Male Speaker: Sailing rules require that if two boats are rounded a mark at the same time, the outside boat must give way to inside boat. So while better air may be found on the outside, if you can sneak to the inside at the last second, your opponent will be forced to give you room.
The rules are tricky. To be considered the inside boat, there must be an overlap; this requires that your haul and your opponent's haul overlap. This overlap must exist before either boat is within two boat lengths of the mark. If this is the case, then your opponent must give you room to round the mark. If you don't establish the overlap before the two boat length circle, then you must give way to your opponent. The inside is particularly important when rounding a leeward mark, because being on the outside at the end of leeward mark rounding will result in being blanketed on the upwind leg.
Radical changes in course drastically affect a sailboat speed. Smoothness is the key to making to good fast turns. When rounding a mark, you want to come in wide and go out tight. Seen here, the green boat is correctly coming in wide and going out tight. You want to make your turn as smooth as possible to preserve as much speed as you can, like coming out tight on the other side, you'll have a good position on the rest of the fleet.
If you are at the windward mark, coming out tight gives you options in choosing where you want to go, if you are at the reach or leeward mark, coming out tight will ensure you clear air. The red boat in our example has chosen to come in tight and out wide, a fast but tactically unsound maneuver. By coming out wide, the red boat has limited options and is likely to be in the middle of the fleet. If you find yourself forced to come in tight, particularly at the leeward mark, sacrifice speed for the out tight position. The clear air you will protect will let you accelerate backup to full speed while the out wide exit will not necessarily yield good position.
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