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I'd like to conclude this section on tuning, sailing, and sail setting tips by covering the art of picking the wind shifts to tack on and the wind shifts to perhaps ignore. You will not have been sailing for very long before you will have realised that the wind tends to shift around a bit, some days more so than others, these are what we call wind shifts, and intelligent use of them will win you races. The wind, even when it is shifting, still has a mean direction, or an average direction, some shifts we shall say are on the right or starboard side of the average direction, there is not much use in tacking on these shifts as you are already on the favoured board even though you have been headed slightly, the wind has still not come back far enough to favour the port or left hand tack. To many sailors tack on every knock or slight wind shift, if you don't NEED to tack don't! Even a good tack will cost you ground. So first off you need to get out on the course and sail on the wind for a while taking note of the average wind direction, use land marks if you can to tell when your being lifted up on one board or the other, note the minor shifts, the small ones these are likely just back and forth on the same side of the mean or average direction, see if you can pick these with your land marks over the bigger shifts the ones that are favouring the other tack, you can usually tell without to much trouble once you're racing if it is a major shift or not, as long as you have done your home work on the course beforehand. Naturally you will get major wind changes some days that will do away with your homework, as the wind sets in from a new direction, but you will soon get to read the new wind direction if you know what to look for. Also some shifts are short lived, you will get days like this where it is best to stay with the tack you're on until you are sure it's a major header! Otherwise you will find yourself tacking from one break into another, this will loose you more time and distance than if you had stayed on the original course for a few more seconds to be sure the header is a real one! Trust me, I've been there done that, it's most frustrating and it can put you in irons if the shifts are close enough together and quite large! Also remember if you can at all help it don't get carted out to the far side of the course, to what is known as the lay line to the next mark! You might have to sail all the way back to that mark on a header and loose a lot of ground to the smart sailors that have worked the shifts up the centre of the course. Only go to one side or the other if you know for a fact there is a favoured shift to be had on that side of the course, ie. local knowledge does some times help! And finally, always try and work it so the last board to the mark is a starboard tack board, a port tack approach to the windward mark in a big fleet is a big mistake!! Trust me! |
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