At the gybe mark: Al has moved past Frank (648) who was still sailing white sail, Kim not wishing to use races as spi practice. Both Lori (3140) and Sue (4677) have sailed a fine first reach to stay within striking distance. Notice how, even before his gybe, Al has whipped the spinnaker around to its new leeward side, what with another reach coming up.

An uncharacteristically slow spi set for Marc (3854) but not much will be lost since Al has trimmed both jib and main instead of wasting his time urging Marc on to greater efficiency.  Lori has wisely opted to try to pass Frank to leeward, always a wise option for a spi boat trying to pass a white-sail one. If the reach is not too close, this is a good time to drop down three to four boatlengths to leeward of the boat you are trying to pass, in order to stay out of the worst of windward's disturbed air.

The dilemma: On a close spi reach like this, Frank (648) can easily defend his wind, being able to point up at will, so that Sue is stuck with trying to pass to leeward. If they're still a fair distance from the leeward mark, Sue could - the next time her spi fills - dive down a few lengths to leeward and see if she can get through further removed from the source of Frank's wind shadow.

Marc and Al have established a bit of a lead. They have - as always - discussed second-beat strategy during the latter part of the second reach. In a close race like this one, a pre-determined plan that is clear to both helm and crew, is a big plus. Frank having done so well banging the left side last time, and conditions being unchanged (as far as we could tell!), our plan was to try to stay between Frank and the next mark, which, if Frank banged the corner again, would keep us with him. We had agreed to tack as soon as Marc was ready after stowing the spi, and we ...