Lifted or Headed? Learning to Recognise a Wind Shift
Sometimes the wind gives you twenty metres for free.
One of the biggest changes that happens as you progress from simply learning to sail to becoming a better sailor is that you begin to realise something rather important:
The wind is not fixed.
When we first learn to sail, diagrams usually show a neat arrow labelled WIND.
The arrow comes from one direction. The boat is shown close-hauled, reaching or running relative to that arrow, and everything appears wonderfully predictable.
Real sailing is rarely like that.
The wind might be coming over your left shoulder one moment and several degrees further forward a minute later. It may bend around trees, buildings and riverbanks. A gust may arrive from a slightly different direction. A cloud may alter the local airflow. On an inland river such as the Thames, the wind reaching one part of the river can be noticeably different from that reaching another.
And one of the most useful skills a sailor can develop is recognising those changes.
Sailors normally describe them using two wonderfully simple words:
Lifted.
and
Headed.
Understanding the difference can transform the way you sail upwind.
What Is a Lift?
Imagine you are sailing close-hauled.
Your sails are trimmed correctly and the boat is sailing about as close to the wind as it comfortably can.
Now the wind direction changes slightly.
Suddenly the wind is coming from a little further around the side of the boat rather than directly towards the bow.
You could leave everything as it is.
But if you want to remain close-hauled, you can turn the boat slightly towards the wind.
You are now travelling on a more favourable course.
You have been lifted.
If you are trying to reach somewhere directly upwind, that can be extremely valuable.
Instead of sailing quite so far sideways across the river, you are travelling a little more directly towards your destination.
The wind has effectively given you some distance for nothing.
What Is a Header?
Now imagine the opposite happens.
You are sailing happily close-hauled and the wind shifts towards the bow.
Your sails begin to complain.
The jib may start to lift.
The front of the mainsail may begin to flutter.
The boat may slow.
If you continue steering exactly the same course, eventually you will be pointing too close to the wind to sail efficiently.
You therefore have to bear away.
You are now travelling further away from the direction in which you wanted to go.
You have been headed.
This is where the expression comes from: the wind shift has effectively pushed your course away from the direction you wanted.
The Important Part: The Same Wind Shift Can Lift One Boat and Head Another
This is the part that initially seems strange.
How can exactly the same change in wind direction be good for one boat and bad for another?
Because the boats are pointing in different directions.
Imagine two boats sailing upwind.
One is on port tack.
The other is on starboard tack.
They are effectively sailing along opposite sides of a giant letter V.
Now allow the wind direction to rotate slightly.
For one boat, that shift moves the wind further towards its bow.
That boat is headed.
But for the boat travelling on the opposite tack, exactly the same change moves the wind further away from its bow.
That boat is lifted.
Nothing contradictory has happened.
The wind has changed once.
The two boats simply experience that change from opposite directions.
This is why you will sometimes see two boats apparently sailing towards the same destination when one suddenly tacks while the other continues happily onwards.
They may both have recognised the same wind shift.
They are simply reacting to it differently.
An Easy Way to Visualise It
Suppose you are beating towards a buoy, tree, bridge or other obvious point ahead.
Choose something in the distance as a reference.
You are sailing close-hauled and notice that your bow is pointing reasonably close towards that reference.
A few moments later, without any major steering error, you find that you can point noticeably closer towards it while keeping the sails working properly.
You have probably been lifted.
Alternatively, perhaps you suddenly have to steer further away from the reference to keep the sails drawing.
You have probably been headed.
That simple observation is far more useful to a developing sailor than immediately worrying about compass bearings and tactical diagrams.
Start by asking:
Am I able to point closer towards where I want to go, or am I being forced further away?
That is the beginning of recognising wind shifts.
Why This Matters Most When Sailing Upwind
Wind shifts occur on every point of sail, but they become particularly obvious when beating.
When reaching, there is usually considerable freedom to alter the sail trim or course while continuing towards your destination.
Close-hauled sailing is different.
