Tactics Tips: Late Beat Tactics

Late Beat Tactics
Bill Gladstone - North U

Here’s the situation:  Final beat of the race before turning downwind to the finish. We’re on starboard, about 100 yards below the starboard tack layline and 300 yards from the mark. We’re about to cross a port tack rival by a boat length or two.  

What should we do?

Our options include ...

We can tack and lee-bow, cross and tack to pin, cross and continue on starboard, or cross and sail a few lengths before tacking.  

We'll look at each option:

If we lee-bow, we give bad air to our rival out to the layline and hope to be able to tack ahead; but we may have just pinned ourselves.  Probably not the best choice.  

If we cross and tack then we controls our rival out to the layline and control the next move. When we tack then our rival can tack and follow into the mark. This is a safe move that allows us to protect our lead.  

Suppose we just continues on starboard...  Well, this let's our rival sail free and clear. It might be the right thing to do if there are other tactical considerations and avoids getting to the layline early, but has no up-side vis-a-vis our rival.  

If we sail a few lengths and then tack, our rival will be bow out and get to the layline first. Using this 'delayed tack' option, we leave our rival with two choices: …  

One choice is for our rival to tack on the layline. We would then tack on her, and give her bad air for the remainder of the leg, extending our lead; the other choice ....  

....the other choice is for our rival to overstand and wait for us to tack.  This also extends our lead. By making our rival lead to the layline the 'delayed tack' option allows us to extend our advantage from a shy one or two length lead to a safe three or four length cushion.  

Tactics Tips: Using Leverage

Over the course of the next two weeks, Sound Boatworks will be featuring "Tactics Tips" from Bill Gladstone of North U.  These are teaser tips and more can be found in Bill's wide range of CDs, DVDs and Books from North U, available for purchase here on our online store.  Be sure to leave comments or questions for us or Bill and we will do our best to answer them.

Using Leverage

The greater your lateral separation from your rivals – that is, the further you are spread out across the course – the greater your leverage.  Increasing leverage increases the impact of wind shifts.   The greater your leverage the more you stand to gain (OR LOSE) in the next shift.  You want leverage when you know where the next shift is coming from and can sail to it.  You should minimize leverage when you are uncertain of what might happen next.

You might be surprised at how quickly leverage accrues.  For example, splitting tacks for 1 minute at 6 knots provides 848 feet of leverage (for boats tacking through 90 deg).  A 10 deg shift results in a gain (or loss) of 25% of the leverage, or 212 feet.  

So, to catch up when behind, you don’t need to split tacks for long.  In just a minute or two you can get substantial leverage.  Sail fast and look for an opportunity to split tacks when you can anticipate a shift.