Several of the W-L-only crowd have pointed out the inherent dangers of a gibe mark (B) being placed at end of an extremely fast reaching leg. I think this is a valid concern, and needs to be addressed by the reachers among us.



There is an excellent solution for this one. The reaching mark, or "B" mark, doesn't necessarily have to be at the "top" or windward end of the course. I've been to several regattas where the "B" mark is set at the leeward end of course. The advantage here is obvious for beach regattas with a typical afternoon sea breeze - the reaching leg is close to shore, and is easier for spectators to see the fastest leg of the race. I think this course configuration also eliminates any of the concern about high speed reaching boats coming into a mark where some boats may want to jibe, some may not. Since the "B" mark is at the leeward end of the course, all boats are essentially sailing downwind to it. And, at the end of the high speed reaching leg, boats aren't turning as sharply around the leeward mark (C mark), they're just sheeting in & hardening up to the wind, maybe tacking.



Now I just had a flashback - I remember a regatta in the 80s where we had a quadrilateral shaped course - it had a reaching leg at top of course, and one at bottom of course. 4 marks to round for one lap. Does anyone else have experience with this confiuration? I think it may have been an experiment in 89-92 timeframe by US Sailing for performance dinghy type of races.