For the line that was biased 10 degrees to favour port, the port-end start is worth 3 boat lengths. For the line that was biased towards starboard, however, we have a little surprise. A starboard-end start would put you above the layline, quite badly in fact. You needed to start about one-third down the line, on the starboard layline itself, and this would gain you 2 boat lengths. Notice that you've lost 5 boat lengths if you started right at the starboard end -- oops, that would have been very painful if you had not footed some and maybe speeded up so that you were just one or two boat lengths adrift.

Finally, we now apply our understanding to the finish. Here are four finishing lines. You have just rounded the leeward mark, and are going for the win, we hope. Close behind, as ever, is your buddy, and he will take the tack you don't. You have the choice of aiming for the starboard end of the finish line, by taking first a port tack up, and then a starboard tack across; or of aiming for the port end of the finish, by taking first a starboard tack immediately after rounding the mark, and then a port tack up.

Which end of the line do you aim for in each situation? For one of the finish lines, it doesn't matter, in that the sailing or city block distances are the same to either end; which line is that? See what you think on the next page.

2005-12-18

©2024 Lester Gilbert