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Second Beat

As the race progresses the fleet becomes more spread out, the second beat is where you aim to keep what you have and look for small opportunities to gain.

General Idea: Focus on keeping the threats (2-3 boats that round behind you at your gate) in your zone and look for opportunities to make small gains

As you round the gate, accept and understand where you are and focus on keeping as many boats behind you as possible

Note that the boats that go around the other gate are no longer in your control, you cannot worry about boats on the other side of the course, any attempt to square up on them will most likely result in losing boats you had in your zone originally

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As the red boat, you cannot put focus on the boats going to the right side of the course

In Depth Details

Focus on the threats behind you, ideally when the boat behind you tacks, most likely the ones behind them have already tacked and you want to match them

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As the red boat, you want to match the tack of the boat behind you to ensure they stay in your zone as much as possible

Whichever mark you round will typically be the side you go to unless you were forced to round the unfavored gate and you MUST get to the other side of the course

A good gate rounding is as important as a good start, a poor rounding will lead to bad lanes and boats passing you

Keep it simple, focus on keeping boats behind you - play the numbers

Find small areas to gain, not looking to pass packs of boats at a time, chip away at the gap the leaders have on you

Crew Communications

Constant updates on the boats around you; what is your speed and angle compared to those immediately around you

After the rounding watch the tiller of the boat behind you and let the driver know when they are tacking

Next puffs, when they will hit and an idea of the ones far away

How much of the fleet is going left vs. right

Lay lines

How boats are coming together towards the top mark, how can you put more boats behind you

Important Skills to Practice

Mark roundings

Holding a lane

Drills

Split 2nd Beat

The fleet will be split into two groups. each group will set up above the gate marks and on the whistle, round each gate mark in order. Aim is to set up a 2nd beat just like a regular race.

Ordered Roundings

Everyone will start by circling the course side left gate mark counter clockwise in numerical order. On the whistle, the specified boat will lead the fleet to round the course side right gate mark and start racing upwind.

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Powerball

Full length course, focusing on last half of first beat, downwind, and second beats

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To start, boats will circle the center mark (the power ball)

1 whistle

Immediately turn upwind, round the top mark and offset, sail entire downwind to the gates, finish by rounding the power ball

2 whistles

Immediately turn downwind, round the gates, sail entire second beat, round and finish by rounding the power ball

This drill works on sailing an actual course by being dropped into the middle in a random spot but still close to other boats

Videos

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