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    Sail The Long Tack - Part of Your Strategy Mix - SailZing PDF

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    Tschau Cheeyew
    The document discusses the strategy of "sailing the long tack" in sailboat racing. The long tack is the route that points closest to the mark and keeps the boat centered in the course. It is generally a good strategy when the wind is uncertain. Sailing the long tack first gives more flexibility if the wind shifts and keeps sailing options open longer into the leg. However, it may not be optimal if one side is clearly more advantageous due to wind conditions.

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    Sail The Long Tack - Part of Your Strategy Mix - SailZing PDF

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    Tschau Cheeyew
    107 views3 pages
    The document discusses the strategy of "sailing the long tack" in sailboat racing. The long tack is the route that points closest to the mark and keeps the boat centered in the course. It is generally a good strategy when the wind is uncertain. Sailing the long tack first gives more flexibility if the wind shifts and keeps sailing options open longer into the leg. However, it may not be optimal if one side is clearly more advantageous due to wind conditions.

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    Sail the Long Tack_ Part of Your Strategy Mix - SailZing.pdf

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    The document discusses the strategy of "sailing the long tack" in sailboat racing. The long tack is the route that points closest to the mark and keeps the boat centered in the course. It is generally a good strategy when the wind is uncertain. Sailing the long tack first gives more flexibility if the wind shifts and keeps sailing options open longer into the leg. However, it may not be optimal if one side is clearly more advantageous due to wind conditions.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    107 views3 pages

    Sail The Long Tack - Part of Your Strategy Mix - SailZing PDF

    Uploaded by

    Tschau Cheeyew
    The document discusses the strategy of "sailing the long tack" in sailboat racing. The long tack is the route that points closest to the mark and keeps the boat centered in the course. It is generally a good strategy when the wind is uncertain. Sailing the long tack first gives more flexibility if the wind shifts and keeps sailing options open longer into the leg. However, it may not be optimal if one side is clearly more advantageous due to wind conditions.

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    27/03/2023, 00:33 Sail the Long Tack: Part of Your Strategy Mix - SailZing

    Sail the Long Tack: Part of Your Strategy Mix


    sailzing.com/sail-the-long-tack

    October 25, 2018

    My favorite rule of thumb, and one that I have used with great success many times, is to
    ‘sail the long tack first.’ This is a simple, nearly foolproof guideline that is easy to use and
    often comes with great results.

    Dave Dellenbaugh

    There are lots of rules of thumb for upwind strategy. The trick is to know when to use
    them and when to ignore them. In this article, we look at “sail the long tack” and see how
    it fits with other upwind strategies.

    This article is based on Here’s Why the Long Tack is a Winning Move for Sailors, by Mike
    Ingham in Sailing World, and sections of Speed and Smarts, Issues 127 and 129, by Dave
    Dellenbaugh.

    What is the Long Tack?


    Ingham and Dellenbaugh use slightly different words to define the long tack:

    Ingham: the long tack is the one that


    points your bow closest to the mark.
    Dellenbaugh: The long tack is the one on which you must spend more time to get
    from where you are to the mark.

    In the drawing to the right, the green boats are on the long tack and the yellow boats are
    on the short tack.  You can see that the two definitions mean the same thing:

    Green’s skipper can see the mark easily off the bow; Yellow’s skipper has to look
    sideways to see the mark.
    Green can sail on starboard for a longer time than Yellow. Yellow must tack soon or
    she will go past the layline and sail extra distance.

    The Long Tack is Not Always the Lifted Tack


    Normally, you think of the lifted tack as the
    one one that points your bow closest to the mark – just like the long tack. But, as you
    approach the edges of the course, the lifted tack is not the same as the long tack. In the
    diagram, the wind has shifted 20 degrees to the left (dark arrow). Yellow is on the lifted
    tack, but Green is on the long tack. 

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    The Long Tack Keeps You Centered


    Ingham puts it this way.  “(The long tack) takes you back toward course center. The center
    of the course is the wind center. It is directly downwind of the weather mark…. It ignores
    the previous mark and instead only relates to where you are relative to the next mark and
    the wind direction.” 

    In the diagrams above. look at the laylines. The laylines define the edges of the course.
    Note that Green is heading back to the center of the course, while Yellow is heading to the
    edge.

    When it Works
    To paraphrase Dellenbaugh, sailing the long tack is no substitute for figuring out what the
    wind is doing, and developing a strategic plan. However, when you are not so sure about
    what the wind will do next, it’s a powerful rule of thumb. It works because staying
    centered gives you more opportunities when the wind might shift in either direction.

    The benefits of sailing the long tack are greatest when:

    You are uncertain about the wind. As Dellenbaugh says, if  you’re confident about
    the next shift or puff, forget about the longer tack. If not, sailing the long tack is a
    good rule of thumb,
    The longer tack is much longer than the short tack.  Ingham says at 2:1 (long tack to
    short), the mark is well over your shoulder and you should start to feel uneasy. At
    3:1 you have to all but turn around to see the mark. You had better have a really
    good reason to keep going into the corner.
    Early and mid-beat. Getting close to the laylines too soon really limits your options,
    so sailing the long tack is a good way to start. As you get close to the mark, tactics
    and positioning become more important than sailing the long tack.

    How it Fits in the Strategy Mix


    Ingham has a nice discussion of how to use this rule of thumb in the context of various
    conditions. 

    Oscillating Breeze
    In a truly oscillating breeze, with regular shifts around an average direction, you sail the
    shortest distance by sailing the lifted tack as much as possible. Ideally, you follow this
    strategy until you get to the last shift before reaching the mark. If this strategy takes you
    away from the center, the lifted tack and long tack may be different. Ingham says that
    being “up” (lifted) 10 degrees, with the mark well over your shoulder should make you
    nervous, and looking for even a small header to tack back.

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    Randomly Shifty Day


    When you can’t find a pattern to the shifts, sailing the long tack might become your
    primary strategy. Tack on the large headers, but don’t be a slave to your compass. If
    you’re not pointed at the mark, think about tacking.

    One Side Advantaged

    If one side is clearly advantaged, due to more wind or a persistent shift, you may end up
    sailing the short tack first to get to that side. However, once you reach that advantage,
    continuing further on the short tack becomes much more risky.

    Light or Variable Pressure

    Ingham describes this situation very well: “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.”

    Downwind – Sail the Long Gybe


    The same principle works for downwind sailing: sail the long gybe first. We’ll cover this
    more in a future post.

    Counterpoint – Sailing the Middle is Death 


    Sailing the long tack keeps you centered in the course. Lots of sailors have told me that on
    some lakes, you have to pick a side and “send it.” These sailors say that even if you pick
    the wrong side, you’ll be better off if you win that side than if you stay in the middle.
    There’s not much written about this. We found an article in Sailing World, in which
    Stuart Walker makes the point that in medium-length courses, one side of the course is
    usually advantaged.  He says that the advantages of one side or the other only get
    averaged out in longer courses. We’ll focus on the topic in a future post.

    Related Content:

    Sail the Lifted Tack – How and When?


    Racing Strategy Choices: Positioning by Stuart Walker – SailZing Book Review

    Sailors Helping Sailors


    Will you share your knowledge with your related Comments below?

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