I 100% disagree. A reaching mark makes everyone go the same way on the course. Where can you put time on the boats behind you? A windward leward course opens up the whole course to you. I like to add one reaching leg at a weekend race. It's nice for the fun factor but not the true racing. Also under porthmouth ratings, it can mess up the results when spinnaker and non-spinnaker boats are racing.

I had the Area A US sailing rep intenionaly move a "B" mark around till it was too high to fly a spinnaker to the mark and too high to fly a spinnaker to "C". Well my rating is calulated on using the spinnaker 50% of the time. He was trying to favor the course to favor the 6.0's. When I asked him about it he admited he was trying to use the "B" mark so I couldn't fly the spinnaker on the reach or after I rounded B.

We also had a bad collision at B mark this year. There are two proper courses at B. One is to jibe at the mark the other is to continue by the mark. This has caused a serious accident this year. It would be wiser to put the engery into a offset mark instead of a reaching mark.

Reach around in between races or after racing is over.