Male Speaker: So you've got your start and you know how you want to sail the upwind leg. The only trouble is a lot of other boats want to sail the same way and they all want to go faster than you. How do you with this? Tactics.
One of the most basic and repeated tactics is to keep yourself between an opponent and the next mark. By keeping yourself between your opponent and the next mark, you make sure that they can't pass, it's simple, right? Not quiet. Covering requires that you watch ahead of your boat to track wind shifts and other boats, while also watching behind to make sure that you're still covering your opponent. If your opponent moves to tack away you must tack with him. Additionally in larger fleets you may be covering some one while yourself being covered. In this case, you need to determine whether it's more likely that you will pass the boat ahead of you, gain a position or that you'll be passed by the boat behind, losing your position.
Ted Beier: You need to decide which of the boats that are very close to you, either ahead or behind, you have a good chance of beating, you may realize that all the boats that are ahead of you, there is no chance of beating them so your main concern is making sure you stay ahead of the boats behind you.
Covering can lead to tacking duels, false tacks, tight and loose covers, lots of maneuvering and plenty of close proximity sailing. We'll look at each of the elements involved next. A tight cover is an offensive maneuver. Tight covers are executed at close quarters with the goal being to get as close to the opposing boat as possible. Every sail boat has a wind shadow that extends the leeward and a wake up turbulent air that extends behind. A tight cover puts your opponent in that area of wind shadow and/or turbulent air.
The tight cover will force them to either tack away to clear air, loose speed and distance, sailing in dirty air until we are long gone or fall off and sacrifice position. If we had sailed across our opponent and tacked with more space between us than a tight cover but we're still trying to keep ourselves between them and the mark, then we would have put them in a loose cover. A loose cover lets you cover your opponent to the mark but doesn't affect their wind. This makes sure that you and your opponent share the same conditions, keeping them from exploiting any wind advantages that you yourself aren't exposed to.
You might use a loose cover on an opponent who really isn't a threat or if they go in the direction that you want them to go. You can use the combination of a tight cover and loose cover to herd an opponent into going the direction you want. Force your opponent to change tacks by tacking into a tight cover position. When your opponent tacks, tack with them but leave them in a loose cover. You'll need to keep an eye on them. If they try to tack, you'll need to continue to tack with them. If you want them to go in a particular way, let's say, port tack, then any time they tack on the starboard, tack and put them in a tight cover. And when they tack back on the port, leave them in a loose cover, assuming they can't break free with a tacking duel, they'll sail along port for as long as you want them to.
If you are trying to force your opponent onto a particular tack, then simply cover them with a loose cover. This will keep you between them and the mark but you won't require sailing in such close proximity. There are several positions from which you can force your opponent into your disturbed air. The first is from upwind, your boat's wind shadow extends 8 to 10 boat lengths downwind in light-to-moderate wind.
So settling in directly upwind of your opponent will rob them of some of their air. Your boat also leaves a trial a disturbed air behind it. This doesn't extend nearly as far as the wind shadow but it is similarly destructive to your opponent's progress. And added bonus is that when two boats sail in extremely close quarters, the sails of the boat behind act upon the sails of the boat in front, giving the same benefits the main sail gives to the jib. This will have the dual effect of letting the front boat pull harder and faster, while causing the boat behind to slow down. Think of it as a little boost for some clever maneuvering.
The third position from which you can throw bad air is called the lee bow. This is a good maneuver for squeezing opponents out at the lay line. Seen here, arrival boat is sailing along slightly above the lay line, we come in on a port tack apparently on a collision course. Just as we cross the lay line, we tack onto our opponent lee bow, covering them in bad air. You'll need to pinch up, tack or try to cross behind us in any of that losing groundhogs.
Sailing rules prevent a boat from tacking if there isn't room to safely do so. This prevents bruising captains from tacking at will and dangering their and other boats and turning the racecourse into a big game of chicken. A pan exploits this rule, pans occur near but below the lay lines. Seen here, our opponent is sailing along on starboard tack, near the lay line. Due to an unfavorable wind shift or just poor judgment, our opponent is sailing just below the lay line. This will require two tacks to get them above the lay line and around the mark. To pin in our opponent, we cross behind and then immediately tack. This puts us off our opponent starboard quarter, this leaves them no room to tack safely. This forces our opponent to slow down and pass behind us to fetch the mark; they can't beat us to it.
Some of you may have noticed that the pan looks a lot like the other side of a lee bow maneuver and it's true, they are very similar. The difference is that when we tack into a lee bow position, we leave ourselves enough room so that we could tack if we wanted to. The pan by comparison leaves our opponent no room to tack. It is important that we keep this in mind when attempting either maneuver unless we tack ourselves into a pan.
The most critical component to gaining speed and keeping speed is clear air. 0n the other hand, the key to taking speed from your opponent is removing their clear air. Like an airplane, when a sail passes through the air it leaves several disruptions behind it. Seen here, the blue boat is sailing into the green boat's disturbed air. This will impede the blue boat speed. For the time being, the green boat holds the advantage. The blue boat must either have optic clear air or tack. This situation forms the basis for most tactical situations on the race course. The blue boat wants to find clear air so it can pass the green boat.
The green boat wants to keep the blue boat behind it. So to maintain its lead, the green boat is going to tack keeping itself between the next course marker and the blue boat. The blue boat is in no better position than it was before. The blue boat has two options, luff or duel. Luffing is when a boat to leeward heads up toward the wind cutting off a boat to windward. This is possible when a boat is been overtaken by another boat to windward, however this will sacrifice speed. To maintain speed and break away from the green boat, the blue boat has one other option, the tacking duel. Because the skipper of the blue boat knows the green skipper will always tack to try to cover the blue boat to the marker, the blue boat can try to tack several times in quick succession in hopes of shaking the green boat off.
The blue boat tacks, the green boat reacts by tacking trying to cover the blue boat. As soon as the blue boat completes its tack, it tacks again. The green boat risk losing way if it reverses its turn mid-tack. So the green boat must continue its tack and then re-tack to try and counter the blue boat. As the green boat begins its second tack, the blue boat tacks again. The blue boat must continue this until it has over taken or broken from the green boat.
If the boat that is trying break the cover can't tack fast enough, each time they come about, it seems like the covering boat is already around and waiting for them, they can use the false tack. To use a false tack, the trailing boat must have as much speed as possible. The trailing boat must begin to tack whereas the covering boat commits to the tacking crosses through the wind, the trailing boat reverses its turn back on to its original tack. This will carry a penalty in terms of speed but will break the cover if executed properly. Whenever you're attacked while going upwind, your defensive options are pretty simple; tack, pinch or fall off.
Tacking will take you out of your attacker's bad air. This may lead to a tacking duel. You can pinch up to clear your air but this often cause speed and position. You can fall off, pick up some speed and wind up below your opponent. In most situations you'll have a choice from these three options, but not necessarily all three. In a lee bow situation, it'll be tough to fall off so you'll probably have to tack or pinch. By contrast, in a pan you'll be able to tack but you can't pinch or fall off.
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