RULE Lab
Layline — every tack costs (don't over-tack)
Same distance to windward, but each extra tack loses ground — the 3-tack boat arrives behind.
Two boats leave the same spot for the same mark — one tacks once, the other three times. The straight-line distance to windward is identical, but a tack isn't free: the boat slows through head-to-wind and loses about a boat length and a half each time. So when the green (1-tack) boat lays the mark, the red (3-tack) boat is ~2.8 boat lengths behind. The takeaway: don't tack more than you must — save your tacks for when a wind shift makes them pay.
Play this on the board
Opens the animation on the boat-length grid — scrub it, edit it, or use it as a starting point. Free, no account needed.
laylinetackingtack costupwindkinematictactics
How it interacts with other rules
- Rule Lab — Layline — tack on it, don't overstand · see also
Tack on the layline, not beyond it.
- Rule Lab — Wind shift — tack on the header · see also
When a tack DOES pay: on a header.