"When you can see the shore behind the mark, it's easy to tell the lifted tack..."

Amory Klein

New Member
Help! I found this on page 6 of an article about using a compass to determine when to tack:
When you can see the upwind mark with the shore
behind it, as on a small lake, it is easy to tell which is
the lifted tack. But on large bodies of water and in the
ocean it is trickier to tell which tack is better.


The compass solves the problem because...
My question is, what is this "easy" way to determine the best tack when you can see the shore behind the mark?
 
What I think he is saying is that it is easier to tell which tack will take you closer to the mark if you can see the mark (not sure why the land behind helps for that specific analysis.) This is also known as finding the long tack - whichever one you will be on longer is the lifted tack.

When you can see landmarks going upwind, it is possible to tell if you are getting lifted or headed. If you are on starboard and were pointing at a particular house, and you are now headed higher than the house, you are getting lifted.

That magazine has several useful articles, but each one, including the one by Commette, leaves out one or two useful pieces of information, as you found out!!

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