Uncle Al's
Pictorial Pearls of Wisdom
 from the Ontarios - 5
a potpourri of educational items suggested by the photos
No big hurry about the upcoming spi hoist here, what with hull speed wind making the spinnaker only a marginal upgrade. Much better to concentrate on ...
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... heeling to windward to help the turn. And of course, we have discussed strategy during the approach to the windward mark: Once again, we'll go with our preference to defend the left, which means ...
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... a gybe followed by a hoist, which we hope will discourage Bill from fighting us for the left. 
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One of the fun things about runs is that, like on a beat, boats can choose a number of different paths to the next mark.
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Marc (red spi) has decided to sail his own race and "let Bill (937) go", but continues to defend the left side of the run, which will give him the essential inside position at the mark before the final short beat home if the boats should arrive at the mark overlapped. 
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In the event, they don't. Marc (3854) has found more good puffs than Bill and increased his lead. Marc and Al have thus broken the Stuart Walker admonition: "Don't be greedy!" Note the fairly early douse which costs little but ...
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... guards against any major foul-ups that could cost us the lead!
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These two pictures again show how Marc and I, very briefly, undersheet ... 
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... the jib while the crew cranks the main in hand over hand. It is less costly to let the jib luff a bit for a couple of seconds, than it is to sheet all the way in too soon.
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A close one coming up here as Jamie arrives at the leeward mark just before ...
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... Brian. It is essential for Brian (6082) to have planned ahead here rather than to just react to an unanticipated predicament. With only a short beat left to the finish, there won't be much time in which to catch up, so he'll need to position himself where he'll have useful options. In this case, he surely won't want to get below the line of three boats just off his bow, where he will be trapped until the dirty air from in front finally spits him out. There is no time for that. Instead, he needs to slow down and win (as Stuart Walker says) so that he can tack immediately after he passes the mark, or if he really loves port tack here, begin to try to pinch up over the boat(s) in front of him.
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Another angle of the same sequence: Good! An overtrimmed main will slow him down, but Brian should also have ...
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... borne away some more earlier so that he can ...
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... luff up to closehauled right close to the mark without hitting Jamie's transom.
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Eek! This is exactly where Brian didn't want to end up!! 
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Alan (7346) is approaching from a dangerous position since he'll have trouble slowing down.
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A bit late is Andrew (4610), but late at this end will at least give him the option to tack, unlike poor Jamie (4594) who will be stuck in dirty air for some time now.
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Having started to windward and astern of a non-pincher (Alan), Andrew (4610) comes out of this smelling of roses.
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Out near the port lay line, we find Al still in the lead and protecting same by staying between Bill and the next mark. Al seems to have sailed into a big knock. If this holds, he will tack, since playing this big a shift is more important than staying with the competition at this early point in the race.
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Jamie and Ben (4594) need their weight further forward: Ben up near the shroud, Jamie near the aft edge of the main thwart. Note how their transom drags by comparison to 6082.
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Ditto for Andrew and Penny (4610) who got the spi up just in time to avoid getting passed by Dave (282) and Bill. Note how the latter is wisely going way low since he won't want to get into luffing matches with the other four boats near by. The trick for Bill here will be to pick gusts in which to bear well away to combine his separation with longer time spent in the gust.
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Right about now, Brian (or John) on 6082 needs to pull the starboard spi sheet to get the spi around to the new leeward side. To make this easier, my crew, Frank used to unclip the pole from the mast and the sheet just prior to the gybe - then I could easily pull the spi around without the pole getting in the way.
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With the wind having backed (changed in a counter-clockwise direction) to make the first reach closer, we can now expect the second reach to be correspondingly broader - as Al and Marc have already found out. Since Marc has the sacred spinnaker flying spot on the windward deck just aft of the shroud, Al is standing just aft of the thwart. By standing, Al can easily fine tune the heel to ensure no helm on the rudder. While he's relaxing, Al is thinking ahead to the fact that, if this shift holds, port tack will be greatly lifted when we start beat #2. To the point that we may be almost able to lay the windward mark - not an unpleasant prospect when you have the lead!
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Aha! Now the wind has veered (clockwise shift) back to its original direction as the tight race for 2nd heats up. The second reach is often a good place to defend the windward side. In fact here, the move was to sail up in the lulls and down (insofar as possible) with the puffs. With Jamie almost right abeam and to windward, Brian (6082) especially, wants to sail up here. This does three good things: 1. in this lull, it gives him increased apparent wind and more speed when he needs it the most  2. it gets him up where it'll be harder for Jamie to pass him, not least because he can get Jamie back behind his (Brian's) stern wave  3. if Brian lets Jamie blanket him here, it's possible (even likely!) that the next three boats will also blanket and pass him.     
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Al has deliberately approached the mark a bit high so that he can now run down a bit and keep the spi flying without the pole while Marc stows that item and gets the board full down. A nice speedy douse ensues and the leaders are ...
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... ready for beat #2. This shot captures perfectly how the crew has cleated the jib in a slightly eased position and is now cranking the main in with a flourish, leaving Al with nothing to do but to concentrate on his steering - not so important here, but very useful in a crowd!
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Now Marc trims the jib into its upwind setting and will then deal with trivia such as the jib and main cunningham as needed. 
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Andrew (l) executes his rounding flawlessly while Dave does the only thing he can do, especially with port tack favoured, and that is to try to break through to leeward into clear air. 
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Dave could be making a strategic mistake here by tacking off the favoured port tack when he had already broken through Andrew's wind shadow. Staying on port would have had three side benefits apart from port being the favoured tack: 1. he could have boat speed tested against the speedy Andrew in relative safety  2. with two boats giving him dirty air, Bill might well have decided to tack away onto the knocked starboard tack  3. when these boats meet Dave again at or near the finish, they will all be on starboard while Dave will be on what is likely to be the far more stressful port tack.
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People sometimes smile when Marc or I luff up to cross the line even when no one else is near. It makes so little difference, but sometimes that little bit is just enough! Here Bill was on the inside with room and so had first crack at luffing up, which in turn allowed him to beat Dave by the narrowest of margins.
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