DOWNWIND - PART 9: BREAKING AN OVERLAP AT THE MARK

(c) 2012 Doug Peckover

In the last article, we looked at how the inside boat at the mark uses its overlap to control the rounding. We also looked at why B is in a better position than A:

In this article, we'll look at two ways for red to break this overlap with B so that no room has to be given. The first is based on the fact that the overlap is established when red is three boat lengths from the bottom mark. In the next diagram on the left, green has an overlap which is determined by the blue line that is the extension of red's transom. The way red breaks this overlap is that red heads up to move this blue line forward of green's bow, as shown:

This has to be done just before red enters the three boat length zone around the mark, and is easy because heading up helps red accelerate and go faster. It's good for red to communicate by saying "we're at 5 boat lengths, now at 4 boat lengths, heading up, no overlap, now at 3 boat lengths, no room!" The onus shifts to green to prove that it has an overlap and rights for room. Very simple, and very effective.

The second way is less common but I love it because it's very intuitive. Just as red is about to enter the three boat lengths circle, red's skipper (the black dot) slides back to look along its transom to see if there is an overlap. Moving back, say, 3 feet pushes red ahead 3 feet for a moment. Red's dialogue would go something like, "we're about to enter the 3 boat lengths, I'm checking to see if there is an overlap... nope, sorry, there's none and you have no room."

This has to be timed just right because this slows red down, but it works again because it shifts the onus onto green plus red has by far the best view of the positions, so it's hard for green to argue with red.

There are many other ways for red to defend against green on the run. We'll look at these in the next article.