I was racing Saturday and had the following situation:

Approaching the weather mark on starboard, a port tack boat was able to tack in front of us, giving us his bad air. To prevent this, I had asked my skipper to foot off toward the port tacker, giving us enough room to point above him while he was recovering from his tack and building speed, also giving him a bad dose of dirty air.

When the situation developed, we were hard to weather and well above the lay line. The port tacker should have been able to lay the mark unless he was forced into irons by our bad air.


My skipper didn't seem to follow my reasoning. Was I just wrong? Is this illegal?

Comments?