Racing 101: Tacking on a Header

We analyze two races on the same day and show just how much it changes your race to try and punch through headers, instead of tacking in them. With raceQs' built-in analytic tools, it's easy to see how the decisions you make on the race course affect your race statistics and overall performance. Missing just one header can change the geometry of the entire upwind leg as you sail sideways across the race course, instead of making the progress you need upwind.

[@wilfdarr]

5% slower, 13% less distance, 8% less time.

[@fredbarnes196]

WTF, as an example of the importance of tacking on headers you show a boat that got a lift the other boat on the same tack didn't get, which put them102M ahead. At that point you say it gets interesting when the guy ahead starts tacking in the headers to increase his lead when in fact the guy who takes the flyer to the right shrinks the lead to 72M when the "playing the shifts" boat rounds the mark. Yet it is stated that the lead increases to 115M by the time the flyer boat gets to the mark, which is because the lead boat was going downwind while it was still sailing upwind. And all the while the video gets edited to hide the fact this is a poor example.