... Dave Moring, who, in his first Wayfarer race, is living up to his reputation as a master of the Lake Eustis wind shifts. Dave and his crew, Kevin Rankin, will not be flying a spinnaker, having not found the time to do any practising with Mo's gear. A wise choice, indicative of veteran savvy.

A close race for the lead: While Joe and Nick (l) were busy fiddling with the spinnaker, Dave took over the lead while Kevin smoothly propped the jib out to windward with the whisker pole. Meanwhile, a smooth set aboard Morning Star has Jim and Linda poised to move into 2nd place. Joe and Nick are now stuck with sailing low if they want to keep their air clear.

As Jeff (l) and Gale roll in on starboard, Lori (555) will have to keep clear. And if she tacks within two lengths of the mark, she will have very few rights - see Rule 18.3. Meanwhile, Richard (10139) has wisely decided to throw in another tack while he can, and will thus live to fight again another day rather than risk a real foul-up at the mark. After all, these boats will all be well within reach once the run starts!.

Having not lost too much due to lack of spinnaker, Dave and Kevin lie a close 4th and are off to the left side of the course early in the second beat. I presume that they, like us, thought the wind might well back even further, in which case, it will pay to go left. In fact, the wind direction changed very little during this beat, but at least we were thinking.

"I like you, but I don't like what you are doing!" Under Rule 18.2(a), the lovable Jim McIntyre (1904) is entitled to no more than room to round the mark if he's overlapped with Lori (red hull) here, room implying a seamanlike rounding. The latter would entail rounding within a foot or two of the mark under these benign conditions. Judging by the previous photo, where Geoff has just rounded, Jim is still sailing a good 90° low of close-hauled here, and is killing the boats to leeward of him in the process. As Jim himself admits - more boat time is called for!! Meanwhile, Jeff's (light blue deck) rounding brings mind the Stuart Walker dictum: Slow down and win. If Jeff can slow down here just a tad, he can cut inside and knock off both Jim and Lori. By the same token, Richard (yellow hull) should have smelled a potential mess coming here and should be far enough outside that he can cut inside Jeff, should the opportunity arise, as ...