Late to the Windward Layline
Don't over-stand. Stay out in clean air and join the starboard layline only a few lengths below the mark, slotting into a clean gap ahead of the slow, dirty-air queue.
The long starboard layline is where races are lost: boats that tack on it early sit nose-to-tail in each other's bad air, crawling toward the mark in a 'funnel' between the two laylines. The fix is to hold your lane out to the right in clean air and join the layline late — within about five to ten lengths of the mark — so you arrive at full speed and drop into a clean gap. Make sure you'll fetch (don't pinch and stall short), but don't over-stand either. Arrive on starboard so you have right of way over the port-tack traffic, then round wide-then-tight, staying off the mark on the way in and hugging it on the way out so you exit ahead and to windward of the queue.
Opens the animation on the boat-length grid — run it well, then brief it from the same picture. Free, no account needed.
What to call out
- Avoid the funnel between the laylines near the mark, because that's a slow, dirty-air jam where boats stack up nose-to-tail.
- Join the layline within ~5-10 lengths of the mark, because early on it you're a sitting duck for bad air from boats behind.
- Don't over-stand, but make sure you'll fetch — sailing extra distance or stalling short both cost you the rounding.
- Aim to arrive on starboard, because right of way lets you take your gap and the rounding without giving way to port traffic.