I'm sure there are many who would say that if you missed the layline, that you were not "about to round or pass" the mark. I'm not aware of any definitive ruling on this particular situation, so it would be interesting to see it come up in an appeal. I suspect most judges would consider any boat in the TBLZ "about to round or pass", regardless of the number of tacks needed (as long as they were headed towards the mark). And, because rrs 18 does not apply "while the boats are on opposite tacks", rule application could get a little hairy during the rounding.

As a thought exercise, it's interesting, but I wouldn't want to be the one testing it in a protest hearing.

Regards,
Eric