09/06/2026
https://www.facebook.com/100063526478864/posts/1641198448007689/
A lot of sailors think the leeward mark rounding is the end of the run, but I think that is already slightly the wrong way to look at it, because in most races the next beat has started well before the boat gets anywhere near the mark.
The problem is that many sailors keep sailing downwind until the mark is on top of them, then try to sort the positioning, the controls, the traffic, the rules, the rounding and the next decision all at the same time, which is usually the point where the whole thing becomes rushed, untidy and far slower than it needed to be.
A good leeward mark routine should feel calm because the work has been spread out early enough to be useful. You should already know which side of the next beat you want, whether the gate or mark choice helps that plan, where the boats around you are going to leave you, and how much space you need to come out of the rounding with the boat powered up rather than half strangled and going sideways.
The controls matter, but the timing of the controls matters just as much. There is no great magic in pulling on outhaul, downhaul and kicker if you do it so late that your head is buried in the boat at exactly the moment you should be watching the mark, the overlap, the exit lane and the wind on the next beat.
This is where routines beat panic.
Not because routines are exciting, because they’re not, and nobody is going to write a heroic sailing story about someone calmly putting their outhaul back on ten boat lengths from a leeward mark, but that is often the sort of small, dull, repeatable thing that separates a sailor who exits cleanly from one who rounds the mark and then spends the next minute wondering why three boats have appeared above them.
The boring bits matter, even if they are not the bits people like talking about in the bar afterwards.
Get the boat ready early. Know where you want to go next. Round with enough speed to protect your lane. Come out with the boat flat, the sail working and your head already on the beat.
So, how early do you start setting up for the next beat, and what is the first thing you change?
