’t tack in lulls or anytime tacking will put you into bad air. It’s better to tack in puffs, unless in heavy air and you’re worried about wiping out. When the windspeed is variable with gusts and lulls, you will lose much less by tacking in a gust rather than trying to accelerate in the light air of a lull after the tack. In oscillating winds, with several shifts per beat, generally tack anytime you are headed below your mean (average) compass heading for the tack you are on. There will be times when you should “eat a header” to get a bit deeper into the new shift, and there will be other times when you may tack off a small lift to find a larger shift or more wind.

For any given beat, study and ­understand the optimal number of tacks that leg requires to be sailed perfectly in the absence of other boats. Only one person should decide exactly where to tack—either the helmsperson or the tactician. And once that decision has been made, ­communication with the crew and the selection of the time and place to tack is critical, especially in a seaway. A well-trained crew is always ready to tack, which means sheets are always cleared, winches loaded, etc. I train the crew not to move until the countdown commences, “3, 2, 1, helm’s over.”

In a seaway, the tack must be done in harmony with the wave pattern. Choose an area or sequence of smaller waves. Done right, the wave pattern will assist the tack. Get the bow of the boat past head to wind as the next wave approaches so that the new wave helps push the bow down to course, requiring less rudder movement. When Tucker Edmondson and I were learning to sail 505s in our first big event—the 1979 World Championships in Durban, South Africa—we developed a technique for tacking in huge ocean waves that worked well: We’d finish the tack and accelerate on the top of the wave crest, filling the sails there instead of in the trough of the wave, where there was less wind.

Steering well through a tack is a bit like the Goldilocks story—you need to turn not too quickly, not too slowly, but just right. Of course, the million-dollar question is, what’s just right? The speed of the turn differs with every type of boat, every wind velocity and, as was the case for us at the 505 Worlds, every sea condition. Those are a lot of variables.

A great tack involves picking up as much VMG as possible during the first segment of the tack, and landing on the ideal exit angle for maximum acceleration as the tack is completed. This all requires good steering, crew coordination and sail trim. Broadly stated, a large, heavy keelboat should be tacked slower, and a light, planing dinghy should be tacked quickly. The fastest turn should be made in medium air and choppy seas, while the slower turn is good for flat water, lighter winds, and when overpowered in heavy winds. In overpowered conditions, the boat’s exit from the turn must be done slowly so as not to end up heeling excessively once on the new tack. No matter what, be sure not to overturn and end up on a course too low of your desired exit angle.

RELATED: Sailboat Racing Tips: Rules at the Start

Because most boats carry some windward helm or rudder angle, begin the tack by slowly moving the tiller or wheel to centerline and gliding the boat up toward head to wind. It’s through this first segment of the tack that you gain maximum VMG, so the longer you can maintain the boat’s momentum, the more VMG you’ll gain. However, that VMG gain comes with an associated loss of speed, which can be measured by the minimum boatspeed reached at the end of the tack as the acceleration segment begins. Have your crew watch the speedo or use a recording instrument, and you’ll get a good sense for that. How do you know when to end the glide and turn the boat through head to wind? Practice, experience, measurement and analysis, of course. I use an increasing rate of turn until just past head to wind and as the sails begin to fill on the new tack.

How you steer the next ­segment of the tack, from just past head to wind until you get to your acceleration angle, a few degrees below close-hauled, is critical. Just after passing head to wind, the speed of the tack, and therefore the degree of rudder angle, gradually increases—more ­rudder angle and a faster turn. From there, the next step is to land right on the exit angle. The location of that angle varies depending on the type of boat. You’re looking for the point where you most rapidly accelerate to the speed you were sailing before tacking. Finding the exit angle for your boat will take a lot of practice tacks. As you do them, note your target and actual speeds, the bottom (or slowest speed) during the tack, and how long it takes to accelerate back to full speed once on the new tack. As you approach the exit angle, the speed of the tack should slow, which means you’ll gradually reduce rudder angle. With an overlapping genoa, you might even want to pause the tack once the genoa is past the leeward shrouds. That allows the crew to trim on the genoa before it really loads up.

