Maintain Your Lane!!

As we enter into the Spring and Summer months, many of you will be competing in regattas that will draw big fleets.  As the number of boats on the race course increases, the ability to create and maintain a lane of clear air and water while sailing upwind is hugely important.  In fact, I think this topic is probably one of the least discussed but most important concepts related to big fleet racing.

In large fleets, obtaining and then maintaining a clear lane is such a difficult thing to do.  So many variables can affect whether you "live or die".  Seemingly, so much appears to be in the hands of fate as to whether that crosser elects to tack directly in your face or lets you live to fight another day.  


In reality, so much is really in your hands and there are many subtle tactics and maneuvers that you can employee to maximize the clear lane that you have worked so hard to create.  Here are a few concepts to consider.

The first thing I always do is constantly try to assess if I am on the favored tack and sailing in the direction that strategically makes sense. Once I have established that I am on the favored tack, in phase with the winds shifts and am headed the direction that I want to go, then the focus shifts to what I have to do to maintain this position and clear air as long as possible.

If I am on the favored tack, I always want to discourage my competition from tacking on my lee bow.  If I am sailing on the lifted tack, eventually, I will begin to get headed as I sail towards the next wind shift and the leeward boat will get the advantage and I could be forced to tack off before arriving at the shift.  

The only time I ever want to force a boat to tack below me is if I am anticipating that I will be tacking soon.  If I am on starboard and I like the tack that I am on and want to stay on the tack for a while, I will try to encourage port tack boats to go ahead and cross me, even if it requires me to slightly duck the port tack boat.  

When communicating this to your competitor, be sure to wave them across and clearly and loudly let them know that they can cross you.  If you sense a boat is likely to tack on you lee bow even after your kind invitation to cross, bear off slightly and try to pick up as much speed as you can and close the distance on them quickly which could force them to initiate their tack sooner than they planned.  This maneuver could result in a bad tack with the chance of you rolling over the top.  

If they complete the tack properly, pinch your boat up into the wind and try and use the momentum from your increased boat speed to allow you to coast up-wind and create a gap to maintain your clear air.  The goal here is to try and buy as much time as possible and to hold your lane in relatively clear air until you arrive at the next shift.



In a big fleet, while sailing upwind on starboard tack, it is often a good idea to have a starboard tack blocker set up ahead and below you.  As long as your air is clear enough to stay to windward of the blocker, port tack boats will be inclined to either tack below the blocker or be forced to duck you both.  

If on port tack, presuming you like the direction that you are going, every time a starboard boat approaches, loudly let them know that you are ducking or making a maneuver to avoid them.  Often, this will distract the starboard boat enough that they won't feel comfortable tacking right in front of you and risking a foul.  


If you are sailing on port tack with a blocker below you, every time your blocker has to start bearing off to duck a starboard tack boat, instead of bearing off with them, try to start pinching up sharply and slowing your boat down as much as possible.  In this scenario, the leeward boat will likely pick up speed and will separate to leeward from you when they begin to duck the starboard tack boat and by the time they get their sails trimmed back in following the duck, they will have slid 2 or 3 boat widths to leeward of you.  

Meanwhile, you have slowed down relative to you blocker but will have gained precious boat lengths to weather of the leeward boat.  By the time the starboard tack boat gets to you, you will be moving pretty slowly but the duck that you make will not be as severe and once the starboard boat has crossed, you can focus on rebuilding boat speed again.  If everything goes well, with this maneuver, the leeward boat will have made forward distance on you but you should have pretty clear air to allow you to keep sailing in the desired direction.  My former teammate on the University of Texas sailing team and Olympic gold and silver medalist, Paul Foerster has always been great at this maneuver. 

If you like the direction you are going and a boat elects to tack squarely on your wind, rather than taking a clearing tack which will result in two quick tacks to stay in phase, start bearing off and gaining speed as soon as the boat tacks on your wind.  Work really hard to try and get your bow down and forward on the boat that tacked on you.  Reach off if necessary to accomplish this.  Eventually, as the wind begins to head, you will start to have the advantage on the boat that tacked on your air.

The ultimate goal in "maintaining your lane" is to maintain flexibility and to avoid being "ping ponged" up the weather leg.  The goal is to use every tool in your box to keep going the right way up the beat.  

Many thanks to Bill Records for the use of his photos for this post.