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Tactics...

Tactics - knowing how to position yourself on the race course relative to other boats - can seem like a dark art. Some people seem to see the fleet while others can't see the wood for the trees. But everything in tactics is learnable if you keep an open mind. We've put together some articles and interviews that will help turn tactics from dark art into clear science.


Laser covering his closest opponents




Featured Articles

  MP3: James Spithill on how to get yourself out of a fine mess
Audio (6 minutes) and text: James Spithill is best known as BMW Oracle Racing's skipper in the America's Cup and the match racing scene, but he's a pretty mean fleet racer too, having won the Melges 24 Worlds for example. In this interview the Australian professional looks at how to fight you way through the pack, and why it's the cool cats that win out in the end...
  Pursuit Racing - 10 ways to fight your way to the front **
There is a beautiful simplicity to the concept of a pursuit race. Set the tortoises off first, then release the hares, and in a perfect race all competitors would finish across the line at the same time. Reality is very different, however, with only a handful of boats in the running by the closing stages. So how do you make sure you are in one of those boats with a fighting chance of winning?
  Handicap Racing: How to get an unfair advantage!
Bloody Mary One-design racing is the purest measure of sailing prowess, but if you spend most of your sailing doing club races, then doubtless you will be spending much of your time racing under handicap. So of course you want to know how to 'milk' the system! Indeed, some sailors even choose their boat according to its perceived performance under handicap. Now, that's what you call pot hunting...
  Anticipation is what separates the great from the good ***
Tom Burnham talks about the importance to applying a tactician's brain to your job, even if like him you're at the front end of the boat doing the muscle work. Tom does the pit on board World Championship winning TP52 Quantum Racing, and talks about the stuff that he wants to know from the brain's trust at the back of the boat...
  How to see the wood for the trees: tactical sense from Nick Craig ***
In the second part of our latest interview with super-amateur Nick Craig, the OK and Enterprise World Champion talks about self-coaching, and shares some valuable tips if you get stuck trying to find the next shift and can't make head or tail of what the wind is up to. Great advice, as always, from the multi-class maestro...
  Chris Draper's Leeward Gate Secrets #1 ***
Leeward gate approach49er World Champion, Olympic medallist, and winning helmsman of the 2009 iShares Cup, Chris Draper reveals some of his best secrets for getting in and out of the leeward mark zone as quickly as possible...
  When should I gybe at the windward mark? **
At the windward mark, most boats will bear away on to starboard gybe, but a few will gybe on to port in search of something better. When should you make that venture away from the bulk of the fleet? When is it likely to work, and when are you likely to be heading into oblivion?
  MP3 - Sailing in bad air is not always a bad thing, says Jonathan McKee ***
Jonathan McKeeAudio (8 minutes) and text: Olympic Gold Medallist and Melges 24 World Champion Jonathan McKee shares some of his tactical tips that helped him win the Melges 24 regatta at Key West 2009. 'Sail in bad air' is one of his more surprising nuggets of advice...
  Nathan Outteridge and high-speed tactics
Nathan OutteridgeNathan Outteridge is fast staking his claim to being the best high-performance sailor in the world. Aside from winning the 49er World Championships in 2008 and 2009, in his spare time he has been racing other high performance classes with great success. Here the young Australian talks through his approach to sharing tactical responsibilities in doublehanders...
  Winning Moves: Paige Railey reveals her championship-winning thinking ***
Paige Railey race analysisPaige Railey's victory at the Laser Radial European Championships 2009 shows the American is back on top form. In a new online experiment, Paige looks back through her race moves using TracTrac GPS tracking software, and explains what her strategy and tactics were at each stage of the race...
 
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