Trimming nonoverlapping jibs through a tack requires more finesse, and I’ve found that only the best trimmers do it right. As the boat turns up into the wind, the old leeward sheet is readied to ease. That might involve reducing the number of wraps on the winch, or uncleating the sheet so it is ready to ease freely. Don’t allow the old sheet to ease. During the tack, the jib is backed just a tiny amount, which accomplishes two things. First, it helps turn the boat through the wind and down onto the new tack. And second, it helps blow the jib around. Without backing, the tack will be slow. However, too much backing and the jib will reduce the forward speed of the boat like a brake. The moment it backs, immediately let the old sheet go. There are exceptions to this, such as when approaching the windward mark on the port tack layline. Then, allowing the jib to back for a couple of seconds helps pull the bow down to the new reaching course to the offset mark, requiring less ­rudder angle.

Next—and this is super-important—the trimmer of the new sheet must ­overtrim the new sheet as quickly as possible so that the jib fills on the new tack before the boat reaches its optimal course on the new tack. Once filled on the new tack, the jib provides acceleration and adds lee helm, thus reducing the amount of rudder angle needed to steer the boat down to the exit angle. The overtrim should be as hard as possible. That’s followed by an immediate ease until the boat reaches the exit angle. That ease must be done in harmony with the helms­person. So, as the boat ­continues its turn down to the exit angle, the trimmer eases the jib sheet until, as the boat accelerates to its optimal VMG angle and speed, the jib is then trimmed back in to its optimal tension and shape. A big indicator is the telltales will all be flowing. The process sounds easy, but it takes a lot of coordination between the offside trimmer, who eases the old sheet and backs the sail, the new trimmer and the helms­person. When done correctly, the jib fills on the new tack and literally pulls the bow of the boat down to the desired course, thereby reducing the amount of helm required to turn the boat. Less rudder means less braking, less drag—and greater speed. And that’s what we’re always after.

The post Progress to Perfect Tacks appeared first on Sailing World.

In the world of floating mainsail tacks, when you pull on the cunningham, a horizontal wrinkle often develops along the foot because the cunningham grommet moves down but the tack stays in place. Wouldn’t it be nice if both moved as one unit? This would allow for maximum projected sail area and a smoother shape. It can, and it’s easy.

From your standard cunningham purchase, attach a pennant of Dyneema to go up through the cunningham grommet, down through a small block or low friction ring tied off at or near the gooseneck, and then back to a grommet in the tack. I generally stick a small “dog bone” in the end of the pennant for easy rigging and de-rigging.

Now, when you pull cunningham, the tack will bottom out, and the cunningham will continues to work as it did before. As an added benefit, the system doesn’t technically add purchase, so it is legal in many one-designs, but be sure to check your class rules anyway.

The post A Tack and Cunningham Combo appeared first on Sailing World.

“Are we on the long tack?”

I ask because our tactician is having a noticeably hard time figuring out what to do. “Uh … no,” our tactician responds. “OK,” I say. “Let’s tack, then we can sort it out.”

It’s not that he is doing anything wrong, but the tactician’s job is tough, and it’s a tricky day. “Agreed. Tack when you’re ready,” he says, sounding relieved.

The long tack is a way to ensure we are sailing the shortest distance to the mark. It’s also a conservative move, a way to bring us back toward the center of the racecourse when unsure of the best move, which is surprisingly often. But while we assess what to do, at least we are not hurling ourselves toward the corner for no clear reason.

I define the long tack or long jibe as “the tack that points your boat closest to the next mark from your current location.” It’s the tack or jibe that takes you back toward course center. The center of the course is the wind center. It is directly downwind of the weather mark on a beat and directly upwind of the leeward mark on a run. It ignores the previous mark and instead only relates to where you are relative to the next mark and the wind direction. If you are going upwind and left of the wind center, then you are on the left side and port is the long tack. If you are right of wind center, you are on the right side and ­starboard is the long tack.

