Sailing Wind Shifts - Lifts & Knocks - Dinghy Racing Strategy

[@abbbee8918]

Brilliant video, best and most clear explanation I’ve heard on this subject. Thank you

[@FastForwardSailing]

Great to hear! Good luck on the course

[@beliefandsuccess5432]

I have never sailed nor had the desire to. I only googled how opposing winds affect sail boats to use as an analogy for life. Man did I get that plus some. The more I learned the more I researched and the more it connected. Much appreciated.

[@FastForwardSailing]

Glad it helped! And there are so many good sailing analogies for life. Might make a good book

[@jeremiahwasabullfrog1]

Great visual. This is the explanation I've been looking for!

[@FastForwardSailing]

Glad it was helpful!

[@SCBiscuit13]

Thanks. I finally understood the concept as simple as it may be.

[@ray8328]

Thank you, very clearly explained. Please make more, as us beginners really benefit.

[@FastForwardSailing]

Glad it helped. I will be making more videos. Just need to find the time!

[@docpelletier6630]

The first part of the video is good if you assume that the wind will shift back the other way on the same upwind. However, in dinghy racing with legs that last only 6 minutes or so, one might only see one shift per upwind. In that circumstance, the boat on the left side of the course when the left shift happens actually benefits over the "lifted" boat on the right. The reason is that the left shift moves the starboard-tack lay-line farther away from the boat on the right, while the port tack lay line moves closer to the boat on the left side of the beat. The right call is still for the starboard tack boat to tack on the header. But they get a huge gain over the l lifted port-tack boat when they do. Furthermore, the author does not properly draw the lines of equivalence (ladder rungs) starting about 4 minutes in. The lines of equivalence should shift with the wind. If you do that, you can see that the left-side boat moves farther up the ladder rungs as the wind shifts left.

[@alokpandey9540]

thanks sir plz keep helping through ur videos

[@FastForwardSailing]

Thanks Alok, will make new videos when I can. Stay tuned!

[@QXZ9027MKII]

Much Obliged sir, thanks. 👌👌

[@FastForwardSailing]

Glad you found it useful 👍

[@NauticalSimulation]

Great vid.

[@FastForwardSailing]

Cheers!

[@johnhanson4519]

This excellent. Thank you

[@FastForwardSailing]

Pleasure!

[@WavedancerWesterlyfulmar]

Great explanation thanks

[@JD-qn3zf]

Top tip👌

[@FastForwardSailing]

Thanks mate. Glad it helped

[@JD-qn3zf]

@@FastForwardSailing thanks that guys like yourself do videos like this, not everyone comes from a racing background, and this is helpful not just for racing people

[@Ericjohouse]

In order to reduce number of tacks, do you wait before tacking when experiencing a header? On a blustery night we could be tacking five or six times and spending the extra time with so many tacks. Is it worth it tacking on every header?

[@FastForwardSailing]

The rather unhelpful answer is- it depends. If you or your boat are significantly slower in tacks than you are in a straight line then you aren't going to tack as often as someone who doesn't slow down (or even manages to accelerate in tacks- e.g a dinghy roll tacking in light winds- not legal I know)! But tacking can be advantageous even if you only manage not to slow down- as while you are going through the tack you are momentarily pointing straight at where you want to go. But assuming you are sailing a boat where tacks are slow then yes, avoiding tacks may be good advice. Sometimes you might find the wind shifts for a few seconds then goes back. You wouldn't want to tack for that. Worth waiting a few seconds as a general rule to check it doesn't come back. Then there's the case of whether you think the header may head further. Then, to reduce tacks, it may make sense to push into the header a bit more. This is especially the case if you believe the shift to be a permanent one.

[@Ericjohouse]

@@FastForwardSailing Thanks! Yup. Makes sense. Good to hear from others. Thanks again.

[@rachmanino]

Huh. I couldn’t get more than half way through unfortunately. At minute 4: “In a left shift, the port tack is favored.” That seems to be the opposite of what I understood to be true about ladder rungs. Or around minute 2, when you say the red boat is further from a mark after a left shift... but that doesn’t look true according to ladder rungs because the red boat is on the left course and therefore now a higher ladder. ... This is going to take some time for me to chew on. Thanks for the thought provoking video

[@FastForwardSailing]

I know it can be pretty confusing this stuff. I can confirm that in a left shift the port tack is favoured. So in a left shift, the pink boat in this case will be able to head up therefore pointing closer to the windward mark. To make it really obvious imagine if the wind shifted 90 degrees to the left. That would allow pink to sail straight to the next mark without any zigzagging. This straight route is much quicker than zigzagging there and so a left shift of 90 degrees would be very favourable. A left shift only 10 degrees would still be favourable, just less so. On the second issue you are right the red (or pink) boat is favoured in one sense. As explained above, if the wind shifts left then red will be further up the ladder rungs. However, she must tack to take advantage of this shift. In the early part of the video I was explaining how a left shift would effect the boats if they kept on the same tack. A left shift allows blue to head up closer to the mark. But for red she is forced further away from the mark as she has to bear away. The point of that part of the video was to explain lift=goodc hange, header=bad change. However, if red tacks when headed he is now on the lifted port tack and so has no disadvantage any longer. And as the wind shifted left the ladder rungs shifted gifting red an advantage. That's why it's vital to take advantage from the shifts you get (by either tacking or heading up). To conclude, when sailing upwind you want to be hunting for headers but as soon as you reach one you must tack to take advantage (and not be disadvantaged by it). So in a confusing way headers are both good and bad. It's all about how you react. Hope that helps clarify things a bit. Let me know if you still have questions

[@XPSailing]

@@FastForwardSailing I'm not sure you've quite got the ladder rungs correct at 3:35...... as I understand it the rungs should be perpendicular to the wind direction, NOT to the mark. When the wind shifts to the left the boat furthest left will be higher up the ladder rungs, but should tack onto port to take advantage of the lift and will be ahead of the boat already on port tack.

[@FastForwardSailing]

@@XPSailing I think you are right. Ladder rungs are usually used that way. Though I think the way I used ladder rungs does help demonstrate the point that a left shift helps the starboard boat climb the rungs quicker. Perhaps it is confusing though to use ladder rungs two ways. I will take that into account on future videos. Happy sailing!

[@XPSailing]

@@FastForwardSailing I always used to think that if I spotted a header that I should tack straight away so that I would be on a lift when it hit me, but the ladder rungs show you should actually head towards the header and only tack when it hits you. Not exactly intuitive I must admit, but I think it works. Be nice to get sailing again, but who knows when that will be while we are in lockdown again.

[@FastForwardSailing]

@@XPSailing Absolutely. I'm a big fan of getting to the header before tacking. Being a pond sailor what often happens is you tack before the header and it never reaches you so you learn the hard way. Lockdown is a pain. But at least we're missing out on Winter rather than Summer sailing. Hopefully by Summer we will be out. At this stage I've given up predicting things though!