Tactic Tip: How understanding the course, the wind, and coming up with a pre-race game plan will help you make the best decisions in a race.

By Clay Johnson

Throughout a sailboat race, you will encounter many interactions with other boats. Each time you come together with a boat, decisions need to be made. Do I tack, cross or duck? Should I call starboard or let the boat cross? Should I lead back or should I dig in deeper? Hundreds, if not thousands, of decisions are made throughout the race, and each one changes your odds.

The first thing you need to do is to understand is the course axis. If you don’t know where your next mark is, you are not racing. Once you know where the mark is, you need to consider where you are relative to it. The closer to the weather mark you get or the further to the side you are, the fewer options you have at your disposal.

Second, it’s important to understand the wind patterns. Are you sailing on a shifty day or is the breeze very steady? Is the breeze oscillating back and forth through 10 degrees, or is there a persistent shift to one side? Are you close to shore where there may be wind obstructions and puffier/shiftier conditions, or are you in the middle of the ocean with nothing to block the breeze? Fully grasping the conditions you are sailing in will also help you make decisions.

Third, I think it’s important to have a general game plan for each race. Before the start, I like to test the wind, confirm my speed is good, and think about a plan. I try to ask myself, “absent all other boats, which way would I go to sail the fastest possible way around the course?” Often times the answer is wherever the most breeze will be once the start goes off, but there are certainly other factors such as course geography, current, mark location, etc.

After you understand the course, have noted what the wind is doing, and have a general game plan, you can use that information to make critical decisions every time you interact with another boat. With every interaction, it’s important to think to yourself, “how can I leave this interaction with my boat in the best possible spot to execute my plan.”

There are two examples I like to diagram for sailors I coach, that highlight the importance of the above.

1) The first is a simple starboard-port cross. In this case, even though starboard is the right of way boat, port actually has more options. Port can cross in front, they can tack, or they can duck behind. In this case, port needs to consider all of the above - where they are on the course, what the wind is doing, and how this interaction effects their general game plan - when deciding what to do. Even if they can’t cross and have to do a very big duck, it could be better in the long term if port wants to get to the right of starboard.

Conversely, starboard needs to understand what they want. If they want to keep going left, it’s not a bad idea to wave port across and continue to the left side of the course. At the same time, if starboard wants to protect the right side, they can hail “starboard”, force port to tack, and then tack themselves. In this case, starboard has forced their competitor to the left and allowed themselves to go right.

Too many times I’ve seen sailors - mostly new or younger sailors - aggressively hail starboard at a boat and have port have no choice but to put a really tight leebow on them. If starboard actually wanted to continue left, they now have bad air and a boat blocking their path. This was a bad interaction on their part.

2) The second example is when to tack when on the side of the course. Generally speaking, you want to lead back from the side. The reason is because you want to play the odds on the long tack back to the mark:

• If you get a lift, you’ll be on the lifted tack, sailing towards the mark. Maybe your competitor overstood and sailed extra distance. Either way, you’re gaining.

• If you get a header, you’ll gain on the competitors behind you as they will fall in to your stern.

• If everything stays the same, then everything stays the same and you’ve maintained your lead.

Here your result options are win-win-draw.

If you were to extend beyond your competitors and loose cover them back from the side, then the opposite results could happen:

• If you get a lift, you could have overstood or sailed more distance.

• If you get a header, you fall in and lose distance to your competitor.

• If everything stays the same, then everything stays the same.

Here your result options are lose-lose-draw.

Sailing is a game of always trying to change the odds to give yourself the best chance for success. It’s like playing poker where the odds of winning each hand change with every card that is dealt.

This is a complex topic that is always situational dependent, but I think these two examples really highlight how it’s important to have course awareness, wind awareness, and a good game plan for each race. With those three things in mind, you can then make the proper decisions when you interact with other boats to give yourself the best odds at moving up in the fleet.