Reaching Rebels (l to r): Al Vorel (yellow hull), Mary Vorel, Jim Quiniff, Dave Nickels, John Washburn, Neil Robb, Al Schonborn. On this leg, Larry and I increased our lead substantially. We may well have gotten better breeze than Neil who also added to his edge over 3rd, but we did do a couple of other things that seemed to help:
* just after rounding, we went up briefly to defend our wind against Neil, but began to sail "our own race" as soon as we hit the first puff at which point we switched into my preferred mode: up in the lulls (many!!!) and down with the puffs (few!!) to stay in them longer
* as recommended by Dave Dellenbaugh in Speed and Smarts, I took off my shirt to feel any air movement on the more sensitive areas that are usually covered up (at my wife's urgent request!). The interesting result was that, on a number of occasions during the latter part of the leg, I felt a wind direction on my back that differed markedly from the direction our masthead fly was showing. At least once, the masthead fly was telling us: "broad reach on starboard" but my back disagreed: "No! No! Broad reach on port". Since far more of our sail area operates near the level of my back than near the masthead fly, Larry and I agreed that my back should be obeyed. So we gybed to port and gained considerably on both our nearest pursuers and the Interlakes just ahead. We did, in fact pass them.
* gybing away from two Interlakes that we were catching towards the end of the leg not only kept us away from their disturbed air but also away from the dreaded windward shore off which the wind was occasionally blowing. As a further bonus, this gave us the inside position for the mark rounding, and starboard if we should meet them on opposite tacks before the mark.

Brian has no trouble getting around but Gary Hirsch (2nd from left) seems to have stalled out as the wind has shifted back to favouring starboard during his tack. To make matters worse (for Gary!), Joe - wily old racing veteran that he is - gets that late starboard lift and appears to be set to round in first place without needing another pair of tacks. Meanwhile, Dan Norton (3rd from left) has tacked towards the starboard layline, wisely keeping himself more or less between his nearest pursuers and the next mark. On the far right, Bill Rohlin is single-handing his Rebel (dark green), while behind him, Mike Austerberry (blue hull) who is also making his W racing debut, comes into the picture. - click here for full-size image

As Brian (4160) begins his "run", we see Mike A. (blue Wayfarer) moving past Bill, taking advantage of a huge port-tack lift (the same shift that has made Brian Main's run into nearly a beam reach). But even better placed to benefit from this shift are John and Robert in the CL (r) who will end up on the inside (to windward) as the three port-tack boats sail increasingly higher.