by Dave Dellenbaugh



There are two reasons why get­ting too far to the sides of the course is even more risky on a run than a beat. First, your jibing angle is usually narrower than your tack­ing angle (except in lighter air with asymmetrical chutes). When your jibing angle is only 20° or 30°, for example, it's easy to sail past the layllne to the leeward mark (espe­cially if there's a windshift or the mark was not placed perfectly).

Second, if the wind velocity changes at all, your jibing angle will be impacted a lot more than your tacking angle. In light to medi­um air, a small increase of just a knot or two in pressure might change your optimal heading by 10° or more! This is a huge factor that can easily make you go from under­standing to overstanding by a lot!



The consequences of overstand­ing are roughly proportional to the wind velocity. In light air, it's not too bad to overstand a little since sailing higher and faster doesn't hurt your VMG too much. But in heavy air, when you can sail low and fast, reaching to the mark is a killer. Therefore, you should be conservative about layline calls in breeze and possibly willing to take slightly more risk in lighter air.

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