You are already operating close to the limit of how near the boat can sail towards the wind.
A relatively small wind shift can therefore make quite a noticeable difference.
Perhaps you were sailing comfortably at 45 degrees to the wind.
Then the wind changes by 10 degrees.
Ten degrees does not sound very dramatic.
But over several hundred metres, that difference can amount to tens of metres of distance gained or lost towards your destination.
This is where our opening statement comes from:
Sometimes the wind really can give you twenty metres for free.
The important thing is recognising when it has happened.
"Tack on a Header"
This brings us to one of those sailing expressions that can sound rather mysterious when you first hear it:
Tack on a header.
It does not mean that every time the jib flutters you should immediately throw the boat into a tack.
It is simply based on the principle we have just discussed.
If you are being headed on one tack, the other tack has normally become more favourable.
Remember:
The same wind shift that heads one tack lifts the other.
Imagine you are beating towards the windward mark.
You are on starboard tack and gradually the wind changes so that you have to bear away.
Your course towards the mark becomes worse.
If you tack, you may discover that the new tack points much more favourably towards the mark.
Instead of accepting the unfavourable heading, you change sides and use the favourable one.
That is the basic idea behind tacking on a header.
There are many tactical complications in serious racing, but a beginner does not need them yet.
The useful principle is simply:
If the wind is pushing your current tack away from where you want to go, ask whether the other tack would take you there more directly.
Do Not Tack Every Time the Wind Moves
There is an important warning here.
Wind constantly moves backwards and forwards.
If you react to every tiny twitch in the tell-tales, you can spend the entire race tacking.
And every tack costs something.
The boat slows.
The sails cross.
The crew move.
The rudder creates drag.
You then have to accelerate again.
On some boats the loss is relatively small.
On others it is significant.
So the objective is not:
Detect every wind movement and immediately tack.
It is:
Learn to recognise meaningful changes.
Sometimes the best response is simply to wait for a few seconds and see whether the wind returns.
Oscillating Wind Shifts
A very common situation, particularly inland, is an oscillating wind.
The wind swings one way.
Then later it swings back again.
Then perhaps it moves the other way.
Imagine the average wind direction remains broadly the same, but it wanders perhaps ten degrees either side.
If you can recognise that pattern, something interesting becomes possible.
You sail while you are lifted.
When the wind heads you significantly, you tack.
The previously unfavourable shift may now be helping you on the other tack.
As the wind oscillates backwards and forwards, you try to spend more time sailing the favourable angles.
You do not need sophisticated instruments to begin learning this.
Your boat, sails and surroundings are already giving you information.
Watch the Jib
One of the best wind-shift instruments aboard many dinghies is sitting directly in front of you.
The jib.
When sailing close-hauled, the jib can often show the beginning of a header extremely clearly.
If the wind moves forward, the windward tell-tale may lift.
The leading edge of the jib may begin to flutter.
The helm may instinctively bear away to keep it drawing.
That is information.
Do not simply think:
"The jib is flapping."
Ask:
"Why is the jib flapping?"
Did the helm accidentally turn towards the wind?
Or did the wind turn towards the boat?
Those are completely different situations.
Learning to distinguish between them is part of becoming a more observant sailor.
Look Outside the Boat
This links directly with one of the most important ideas in this series:
Better sailors spend a surprising amount of time looking away from the boat.
Look at boats ahead of you.
Are they suddenly heeling?
Have they changed course?
Has someone ahead just tacked?
Is a boat on the opposite tack suddenly pointing noticeably higher?
Look at the water.
Dark patches may indicate approaching gusts.
Look at flags and burgees.
Look at smoke.
Look at trees.
Look at moored boats.
All of them can give clues about what the wind is doing.
Eventually, instead of merely reacting to a wind shift after it reaches you, you may begin anticipating it before it arrives.
That is a substantial step forward.
Wind Shifts on the Thames Can Be Particularly Interesting
Inland river sailing provides an excellent environment for learning about changing wind.
