on the right tack

Idioms  

1. Also, on the right track. Proceeding satisfactorily; also, following the correct line of reasoning. For example, He thinks the housing market is improving, and he's on the right tack there, or That's not exactly so, but you're on the right track. The first term alludes to the direction of a sailboat, the second to the direction of a path. The same is true of the antonyms, on the wrong tack and on the wrong track, indicating an erroneous assumption or course of action. For example, He's on the wrong tack for finding a solution, or The researchers were on the wrong track altogether when they assumed the virus was transmitted by mosquitoes. The expressions using tack date from about 1900; those using track date from about 1880.

---

Example Sentences

Like two other famed headmasters of New England prep schools, Peabody of Groton and Coit of St. Paul's, Diman thought the English public schools were on the right tack in stressing classics, character and Christianity.

From Time Magazine Archive

He replied angrily, "At all events, I should not make a foul wind out of a fair one by heaving to; and if I did, I would heave to on the right tack."

From Hard Cash by Reade, Charles

Because the police, clever as you say they are, never started on the right tack.

From The Old Man in the Corner by Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness

Thus you see, friend Pathfinder that in order to reason truly, one must get under way, as it might be, on the right tack.

From Pathfinder; or, the inland sea by Cooper, James Fenimore

She thought she was on the right tack in letting him—as she had done only with fear and irresolution—have again the control of his income.

From The Good Soldier by Ford, Ford Madox