If you ask someone who has never been on a sailboat, how to make one go faster, they could probably tell you without much thought, “sail in more wind.” That’s true, and it amazes me how many racing sailors do not give this one fact utmost priority. If you gain nothing else from this article, please make “sailing in more wind” your top priority this year.

How do you do it? Remember this basic tenet: dark patches on the water represent more wind. Wearing polarized sunglasses really help you see the distinction between puffs and lulls on the water. Before a race, I like to stand on the boom and scan the course for the most wind—if you’re dinghy sailing, simply stand up to get a higher vantage point. Ben Ainslie looks for wind when he’s at his highest point during a roll tack in his Finn. Just as he hits the hiking straps and is fully extended in the air, he gives the course a quick scan.

The key here is to be constantly asking your self, “Am I sailing in the most wind available?” If not, make a change.

Having an open lane (with no other boats disturbing the wind in which you’re sailing) gives you more wind as well, probably more than you can imagine. Wind follows the path of least resistance; it will flow over and around groups of boats, just as it does around a building or a mountain. The key point to remember is: the bigger the group, the greater the effect, so avoid packs of boats, and you’ll have more wind. That’s pretty simple, right?

If someone tacks or jibes on you and closes down your lane, don’t sit there going slow; do something about it and find a better lane. Often, people sailing in open lanes appear faster and you wonder whether it’s their sail trim or sailing technique that’s giving the edge. It’s not—they have more speed because of their lane. (Think of it like driving on the freeway: when you’re stuck in a cluster of cars you can only go so fast, while the guy in the open passing lane is blazing past.) The only time I consider sailing in a bad lane is when the wind is very shifty and the potential gain from the next shift outweighs the loss of speed from sailing in bad air. A 20- to 30-degree shift with pressure may justify sailing in bad air briefly. The other 98 percent of the time, make sure you’re sailing in a big lane.

2 — Sail to the Mark

Now that you’re sailing in the most amount of wind and avoiding big packs of boats, you should be sailing toward the mark.

Typically, your heading on one tack or jibe will point your bow more toward the mark than the other. This is the lifted tack upwind and the headed jibe downwind. The fundamental rule of thumb is to tack on the headers upwind and jibe on the lifts downwind. Doing so puts you on the “long tack” to the mark. The greater the windshifts, the easier it is to see which tack is longer. Sometimes, if the course is set well and the wind direction is steady, it’s difficult to tell which tack is favored. If that’s the case, you’ve got one less thing to worry about because each tack is pretty even, so stick to Rule No. 1.

If the wind is shifting or the course isn’t square, which happens often, I always ask myself, “If I were to tack or jibe right now, would I be aiming more toward the mark?” This helps me make sure I am always on the long tack. If I am not sailing the long tack, I make sure there is a very good reason. Actually, because I adhere so much to the above rules, an internal alarm goes off when I’m not sailing toward the mark.