By Clay Johnson
There are many times when you are behind another boat and are looking for opportunities to pass. This can be when you're in second place duking it out with the first place boat, or it could be when you're in 30th place duking it out with the 29th place boat. A point is a point, no matter where you are in the fleet, and knowing some of these strategies just might help you get around that boat in front of you and gain that extra point.
The first thing to consider is where you are in the race. If it's earlier in the race you don't need to be as aggressive. You can sail a smart race, continue to tack on the shifts and have clean boat-handling, and wait for your opponent to make a mistake. Sometimes being patient is the right play. Sometimes I find myself saying to my crew, “I don't see a passing opportunity here, so we should shift our focus to sailing fast and closing the gap to give us a better passing opportunity on the next leg.” This can be the right thinking earlier of halfway through a race, but the later in the race you get, the more you'll need to take action (and maybe a calculated risk) to pass.
When assessing your passing options, it's important to consider a few things:
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Is it a shifty/puffy day where playing the shifts will help you pass the other boat? Or is it a steady day where a certain side of the course is clearly better? If it's shifty, you need to figure out how to position yourself to best take advantage of the shifts. Sometimes that means getting out of sync with the other boat, other times it means leading to the next puff.
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Are you faster than the other boat where you can slowly reel them in? Or do they have a speed advantage so you don't want to get into long speed battles? If your opponent is faster than you are, you'll want to get separation from them and rely on a shift or puff to get around them. Sailing next to them - in similar conditions and without much leverage - will almost certainly give an advantage to your faster opponent. If you're faster than they are, you can afford to sail normally and count on your speed to help you.
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How aggressively is your opponent covering you? This is where sailing becomes a chess game on the water. Recognizing your opponent's strategies and considering how they are covering you can give you insight into what they want to do and how they are playing the situation. Maybe they are afraid and are going with you tack-for-tack. Maybe they are loose covering you to the side and slamming you when you approach the middle. Their strategy might limit your options, but at least if you can recognize what they are doing it will give you a glimpse into what your options are to get around them.
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Are you finishing upwind or downwind? If you finish upwind, the covering advantage is with the leading boat. After all, they can tack on your breeze. But a downwind finish allows the trailing boat to have an advantage in that they can take the leader's wind or get the puff/shift first.
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Almost always, when you're trailing, you don't want to extend out to the laylines. This is true for both upwind and downwind legs. By continuing all the way to a layline, you are limiting your options. Let's say you are on the port tack layline. Your opponent can then come over and tack directly in front of you, giving you almost no opportunity to pass. A header forces you to fall into their bad air, a lift means you've overstood the mark and are now following your opponent in, and no change = no change. All of these scenarios are losing options. I would argue that if you are losing and trying to make a pass, you should bring the battle back to the middle of the course earlier so that you can still go out to a side if forced to later on.
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It's also important to consider where you are in the fleet and what your other opponents are doing. For example, if you are in a two boat battle for first place with your nearest competitor well back, you can afford to be riskier in your attempt to pass. If the action behind you is closer, you may need to plan your attack while also positioning yourself ahead of your opponents, that way if your pass attempt fails, you still maintain your position. It's pretty frustrating when you are in second and make a risky pass attempt, only to lose more boats in the process.
Sailing is a very cerebral sport, and the best sailors are constantly considering the calculus of it all - and how the odds are always changing with each move - to give themselves the best opportunities to pass a boat. After all, every boat counts!