The long tack can change two ways: either by your boat crossing the center of the course, or the wind shifting from one side of the mark to the other. Suppose, for example, you are going upwind on the right side of the course on starboard, which is the long tack. Eventually, that will take you to the center, and as you cross downwind of the mark, it will change from the long to short tack, even though you have not tacked. Suppose, in that same scenario of being on starboard on the long tack, this time you get a header. If the header is enough so that the wind shifts from right of the mark to left of the mark, then suddenly you are on the short tack even though you have neither tacked nor gone very far.

The best way to tell if you are on the long tack is simply to look at the next mark and gauge how far off the bow it is. If it is more or less in your forward line of sight, you are on the long tack. If you have to look way over your shoulder to find it, you are on the short tack. To train your sight, make your best guess at finding the center of the course and then look over your shoulder to see how far you have to look to see the mark. Tack and see if you are looking at the mark with the same head and body twist as on the other tack.

The goal is to learn the scale of the short tack to long tack. I like to put it in a ratio:

At 1-to-2, the mark is easily in your field of vision. If it’s more like 1-to-3 or 1-to-4, you barely need to look from your jib telltales to see it. Either way, you are solidly on the long tack heading toward the center — it feels right.

At 1-to-1, both tacks are equal. You are directly to leeward of the mark. You can see it by turning you head, but it’s not a stretch. You are comfortably in the middle of the course, with all options open.

At 2-to-1, you will have to look well over your shoulder to see the mark. You are solidly on the short tack. It should be a significant factor in your tactical conversation — you should start to feel uneasy.

At 3-to-1 or more, you have to all but turn around to see the mark. You are way off the center of the course. You had better have a really good reason to keep going into the corner — you should be getting really ­nervous.

The long tack is so powerful because you are traveling the shortest distance to the mark while avoiding big risk. More often than not, it’s the winning move. Here are some examples.

Randomly shifty day: When it’s shifty and we have not nailed down a ­pattern, ­staying on the long tack may be our ­primary ­strategy. We might say, “If we are not pointed near the mark, we are probably on the wrong tack.”

Tacking in the big shifts to stay on the long tack centers us up to take advantage of the next shift, all while heading more or less toward the mark and making velocity-made-good gains up the course. If we find ourselves getting toward an edge, using the long tack compels us to take a smaller shift toward the center of the course, even if we take what we would have considered a header if we were watching the compass. By using the long tack to define a lift instead of a compass heading, we are always sailing the shortest distance and avoid getting stuck on an edge where we can no longer take advantage of those big shifts.

Oscillating-breeze day: Even if the wind is oscillating and we think we have a handle on the shifts, the long tack serves as a sanity check. In these conditions, playing the shifts by watching the compass ought to more or less keep us on the long tack. “Up 10, on the long tack” is what I like to hear. “Up 10, but we are on the short tack” sounds an alarm. We might have decided on the wrong mean compass heading, or maybe the wind has changed and there is a new mean. Either way, once we get on the short tack by 2-to-1 while still on a lifted heading, we start looking for any excuse to tack. Our tactician might say, “We are no longer up 10, but we are up 5 and significantly on the short tack. Let’s tack and hedge our way back toward center.” This is a tricky move since we have to eat what we think is a header. But it is a conservative move that can be a regatta saver. Once back on the long tack, heading toward the center, it’s a good time to re-establish the mean.

Layline avoidance: Nothing good happens on a long layline. If headed, we can’t tack to take advantage of a lift. Get lifted, and we overstand and sail extra distance. Even if there is no shift, there is a high probability we will get tacked on and have to sail in dirty air with no good option to escape. All three scenarios we lose.

Spiraling in: Another layline issue is “­spiraling in” on the mark. It is a frustrating situation that happens when we are significantly on the short tack and get lifted just when we were counting on a header. We desperately want to tack because we are approaching the layline, but hesitate because of the lift. Before we know it, we are well on the short tack and running out of options. Instead, if we had the discussion when it was 2-to-1 and hedged our way back even part way, we would have avoided the problem — another regatta-saving move.

