Plan ahead for leeward gate rounding

Simon Hiscocks shares five solid tips for getting in and out of the leeward mark zone as smoothly and cleanly as possible when flying an asymmetric spinnaker with Yachting World’s Andy Rice:

The leeward gate, or leeward mark, is the biggest pinch-point on the race course. There’s a huge opportunity to climb up a big ladder if you execute a solid strategy, or slide down an equally big snake if you make a hash of it. In a crowded fleet, the challenge of getting cleanly in and out of the leeward mark zone is aggravated by dirty air and right-of-way arguments inside the three-boat length zone.

At least on boats with symmetrical spinnakers the VMG window is pretty wide and quite forgiving. Whereas asymmetric gennakers are much fussier about steering the boat at the right angle to keep the kite in the VMG window and working at near-maximum efficiency. The sooner you begin your assessment of which leeward mark is favored, the better. You might have to change your plan at the last moment, but set out with a Plan A. – Full story