A successful strategy of sailing to the windward mark, starts with keeping a close eye on ever changing wind conditions, your position on the course and the competition on the course. Once you have decided which side is favored, all of your efforts are geared to take advantage of it. Along with finding the favored side, you next task it hold or gain your position in reference to your competition.
If it is not clear which side is favored and you decide to stay in the middle of the fleet, watch what the other boats are doing. If you see other boats moving to one side, be quick to react. You may not be in the lead, but at least you won't be on the wrong side of the course! One thing to remember, if you are heading to the layline too early, it can cause you to lose position and go over the layline. If you start to get too close to the edge, look for clear water and tack back toward the middle.
Now comes the positioning and crossing situations. First, in all examples below, the blue boat on starboard tack has the right of way. What should the blue port tack boat do? Look at example A, when boats are on the left side of the course near the port tack layline, the port boat should duck and stay the port tack. Tacking to starboard could pin you and put you closer or over the layline. For the right side of the course, see example C, the port boat should consider tacking to leeward and ahead of the starboard boat. If you were to duck, it would put you closer to the layline and become vulnerable to being starboard tacked.
If you find yourself in the middle of the course as in example B, the port boat needs to decide which side of the course is favored. The next step for the port boat is to decide if to tack on starboard or duck and stay on the port tack. In any case, your decision is to put your boat in the best position to gain the lead. So remember, keep and eye on the competition and act if need be, look for the favored side, don't get on the laylines too soon and always keep your boat in the best position!