boikie
New Member
In the video above a coach from the International Sailing Academy says that shooting up to head to wind is a good technique to defend your leeward hole from poachers.
Watch from 1:53. I'm not getting the rationale of this. What I see here is that the windward boat hast lost his leeward hole, and shooting up to head to wind won't change this fact. At most, it allows the windward boat to put his bow closer to the line than his opponent.
Isn't the regular technique in these cases putting your bow down? That is, when you see someone about to tack to leeward of you, you bear away to close the hole?
I guess I must be missing something, because I can't see how shooting up can help to protect your hole.
Since we're at it, why the advice at 2:14 to keep head to wind until the leeward boat bears away? Do you think it's to avoid leeward drag?
Any comments will be appreciated.