Having tacked off the right-hand point, Al (3854) holds the early lead. Trying to do a perfect job of sailing to a windward mark in the lee of a highly treed point like the one coming up, is well nigh impossible. All you can really do is play the shifts as they happen while doing your best to avoid dead spots. Being in the lead makes things a little easier. In our case, we sailed to stay between our nearest or most feared pursuer, who on past form was Dwight. Having decided to go right, we could not defend against any good fortune that might bless anyone going hard left. So far, no one was doing that, though.

... they (2nd from right) have tacked in order to maintain their position between Dwight (r) and the next mark. Note that Leo (l) has a much better-looking main leech now that he's sheeted in harder.  Still, if he looks ahead at Kirk? (2nd from left), Leo should notice that Kirk is pointing considerably higher than Leo on the same tack (starboard). Rather than passively waiting for the lift to reach him, Leo should tack right now, to take advantage of the relatively favoured port tack while it lasts. Not to mention that then he'd be tacking towards a nice, juicy puff at the same time. Once the puff brings the expected port knock (judging by Kirk's pointing here), Leo should tack back to starboard, having erased a bit of his deficit.

...

Al Nichols (l) enjoys a lovely puff that Brian (6082) and Roger (stuck at the mark) will have to wait for. This being a double windward shore (to the west and to the south), Al N. should consider running way down with this puff if he wants to do more than just protect his 5th. Getting away from this shore frequently pays huge dividends in the shape of more consistently stronger winds.

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Al and Julia (3854) planned ahead: Before rounding onto this leg, they decided that this reach would be iffy regarding spinnaker, especially considering Julia's lack of recent (20+ years!!) spinnaker racing practice. They were content to let Dwight and Pat (4606) make the first move, and then follow suit, if necessary. Make the guy chasing you take the first risk. Speaking of risk, Al would be sailing way down with this puff, if he had ground to catch up. But in this situation, it is safer for Al to stay between Dwight and the gybe mark. You can, however, see that Al is cheating a little bit towards staying further away from the windward shore than Dwight is doing.