Leeward-Mark Trap
Slow the run just outside the zone: the fleet compresses onto your transom, the opponent rounds wide, and your teammate arrives inside.
Downwind the leader controls the pace, and at a leeward mark that control is worth places. B1 soaks low and slow on the final approach, killing the fleet's speed while staying clear ahead into the zone — so Y1, glued to her transom, is owed nothing inside. B1 rounds wide-in-tight-out; Y1 gets shouldered into a wide, leeward exit lane. The lengths B1 burned were bought for B2, who arrives with the stack still untangling and follows tight around the inside. Blue exits the mark ahead and to windward of Yellow's leader — usually flipping the combination on the spot. The discipline is entering the zone clear ahead: invite an inside overlap before the zone and the trap springs on you.
Opens the animation on the boat-length grid — run it well, then brief it from the same picture. Free, no account needed.
What to drill
- Slow EARLY, outside the zone, while overlaps can still be broken — slowing inside the zone is too late.
- Stay clear ahead of the boat behind: it's the clear-ahead boat the rules protect at the mark.
- Wide in, tight out — your exit lane is the prize; concede the wide water, never the inside.
- The trailing teammate aims at the trap, not the mark: arrive on the inside hip just as the leader rounds.