For the long distance guys

[sailaway78]

Have a question. Lets say you are making a long run, Corpus to Ft. Meyers, New Orleans to Key West. etc. 5 or 600 miles, or more for that matter. But the wind is dead on the nose all the way. How do you handle this. Do you make very short tacks off your rhumb line, do you make longer tacks, or very long tacks, or do you make one long run off the wind till you are 90degrees from your destination, tack over and make another long run to there. In your experienced opinions, which is the fastest and easiest way. It would seem that shorter tacks, staying closer to the rhumb line is the shortest way there. But how short. Or is there another possibility I have not even considered. Did not mention cranking up the diesel as that seems like cheating, and most don't have that fuel capacity anyway.

 

[Ed13832]

Long Distance

If the wind never shifted and the current was not a factor, it wouldn't make a difference. But what if on a long tack, the wind shifted to favor the other side of your rhumb line?

 

[RichH]

All depends on VMG ......

If you have a GPS simply set and follow the VMG (velocity made good) function to ascertain the 'favored' tack. Following the VMG to the final waypoint will automatically compensate for differing wind angles, wave angles and current. In this way you will quickly develop which is the favored tack (minute by minute and hour by hour) and be able to play the 'shifts' to good effect. If youre 'mathematically able' you can tactically 'ratio the tacks' by VMG to tell you what percent of the time to be on a certain tack to optimize how long you should be on that certain tack ... a good working knowledge in 'trigonometry' would be useful. A long 'slog' to windward is not my preferred route but when you 'have to' a GPS set to VMG will save a lot of unecessary time and total distance travelled and will keep your 'tracks' 'optimized' so you dont sail off on an unecessary direction (for too long). Its all in the 'trigonometry'. Certainly for a beat of 5-600 miles you want to be damn sure that your boat is perfectly set-up for beating, the sails set/trimmed to perfection and the keel actually 'lifting' to windward .... as every degree saved in pointing over such a distance will reap large rewards in total distance and time travelled. If you're not already a perfectionist in sail shape and trim, etc., there are several 'users' guides such as Don Guilettes "Sail Trim Guide" and 'charts' ..... available here from the Sailboat Owners website. My personal 'bible' of sail trim is the articles written by the famous sailor/aerodynamicist Arvel Gentry that appeared as a compendium in "The Best of Sail Trim" (paperback) by Sail Magazine ... back in the mid 1980s which includes the use of barber haulers, 'steering telltales', etc. For such a long distance trip 'into the wind', every 'inch' you save by keeping boatspeed up, pointing high and in the 'right' direction, knowing 'when' to tack ... will save you LOTS of time and distance. Have a good trip.

 

[p323ms]

I try to anticipate future winds

It doesn't always work but sailing back from Pensacola to Panama city about 100 miles the wind was coming from the east but the forcast was for it to shift to the Southwest in the afternoon. So we headed south with as much east as we could easily sail. After a few hours the wind shifted to the SW and we headed to the northeast. Unfortunately the wind from the SW was much lighter than the NE wind and it died a couple of hours after dark. It doesn't get much better than a beam reach with 15 knots of wind if you want to cover some distance.But after having beat into the wind and waves too many times I will avoid beating if at all possible. It is just too much work and discomfort when sailing more than a couple of hours. Beating into the wind and waves is great fun for an hour or so but for a trip wait until the wind is a beam reach if possible.As to the original question long tacks and short tacks of equal distance make no difference to the total distance traveled assuming no current. Therefore there is little advantage to short tacks. But in the real world we usually end up doing a long tack on a heading closer to our destination then a short tack to get away from shore.Tom

 

[Brett19305]

If the wind is straight ahead

If the wind is straight ahead for the entire trip, then the distance covered is the same no matter how many tacks you make. All of the little triangle sides for many tacks add up to the two large triangle sides for one set of very long tacks. It doesn't seem true, but it is. Since you lose speed every time you tack, the optimum course is one pair of tacks. BUT, the wind is never directly ahead for any length of time, so you have to tack to optimize VMG as RichH says, or plan for what the forecast winds are further up course as P323 suggests.I'm sure the racers can chime in, but the advantage of staying close to the Rhumb line is that you are able to take advantage of a favorable wind shift further up course. This is what Ed is alluding to. So the short answer is, It Depends!

 

[Fred Ficarra]

Besides,

'gentlemen don't sail to weather'.

 

[RichH]

But the wind is NEVER always straight ahead .....

Even in the trade winds, there is always directional variability in the wind; plus, due to corolius effect the waves are never 'square' with the wind. You will find that with the wind directly from where you are going, one tack will be much harder than the other due to the different angle into the waves. As p323ms stated its good to 'anticipate' the winds and their new direction .... the 'cardinal' rule for passagemaking or racing being: you should be on the side of the course/track that the new winds are 'coming' from. That usually puts you in a position of gaining a 'lift' (apparent wind changing to coming at an angle more behind the bow .... so you can either reach off or point even higher towards your final destination. If you're on the wrong side of the course/track and a new wind hits and gives you a 'header' then you lose distance.Racing tactics are just as important in long distance sailing as they are when your 'going around the buoys'.