Indecision: When we are unsure what to do, the long tack gives us time to regroup and figure things out. If we are confused and instead sail the short tack, we are committing to a side. We had better be right. The weather is going to do what it is going to do. Sometimes we can figure it out, but many times we cannot. The long tack keeps our options open while giving us time to think — it’s all good.

Great way to start each leg: The long tack is a solid conservative first move off the start or at the beginning of any leg. Taking the short tack early in a leg quickly and unnecessarily commits us to a side, and that is risky. The long tack early leaves all options open because we can still decide to get on the short tack in time to take advantage of that side, or we can continue on the long tack and center up. The long tack for the first leg is easy to tell with a wind shot before the start. Before rounding the mark onto subsequent legs, you should discuss which tack will be longer. You often will be able to tell based on what shift you are on, and which tack you just spent the most time on.

Current: Race committees don’t always square up the racecourse to the current because they set it to the true wind, as seen on their anchored committee boat. If there is a side current, it will significantly skew one tack to be the long tack. The safe move is to take that long tack first. In current, we can tell which is the long tack for the leg by doing a head to wind before the start. Our apparent wind is what we sail in, not what the race committee is reading. If in doubt, sailing the tack that takes us more up-current than the other tack is typically the long tack.

Downwind: Sailing the long tack is ­arguably even more powerful downwind. As when sailing upwind, it helps when it’s super shifty, is a sanity check for playing oscillations and helps avoid layline issues. When unsure what to do, it brings us back to the center, where we have options. It can be even more significant downwind because jibing angles are typically so much tighter than tacking angles.

In strong winds, if port is the long tack for the leg, we have to jibe right away to port because we will already be overstood. Any time sailed on starboard is just overstanding more. And it gets worse. Once we jibe to port, the fleet will inevitably jibe on us — all bad.

Does the long tack always work? Nope. There are plenty of good reasons to sail the short tack, but keep in the forefront of your mind that anytime you choose to sail the tack taking you on a longer distance (the short tack), there better be a bigger gain to be had than the distance you are sacrificing. Below are some situations in which sailing the short tack is the right thing to do.

Racing to a side: Some days dictate going to a side. This could be a persistent shift, a geographic effect (shift, waves state, and more wind) or current (relief or help). In each case, heading to a side means we will likely be sailing on the short tack to get to the side we want. There is nothing wrong with this strategy if we are pretty confident it will pay off.

Sailing to pressure: We all but ignore the long-tack concept in light wind because sailing to pressure dominates our strategy. Sometimes the winning play will be connecting puffs, other times we will race all the way to a side where we see more wind. Either way, we do not hesitate to take the short tack if it means getting to greater wind velocity.

Nearing a mark: As we approach the next mark, the long tack becomes less useful because the leverage from one side to the other is so much less. The closer we get, the more we prioritize planning our final approach based on traffic management. Sure, the long tack is related to the layline. But as we approach the mark, we change our focus to the winning move to the mark instead of using the long tack to center us.

Our original conversation at the beginning of this story could have been quite different: “Are we on the long tack?” I would ask. “No, but there is a line of pressure ahead I want to get into before we tack,” our tactician might respond with confidence. That is a great reason to sail the short tack. But more often than not, sailing the long tack works. First and foremost, by sailing the long tack, you are sailing a short race. As a bonus, it keeps you heading to the center, where you still have choices, and avoids the trouble of the corners. Sure, by sailing the long tack you can miss out on being a hero with a big gain in the corner. But on the whole, the long tack helps you sail a series of solid races rather than dominating one race and ­bombing the rest.

The post Here’s Why the Long Tack is a Winning Move for Sailors appeared first on Sailing World.

Luffing in the Prestart

Before the start, while ­starboard-tack boats are stalled, with sails luffing just below the line, boats that come into that lineup from clear astern with speed don’t seem to understand their rights and obligations. While they are clear astern, they are required by Rule 12 to keep clear of a “parked” boat ahead. Immediately after a leeward overlap begins, the new leeward boats become the right-of-way boats under Rule 11, but they also have two obligations. Under Rule 15, they must initially give the windward boat room to fulfill its new obligation to keep clear, and under Rule 16.1, if they change course, they must give the windward boat room to keep clear.

