Outside-in gate at the windward mark  - by John Ball

Thanks and congratulations to the sailors, IOMICA, MYA, and the volunteers who put on a great show at the 2026 IOM World Championship at Datchet Water, UK.

The windward mark.

Initially, we saw the conventional windward mark with an offset, but many boats arrived together, on both starboard and port tacks and there were many incidents. The RC switched to an outside-in windward gate.

The outside-in gate has one big advantage – it usually splits the fleet over the two marks, reducing congestion, but it also has one big disadvantage – there is no longer an offset mark to separate the boats rounding and bearing away from the boats still approaching each mark. Look at the diagram, below.

Boats rounding the right-hand mark – mark to port, is quite conventional, with the proviso that while the boat bearing way is on stbd and has ROW over an approaching port tack boat, the stbd tack boat is subject to R 16.1 as she alters course. Green cannot just turn down and interfere with Blue. As they are on different legs, R 23.2 also applies, and the ROW boat is not interfering IF she is sailing her proper course.

Boats rounding the left-hand mark – mark to stbd, has all the issues of a stbd rounding – see my web site

https://sites.google.com/site/johnsrcsailingrulesandtactics/

and Chapter 3 bonus item – ‘Weather Mark – the ‘Dreaded Marks to Stbd’, but with no offset, they have the additional problem that they are on port and as they bear away to the run, have to stay clear of any approaching stbd tack boats. Yellow has to stay clear of Pale Blue. As they are on different legs, R 23.2 also applies, and the ROW boat is not interfering IF she is sailing her proper course.

John

 

This is the fundamental flaw of the outside in windward gate.

At the M/10R Worlds last year the RC set an inside out gate with offset marks on each side of the gate.

Once the sailors had worked out how this worked there was a significant reduction on incidents at the mark. Few boats attempted an approach on the port layline. Instead boats approached on the starboard layline of both marks. Boats that came up the left hand side of the course would sail to the left hand mark layline.

Boats on starboard would form two queues along the layline. One advantage is that if there was an issue ahead it was always possible to bail out at the last moment by heading for the other mark (either by tacking or bearing away). This is an advantage when the marks have to be set some distance from the shore.

As boats arriving to the right-hand mark had to tack to round the mark, the RC set the offset leg on that side slightly shorter