As the outside boat, Al does have one defense: as leeward boat, he only has to give Richard room to round, i.e. just enough space to make a seamanlike rounding as opposed to space for the faster, wide-and-close tactical rounding. Thus Richard, having come in high, had to do a 135°+ turn in very short order, while Al could retain more speed by doing a more gradual turn. The result can be seen above.