In the first diagram, just after Bob becomes overlapped with Alice, he holds his course and hails “Go up!” to Alice. But she is not required to go up. Her only obligation is to keep clear, and Bob must give her room to do so.

Fran luffs right after she establishes her overlap on Ed and hails “Go up!” To keep clear, Ed will have to luff, but if he does, his stern will swing into Fran’s bow. If he doesn’t luff, or if he bears away, Fran will have to take avoiding action to keep from having her bow hit Ed’s starboard side. Thus, there’s no way that Ed can keep clear after Fran luffs. Fran’s luff, therefore, breaks Rule 16.1 because when she luffs she does not give Ed room to keep clear. Because she luffs immediately after gaining right of way, she also breaks Rule 15.

A boat’s hull pivots about its centerboard when it turns. Therefore, if a leeward boat luffs before it is bow even with the windward boat, there is likely to be contact. However, if the two boats are bow even or if the leeward boat is bow out, then the windward boat will be able to luff to keep clear. Lou handles this starting-line situation appropriately. Because he delays his luff until he is bow even with Ken, Ken can easily luff and keep clear, so Lou does not break either Rule 15 or 16.1.

Tacking in the Zone

Almost all dinghy races these days begin with a beat to windward to a mark to be left to port. That windward mark is another place where rule violations often occur. In the second diagram, Pete enters the zone on port tack and tacks to leeward of Sal who has been fetching the mark on starboard tack for several lengths. Every boat must eventually tack from port to starboard into a position from which it can fetch the mark. What newcomers to racing don’t appreciate is how easy it is to break a rule if you make that final tack inside the zone.

When Pete tacks, he must comply with three rules. (1) While he and Sal are on opposite tacks, he is on port tack and required by Rule 10 to keep clear. (2) After Pete passes head to wind during his tack, Rule 13 requires him to keep clear of Sal until he is on a closehauled course on starboard, and (3) if he causes Sal to sail above closehauled, he will break Rule 18.3. After Pete completes his tack, he is fetching the mark, but to do so he must luff above closehauled and “shoot” the mark. That luff will cause Sal to sail above closehauled. There is simply no way that Pete could tack where he did and then round the mark without breaking Rule 18.3.

Now let’s see how the rules treat Paul, who tacked onto starboard to leeward of Stan, but did so outside the zone. Rules 10 and 13 apply to Paul just as they did to Pete. But because Paul passes head to wind outside the zone, Rule 18.3 does not apply to him. After Paul tacks, he may luff to shoot the mark even if he causes Stan to sail above closehauled.

There is one additional advantage to making your final tack from port to starboard outside the zone. When boats tack onto starboard more than three lengths from the mark, most of them are overstood. This means that, if you tack close to leeward of one of them, you will probably fetch the mark yourself. If, however, you make that tack in the zone, odds are the boat you tack under will have already cracked its sheets and will no longer be overstanding the mark.

Keeping Clear

On downwind legs, Nelson reports that boats frequently break Rule 15 and then Rule 16.1. This occurs when two port-tack boats are overlapped and close to each other. The windward port-tack boat breaks Rule 15 by jibing onto starboard so close to the leeward port-tack boat that there isn’t room for the port-tack boat to keep clear. What’s more, the jibing boat often makes things worse by immediately luffing and, thereby, breaking Rule 16.1.

All the violations discussed so far suggest coaches and instructors should spend more time on two definitions — “keep clear” and “room,” on the limitations imposed by Rules 15 and 16.1, and on the risks of tacking from port to starboard inside the zone at a windward mark.

Taking Penalties

Nelson reports that collisions resulting in damaged boats are uncommon, indicating that new sailors seem to understand Rule 14’s requirement that boats avoid contact. He also sees quite a few boats making two penalty turns, each including a tack and a jibe, after they are involved in an incident in which a rule of Part 2 may have been broken. However, the turns they take frequently do not meet two requirements of Rule 44.2 — that before beginning to spin, a boat must sail “well clear of other boats as soon after the incident as possible” and then make the two turns “promptly.” When asked why they delay their turns, new sailors often report that they were waiting for the perfect time to spin or that they thought it was OK to delay spinning provided they completed their penalty turns on the same leg they were on when the incident occurred.

