Small Shifty Lake strategies

Originally posted by turnturtle or drive around the north circular, up the M4 and go to Datchet.....

But thats a shifty horrible pond as well, just a bit bigger

And when the 'tide' is out you are sailing in the bottom of a wok

Is that Welsh Harp by the North Circular?

Two fundamentals to remember.

1) Sail where there is wind, and sometimes that might mean NOT taking a
direct line to the next mark espcially if the route is in the lee of a bunch
of trees.

2)Take the shift thats taking you closest to the mark, very often you can
get all involved in tacking battles and totally miss the key, which is
getting round the course by the shortest route.

Ponds tend to get fast Oscillating shifts, they never last long and chances
are you can tack from one header straight into another, so be deliberate
with each decision, the question you ask, is tacking off going to get me to
the mark any quicker and if the answer is no, then dont tack.

Oh and watch and remember, it may seem random to you now, but ponds
have their own wind pattern, it just takes a while to pick up on it, but
when you do they are easier to work than open water, especially the tide
bit.

The best advice i can give is to keep it simple.  if there looks like theres wind on the right, go right and play the shifts.  wind on the left, go left and play the shifts. if your not sure go up the middle and play the shifts.
In my opinion playing the shifts right is the most important thing to get right as the lake is so small and therefore the beat will be short and catching the right shifts will give you that small advantage which can ultimately lead to big gains.  I ould personally  forget about using compasses etc which you might use to assess shifts on open water and just take the tack which means you are pointing closest to the mark.  In other words 'tack when you flap'.