Tack Away to Clear Air
Buried at the back of a pack in disturbed air? Tack away and reach out alone to the favoured side into clean air instead of grinding it out.
When you come off the line at the back of a tight pack, every boat ahead is dumping dirty air on you and there is no lane to grind through. An Optimist loses distance fast in disturbed air, so staying in the tangle just digs the hole deeper. The smart move is to tack away and reach out alone toward the open, favoured side of the course where you have clean air and your own lane. You give up a little by splitting from the fleet, but clean air plus the favoured side makes the escape good strategy, not just a panic move.
Opens the animation on the boat-length grid — run it well, then brief it from the same picture. Free, no account needed.
What to call out
- Leave the pack early rather than grinding it out, because optis bleed distance every length they spend in disturbed air.
- Tack toward the favoured side, because then your escape is also a strategic gain, not just a way out of traffic.
- Commit fully and sail to open water before re-evaluating, because a half-hearted split leaves you in no-man's-land.
- Look for the lane before you tack, because the goal is clean air — not trading one pack for a fresh patch of traffic.