The late spinners don’t seem to realize that late turns simply don’t count. If they were protested, they would be disqualified by the protest committee even though they had spun. This suggests that coaches should teach the details of Rule 44.2 and run drills to practice taking a two-turns penalty as quickly as possible.

Another common misunderstanding of penalties taken on the water is this: Sailors who take a two-turns penalty as required by Rule 44.2 often report that they did so because they didn’t know they’d broken a rule. They didn’t realize that in that case they had a get-out-of-jail-free card. That is, they could protest the other boat without risk of disqualification and then learn in the hearing how the rules applied to the incident. If the protest committee found they’d broken a rule, they would not be disqualified because they’d taken the appropriate penalty on the water.

Email for Dick Rose may be sent to rules@­sailingworld.com.

The post Young sailors are not alone in breaking these essential racing rules. appeared first on Sailing World.

Now that you’ve made the proper preparations before the regatta, its time to take your first test run. While you may want to hop on the water right away, it can be a good idea to do a dry run on shore first.

Step 2: Dry run on shore

Boathandling and teamwork is just as important as sail trim and tuning. Running through the rough moves for tacking, jibing, hoisting and dropping the spinnaker, etc. on shore can smooth out the edges before you and your team take to the water.

After my first day of racing in an MC Scow, a handful of near capsizes (it was blowing all of 8 knots) and getting stuck in irons while tacking, I had the opportunity to watch an on-land seminar by one of the class hotshots. As soon as he demonstrated his first tack, the light bulb came on. I realized I had been doing it all wrong. The only way I knew how to tack was to put the hiking stick in front of the tiller. This technique doesn’t work on an MC because the mainsheet is too close to the end of the tiller. As soon as I flipped the hiking stick behind and over the top of the tiller, my tacks were much cleaner. Had I spent just five minutes going through tacks on shore before I put the boat in the water, my first day of racing might have been a bit less humorous. Here are some of the things to concentrate on during your dry run:

Practice the hand-off: The skipper has to become comfortable with switching hands between mainsheet and tiller extension while facing forward, both tacking and jibing. It’s a good idea to hook the main halyard on the boom and hoist it until the boom is at sailing height to simulate actual sailing trim. Obviously the same is true for the crew with trimming the jib from tack to tack. Dry land tacking will also help the crew determine if they should be facing forward or aft when trimming the jib from tack to tack.

Perfect your footwork: How often do you come out of a tack in a breeze fishing for the straps while the boat heels precariously, slipping sideways? As you become comfortable with your hands, practice the placement of your feet. During a tack, you want to land on the new side with your feet finding the hiking straps automatically – not digging around for them with your toes.

Test your spinnaker handling.Without question, much can be gained by simply running through the basic drill of setting the pole and play acting a hoist, drop, etc. Going through all the moves beforehand will make your first sail more productive, and probably generate some more questions to ask your fellow competitors.

– – –

Greg Fisher has won championships in the Lightning, Flying Scot, Highlander and Thistle. However, he is best known for his dedication to helping others learn to sail their boats faster.

The post Speed Session 2: The Dry Run appeared first on Sailing World.

1. As he approaches the leeward mark, Lindberg intentionally slows in order to exit the mark in the high lane—a textbook wide-then-tight rounding. Presti, meanwhile, knowing he wants to tack around the mark, doesn’t worry about having his bow below the transom of Lindberg. Presti’s crew drops the spinnaker early enough so that everyone is in their positions and able to trim the sails during the rounding. Presti and his team enter the rounding with a powerful set up: the genoa is eased, the main is coming in early to help turn the boat, and they trim the sails for maximum speed as they round. Keeping the main slightly over trimmed in respect to the boat’s angle, and keeping the genoa slightly under trimmed, helps the boat turn without too much rudder movement, which will slow the boat.

