Using the Tactical Compass to Identify Wind Shifts

The following sequence shows how you would use the SC-1 to identify a lift while sailing upwind on port tack. The boat in the example sails at 40° to the wind when trimmed using telltales.

1. Imagine the wind clocking 25° to the left, lifting you on port tack and causing your leeward jib telltale to flutter. While real wind direction has changed by 25° the reference wind direction stored on the SC-1 remains unchanged.
2. Re-trim according to your tell-tales. In doing this you will head up until your boats real heading to wind is 40°, the same as it was before the wind shift. At this point your indicated heading to wind will only be 15° though because the reference wind direction stored on the SC-1 will still be aligned with the pre-shift wind direction.
3. Unlock the buttons and use the "+" button to increase your indicated heading back to its pre-shift value. In doing so you will be realigning the reference wind direction stored on the SC-1 with the actual wind direction. This will prepare you to spot the next wind shift.

Please Note: Since the same reference wind direction stored on the SC-1 is used for VMG mode and tactical compass mode, updating the reference wind direction in response to wind shifts as illustrated above has the added benefit of maintaining the accuracy of the SC-1's VMG calculations.