Instead, he hangs on to starboard as the start signal is made, and takes Al (600) and Mark (7673, now also gybing away) down the tubes with him. Gary, too, has wasted a chance at the best start: Instead of bearing away behind 3568 and crossing the line at full speed on port and in clear air, he has tacked into a position with absolutely no future: he still won't lay the mark from here, and now will need to tack yet again with very little forward momentum. Had Gary borne away in the first place, he would not now be a ...  

... for Mark (7673) who, after his gybe is now blasting through on port at full speed, the way Gary could have doing a few seconds earlier, had he chosen to bear away behind, rather than tack to leeward of Rodrick. Just look back at the positions a few pictures ago where the start had just gone: at that point Gary could have borne away behind Rodrick and crossed the line at full speed - at a time when Mark (7673) was just deciding he'd have to gybe away. Think of the lead Gary would have had over Mark! Instead, Mark now has a complete speed edge as Gary tries to recover from a pair of virtually consecutive tacks, and will ...  

... get "rolled" by Mark (7673). Meanwhile, poor Marc (3854) at one point got a bit tangled up with Al a couple of seconds ago when the latter bore away violently to gybe away, only to meet Marc coming the other way, and Marc ended up behind Mark through no fault of his own. Sorry, Marc!

So, Mark (7673) comes out of the mess with the lead over Gary (2679) as Marc (3854) is finally about to cross the line. Al (600) has finally completed his bail-out gybe, and Rodrick (l) - having hung on to the bitter end - does not do nearly as well as he could have, if he had tacked while the tacking was good: click here to see where Rodrick should have tacked!!