Unfortunately, Jake got no photographic record of Steve and Andrew Macklin moving past Al and Marc near the end of the second reach. Rounding just off the Macklins' transom, Marc and Al were perfectly placed to tack right around the mark and be the first to go left, and by now, Al (4th from left above) has already managed to re-take the lead from Steve (6th from left), and will now make sure he does not let ...

... Craig - just look at that man hike!! However, this is no time to have your traveller to windward (or to leeward for that matter). What Alfred wants here is more downpull on his main leech to improve pointing. Besides, in shifty, puffy conditions like these, Alfred will have enough things to fiddle with (mainsheet adjustments, vang?, tiller) without taking away from his concentration by having to adjust his traveller.

See! Now he's made a quick tack for a shift and his traveller is in the wrong place - off to leeward of the centreline - and will kill his pointing! I know! I know! Alfred and Craig finished a great 2nd in this race, and lots of experts tell you to vang sheet (play the traveller instead of the mainsheet, but in Wayfarers (or CLs) letting the traveller off to leeward hurts pointing more than you can afford except in real survival conditions of huge waves and breezes. What 2767 can do here to deal with this puff in relatively flat water is hike, ease some main and luff up briefly until the boat flattens out and/or loses some speed, whichever comes first, then bear away back to (but not below) closehauled, easing as much main (and jib?) as is necessary to keep the boat flat. Once the gust has passed, be sure to crank the main and jib back in to their pre-gust positions.

Anyway, it's been a fine beat for Craig and Alfred (r) who have moved into second place ahead of the Macklins (523), although the latter are cutting into the deficit by riding a juicy starboard lift - an apparently frequent feature near the windward mark - around the mark without having to tack twice more.