John, I was in total agreement with what you initially said, first one to tack on the layline wins. But I thought we were talking about "What could he have done differently". I agreed with you, (twice if you read my writings) that he should have tried to prevent that tack, but he didn't do that, so in that case, what should he have done?

That was the situation I was talking about. If he couldn't block the tack, he needs to try something else and -hope- for a favorable shift. You can't tack under him and follow someone into the finish and expect to pass them. You have to lee bow him or duck and hope he missjudged the layline. If he could have put a perfect lee bow on him, laid the finish and forced the other guy to tack twice more, that would have worked too.

If you duck him, tack and you both get headded, you might still be on the layline and he will have to tack, and you are now on Starboard, and he is probably pinching trying to keep that layline rather than tack, you might be able to prevent his tack since you are now on starboard. Depends on how big the headder is and how far ahead he is and how good both of you are.