2. Here, Presti has the boat only a few degrees below a close-hauled course, yet his genoa is still a bit eased. This sail-trim mode continues to help turn the boat into the tack and Presti doesn’t slow the rate of turn. If he were going for a wide-then-tight style rounding, he’d appear to be a long way from the mark, but remember, the goal here is to tack, not to stay on Lindberg’s windward hip. He anticipates Lindberg will cover, and immediately match, his tack. The desired outcome is to have his bow forward after both boats tack, or to discourage Lindberg from tacking into an compromised position, giving Presti the opportunity to split and, in this case, get to the favored right-hand side of the course.

3. Rolling into the tack with speed is the key. The apex turn keeps the boat at full speed through the turn. Lindberg burned some speed in order to stay high, which in turn, opened the door for Presti to lead into a tack. Lindberg matches the tack here, but is now a few seconds behind Presti’s turn. Even if they were matched in speed going into their respective tacks, Presti’s initial speed build after the tack will be a few seconds ahead of Lindberg’s because Presti completes the tack first. Advantage: Presti.

4. Mission accomplished for Presti. He’s headed to the right side of the course and is building speed while Lindberg is finishing trimming the sails after the tack. If the wind shifts right, or gets lighter, Lindberg will have a hard time living on Presti’s windward hip. Presti now controls the right side, and will most likely have starboard-tack advantage should they meet further up the beat.

The post 4 Steps to The Leeward-Mark Tack appeared first on Sailing World.

In our third installment of articles covering important rule changes that take effect on January 1, 2017, we explore new Rule 18.3, Tacking in the Zone, which is much simpler and more consistent with the rule’s original intent. Rule 20.1, Hailing for Room to Tack, is now clearer and may save on your repair bills. Finally, Rule 22.3 puts a sensible limit on “crabbing,” a tactic used by dinghies on the starting line.

Rule 18.3: Tacking in the Zone

If a boat in the zone of a mark to be left to port passes head to wind from port to starboard tack and is then fetching the mark, she shall not cause a boat that has been on starboard tack since entering the zone to sail above closehauled to avoid contact, and she shall give mark-room if that boat becomes overlapped inside her. When this rule applies ­between boats, Rule 18.2 does not apply between them.

Most fleet races require the windward mark to be left to port. The original intent of Rule 18.3 when it was introduced in 1997 was that it should apply only at such a mark. The goals of the original rule were to make it risky to tack from port tack onto starboard within the zone and to offer an advantage to boats that approach the zone on or above the starboard-­tack layline. The idea was to encourage orderly roundings of weather marks by discouraging boats from entering the zone on port and tacking ahead or to leeward of a group of starboard-tack boats that were fetching the mark.

The 2016 version of Rule 18.3 applied at windward marks to be left to port, but it also applied when the mark was to be left to starboard, where it served no useful purpose. Also, as World Sailing Case 133 illustrates, it was incredibly complicated to apply the old rule to common three-boat ­incidents at port-rounding weather marks.

The new rule applies only at a mark to be left to port, and it applies only between a boat that has been on starboard tack since entering the zone and another boat that tacks from port tack to starboard in the zone and is then fetching the mark. Diagram A shows a three-boat situation in which both of Rule 18.3’s requirements are illustrated. Tad enters the zone on port, crosses ahead of two starboard boats, Stella and Star, and then tacks onto starboard tack on a course that will allow him to fetch the mark.

Study the wording of the new rule, and you’ll see that it applies between Tad and Stella and also between Tad and Star. Tad loses speed as a result of his tack. Stella maintains her speed and course and becomes overlapped inside Tad. Soon after Tad tacks, Star finds she must change course to avoid running into Tad’s stern. Because Star would break Rule 11 if she bore off and forced Stella to change course, Star must luff above closehauled to avoid breaking Rule 11 with respect to Stella or Rule 12 with respect to Tad.

Tad is toast. He has broken new Rule 18.3 with respect to Stella because he fails to give her mark-room. To add insult to injury, he has broken Rule 18.3 a second time by causing Star to sail above closehauled. Luckily, he gets only one DSQ despite having fouled two boats.

