Clean wind or favoured tack?

How long is the leg? Short leg stick with it, if your boat is substantially faster, try for the overtake.

Why the dirty air? is it that you're mid fleet or just trees, are there more trees ahead?

Is the tack you're on taking you closest to the mark (regardless wether it's lifting or not if you're sailing away from the next mark your onto a loser.)

If you'r in the fleet and its the best tack then you really have to suck it up and hope some of them tack off or try to use the moment (lifting gust to power low to get your nose ahead of the nearest cover then attempt to harden a lee bow on him/her)

Difficult question too many variables, need to qualify eactly what's going on.

Lived my career by one fundamental, always the tack taking you closest the mark, sail for the buoy ignore everyone.

(Unless of course there are trees and you have to stay in the wind just to move)

Edited by iGRF - 14 Oct 21 at 9:38am

I'd go clean air as it's supposed to be worth 20degrees! Need a big big shift to make it worth staying in the other boats slip stream.

Or, my javelin is so fast on a close reach that I can foot off from close hauled, get planing, under take the boat in front then tack across them back into clean air. Doesn't work against other Javelins (ospreys 5o5s etc) of course, but it's a nicectricknin a handicap race.

 Tack, tack back - parallel lane to the original, enough gap to break dirty air, and the kinetic benefits of 2 roll tacks 

Bit of ooching to follow