 

[william]

Motor Sailing

Motor sailing will keep you close to the rhumb line in case the wind shifts. I'd leave the main up and sail/motor close hauled as possible. I did this from Cape Cod to Newport(40nm)last week, it was a difficult decision, but saved time and when the wind shifted I let the genoa out and felt like a real sailor again, pulling in the harbor just as the sun was setting.

 

[Steve]

It was a long 10 hours!

I just made a run from Newburyport MA to Boothbay ME (near coastal). The wind was 30 Kts dead on the bow with 6 foot waves. We has the "Iron Genoa" at 3200 rpm for 10 solid hours. In my opinion, it was not an option to sail safely; in reality it was marginal even to be out at all. Some of the waves were soo big we had to run up then at 45 degrees and then get back on course.

 

[Adam18929]

Rich, "new wind?"

Are you referring to real v. apparent?

 

[Ed Hanley14076]

Long haul tacking

As everyone has pointed out, absent wind shifts, current, etc., the total distance is not affected by the lengths of the tacks, however, you most likely will have wind shifts and, to address the extreme case of doing it in one tack, you are betting that you will not get headed on the second (final) leg. To play the odds, keep inside two lines drawn from the destination toward you and 45 deg. each side of the wind direction. That will progressively shorten your tacks and your commitment to a course that could result in overstanding the mark. As you figure out what current you are dealing with, and get forecasts of wind directions and velocities, adjust the funnel accordingly.

 

[RichH]

Neither ! .... true or apparent doesnt matter

Adam - if you are on the side of the track/course that the 'new' wind is coming from it will 99% of the time be a 'lift' ... and it will reach you much sooner than if you are on the opposite side of your track/course - imagine a huge 'triangle' eminating from your destination waypoint with the tip of the triangle ON that destination. If you're on the side that the 'new' wind comes from, Then you have two options: point higher or bear off and reach. If you are on the 'wrong' side, then you only have one option: 'point higher'; as if. you bear off and reach you will be 'out' of the track (triangle) going fast but not quite in the right direction.

 

[Wanderer138]

Wait for a better weather window if possible

600 miles with the wind on the nose would take at least a week. Let's do the math.Assuming the boat could sail at 45 degrees to true wind (most don't) with no leeway (all boats have some) or waves (wind over a 600 mile fetch WILL create waves) you'd have to sail at LEAST 840 miles to make port.If you paid close attention to sail trim and the wind held steady between 10 and 20 kt the whole time, you might make 6 kt of boatspeed. Winds outside that range will probably slow you down. At 6 kt, the elapsed time under way would be 840 nm/6 kt = 140 hours or almost six full days. Factor in delays, leeway, waves and current and probably you're looking at eight or nine days. Few hard-core racing crews would stand for beating that long, much less a bunch of cruisers.I'd check the forecast and wait until the wind and sea conditions are more favorable. A 15-degree shift will allow you to sail directly and comfortably to your objective and save several days in the process.On a related note, I also wouldn't recommend tacking when your objective is on the beam (90 degrees). Aim above it instead. If the wind shifts in your favor you can always bear off and close reach, at a higher speed and more comfortable heel than beating, If it shifts against you, you're forced to tack at least once more just to make your objective. Even if the wind doesn't shift, waves and the boat's leeway will push you below your objective and you'll have to tack again to make port.But...that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.PeterH23 "Raven"

 

[Didereaux]

Longstory short, short equals long

Okay here goes(you non-theorists sit down<grin>) I believe you simply wnated to know if short tacks or long tacks were better etc. IF you tack exactly say 90deg(that's pointing 45deg each tack) then there is know difference in the distance sailed from A to B whether you tack once a day or twice a day or even hourly. Remember you are only dealing with simple trig here, a right triangle. So say you were able to sail 100 miles a day(24hrs) and you tacked every twelve hours, thats 50 mi per leg and the actual distance made good(the third side of the triangle) is approximately 70 miles. But say you tacked every 6 hours(twice as often) then each leg would be 25 miles and the third side(actual made good) would be approx 35 for each pair of tacks, 70 mi in 24 hours 35 in 12hrs.Clear as Gulf waters huh! Where a lot of confusion about this issue arises, I think anyways, is with the Wednesday Night racers. SHort tackers lose, longer tackers win, but it's NOT due to distance covered it is due to the time and speed lost at each tack....anyway that's how I see it

 

[larry w]

moving to weather

Did the Baja Bash a few years ago. It was 750 miles of wind-on-the-nose, days and days of the engine running, with no sail up, autopilot steering. The wind never moved but stayed 15-20 DOTN.