Rule 20.1: Hailing for Room to Tack

A boat may hail for room to tack and avoid a boat on the same tack. However, she shall not hail unless (a) she is approaching an obstruction and will soon need to make a substantial course change to avoid it safely, and (b) she is sailing closehauled or above.

In addition, she shall not hail if the obstruction is a mark and a boat that is fetching it would be required to change course as a result.

Diagram B shows a three-boat situation that can occur on a beat to windward. In a PHRF race, Lionel and Winnie are sailing keelboats with overlapping ­genoas set. They are on starboard tack. The wind is at the top of the range for the use of genoas. Ponderosa, a large, heavy full-keel boat sailed by an inexperienced crew, tacks from starboard to port, but her port genoa sheet jams in its block. This puts Ponderosa on port tack, with her genoa aback and almost no speed — right in Lionel’s path. Lionel is trapped. It’s too late for him to bear off without risk of T-boning Ponderosa, and he cannot tack without risk of a serious collision with Winnie. So he hails Winnie for room to tack. Winnie tacks to let Lionel escape, but she protests him for breaking Rule 20.1(a).

Let’s compare how the old and the new Rule 20 apply here. Applying the second-to-last sentence of the definition Obstruction, Ponderosa is not an obstruction to Lionel and Winnie unless both of them are required to keep clear of her. In this situation, however, it is Ponderosa that is required by Rule 10 to keep clear of both Lionel and Winnie. So there is no obstruction present.

Under last year’s version of Rule 20.1, because Lionel and Winnie are not approaching an obstruction, Rule 20 does not apply when Lionel hails, and Winnie is under no obligation to give him room to tack. Under the new Rule 20.1, however, Rule 20 is switched on by a hail for room to tack, even if the hailing boat is not approaching an obstruction. Under the new rule, when Lionel hails, he breaks Rule 20.1(a), but Rule 20.2(b) requires Winnie to respond to his hail even though he has broken Rule 20.1(a). The new Rule 20 provides a safer result. Winnie must give Lionel room to tack (see Rules 20.2[b] and [c]), and the three boats will survive the incident without damage. In the protest room, Ponderosa will be disqualified for breaking Rule 10, and Lionel will be found to have broken Rule 20.1(a), but he will be exonerated under Rule 64.1(a) because he was compelled to break Rule 20.1(a) by Ponderosa’s breach of Rule 10.

Rule 22.3: Limits Crabbing

A boat moving astern, or sideways to windward, through the water by backing a sail shall keep clear of one that is not.

Top-level dinghy sailors have developed a technique called “crabbing.” Diagram C illustrates this technique and how it is used. A fleet of Lasers, all with their sail luffing, are on starboard tack below the starting line, creeping forward, almost stopped. With 40 seconds to go, Chris would prefer to be farther to windward, under Ben, so he can have space to leeward in which to bear off and accelerate in the final few seconds. Chris can move toward Ben by backing his sail and crabbing sideways to windward. Crabbing requires skilled steering, and great care must be taken not to break Rule 42 by sculling.

Rule 22.3 has been changed by adding the phrase “or sideways to windward.” Under last year’s Rule 22.3, Chris retained right of way as the leeward boat while crabbing toward Ben. This put Ben and Al in a difficult position. To keep clear of Chris, Ben, if he knew how to crab, would have to crab toward Al. But Al could not crab to windward, because the space between Al and Ben is not sufficient to enable Al to back his sail and crab.

The new rule still allows Chris to crab to move closer to Ben. However, while Chris is moving “sideways to windward … by backing a sail,” he is now required to keep clear of Ben. The new rule permits Chris to move to windward in the gap under Ben, but Chris must cease crabbing before Ben needs to take avoiding action (see the definition Keep Clear).

The new rule permits the skillful use of crabbing at the start, but limits its use so a crabbing boat does not put a boat to windward of her in an impossible position.

Email for Dick Rose may be sent to rules@sailingworld.com.

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