In gybing always be smart with the topmast shifting backstays and the runners ; get them hauled taut before the boom actually goes over, and let go the weather backstay and runner as the boom comes amidships.
As a hauling mark is approached always get the sails well set for coming in on the wind. Anything that requires setting up should be attended to before the mark is reached. If a jib requires shifting do not forget that it can be done more easily whilst before the wind than on the wind. Very frequently a vessel is run off the wind on purpose to get in the jib ; but this can only be done at a great loss of distance.
Sails will require frequent " setting " during a match, and a sharp look round must be taken constantly, especially when coming to wind from sailing off the wind. In getting a pull on the topsail tack do not forget to ease the sheet first. In setting up the peak of a mainsail always take the weight of the boom with the topping lift. In setting up a jib always see that the runners are taut.
In light weather and with a foul tide, yachts frequently drive back past a mark after fairly rounding it. A case, recently argued, involved the following conditions : In the diagram, Fig. 51, A is a buoy which has to be rounded on the port hand. B is a yacht running before the wind for the buoy ; she hauls round the buoy and stands close hauled to C, where she is fairly above the buoy. The yacht is put about at C, and stands across towards the buoy again, but fails to weather it ; she fetches the point D, and stands towards E. It was contended that B not having weathered the buoy in standing from C to D, did not round it on the port hand. But it is quite clear that if the yacht when at C
was clear ahead of the buoy A, the rounding would be a good one.
Let it be supposed that the yacht B was beating to the buoy and weathered it, and then ran up past the buoy to E or to a point abreast of C, it could not be contended that the buoy had not been rounded (it always being understood that a mark has not to be " circumnavigated "). If, when the yacht arrived at E or abreast of C, the wind fell light and the tide carried her back past the buoy, and she ultimately repassed the buoy on the side D, that would not affect the first rounding, which would be held to be a good one.
This case can be differently illustrated ; at the finish of a race a mark boat had to be left on the starboard hand in the direction of the arrow (Fig. 52). The yacht instead passed up, leaving the mark on her port side in the direction of the dotted line from A to B ; then round the mark until fairly below it at D, where she turned and repassed the mark, leaving it on her own starboard side, thus fulfilling the conditions.
In cases like these, the only point to decide is whether the yacht has been in a position to make the rounding a good one. In the first case (Fig. 51) when at C, it would be required to be proved beyond all doubt that the hull and spars were fairly clear of the buoy in a line at right angles to the last course (the course in the direction of B to A), and unless the yacht were clear of the mark by such a test, the rounding would not be a good one. A similar test would decide the other case (Fig. 52) by the position at D.