Also in this scenario, when the penalty happens at a windward mark, it is to your advantage to continue sailing close hauled (or reaching slightly) for a short distance to get away from where the boats are turning and then do your tack and gybe. The penalty turn consists of a tack and a gybe - not 360 degrees. So since you need to turn downwind anyway, you can actually get away with a 270 if your foul occurred at the top of the course.
Absolutely correct (and very good advice)! The faster you can pull off your turn(s), the better.
Continuing to sail upwind (or reaching) to get clear satisfies the "getting well clear...as soon as possible" part of RRS 44.2. Tacking and gybing in the same direction promptly satisfies turn portion. Nothing says the turn has to be a full 360 degrees (in fact, it may be less than 270 degrees). For what it's worth, that was true even when the rules were titled "360/720 Degree Penalty". Confusion over this issue is why the rules were renamed to "One/Two-Turns Penalty".
Regards,
Eric