The wind reaching the river may have travelled across:
houses;
trees;
fields;
riverbanks;
buildings;
gaps between trees;
higher ground;
open stretches of water.
All of these can affect it.
The wind can accelerate through a gap.
It can become turbulent behind trees.
It may bend around an obstruction.
One side of the river can sometimes appear to have more wind than the other.
A bend in the river adds another complication because your destination itself changes direction.
That is very different from sailing several miles offshore with relatively unobstructed airflow.
It can occasionally be frustrating.
But it is also an excellent classroom.
Why It Becomes So Obvious in Champagne
Sailing an A-Rater such as Champagne makes these changes especially interesting.
A slower training boat gives you time to recognise what is happening, which makes it an excellent platform for learning.
A fast boat makes the consequences much more obvious.
When Champagne is moving properly, relatively small differences in heading and wind strength can translate quickly into significant differences in position.
A favourable shift can suddenly make the boat appear to be charging directly towards where you want to go.
An unfavourable one can leave you sailing rapidly in entirely the wrong direction.
Speed magnifies tactical decisions.
That is one of the fascinating things about moving between boats.
The fundamental physics has not changed.
The wind has not learnt a new set of rules because you stepped into an A-Rater.
But the consequences become much easier to see.
And because the boat covers distance so rapidly, recognising a shift early can make a considerable difference by the time you reach the next mark.
Crew Can Help Spot the Shift
This is also another example of why sailing is not simply about the person holding the tiller.
A crew member looking forwards may notice things that the helm misses.
They might call:
"The boats ahead are lifting."
or:
"There is more pressure coming down the left."
or simply:
"We seem to be getting headed."
Good communication allows the whole boat to build a picture of what the wind is doing.
On a three-person boat such as an A-Rater, that becomes particularly valuable.
The helm does not need to discover everything personally.
Several pairs of eyes can be watching the course, sails, competition and water.
Try This Next Time You Sail
You can practise recognising lifts and headers without entering a race.
Find a stretch where you can safely sail close-hauled for a reasonable distance.
Choose a fixed point ahead as a visual reference.
Then pay attention to where the bow points relative to it.
Do not deliberately alter course unless necessary to keep the sails drawing properly.
After a few minutes ask yourself:
Has my close-hauled heading remained constant?
You may be surprised how much it changes.
Then tack and repeat the experiment.
Try noticing whether a wind change that was unfavourable before the tack becomes favourable afterwards.
That simple exercise teaches far more than memorising a diagram.
The Next Stage in Learning to Sail
Early sailing lessons concentrate quite correctly on the boat.
Where is the tiller?
How do I trim the sails?
How do I tack?
How do I gybe?
How do I stop?
Once those skills begin to become automatic, your attention can start moving outside the boat.
You begin watching the water.
The clouds.
Other boats.
The riverbank.
The sails of boats ahead.
And eventually you begin to realise that the racecourse — or simply the stretch of river you are sailing along — is constantly changing.
The wind is shifting.
The pressure is changing.
Some parts of the water are more favourable than others.
This is where sailing becomes endlessly fascinating.
Two sailors can have identical boats and identical sails.
Both may steer accurately.
Both may trim their sails well.
Yet one may arrive significantly ahead simply because they recognised what the wind was doing several seconds earlier.
Sometimes the Wind Gives You Twenty Metres for Free
A lift is not extra boat speed.
You have not suddenly developed more horsepower.
Nothing mechanical has changed.
Instead, the wind has allowed you to point your existing speed in a more useful direction.
Recognise that opportunity and you gain distance towards your destination.
Miss it, and somebody else may use it instead.
So the next time you are sailing close-hauled and suddenly find yourself pointing much more favourably towards the mark, do not simply think:
"That's nice."
Ask why.
And when the wind starts pushing your bow away from where you want to go, ask another question:
Would the other tack now be better?
That simple thought is the beginning of sailing wind shifts.
And once you start seeing them, you may wonder how you ever sailed without noticing them.
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