How to avoid the situation in the first place

In this upper wind range, nailing downwind laylines can be one of the biggest challenges. A big soak in, and there is the risk of a potential death roll situation, which is what appears to be happening with the red kite boat. Overstanding can make for a really hard drop and consequently big losses.

On the America’s Cup boats we have pretty sophisticated software counting down to the laylines, however even with that technology available there is no substitute for keeping a good visual look out.

On a tidal course on a shifty day the situation is always more difficult but a few simple things really help. On a windward-leeward course, utilise the time before the start of the race to obtain transits on the laylines for the bottom mark. If you don’t have a chance to do this, consider marking up the boat with transits that you can sight from a fixed point. During your pre-race warm up, when carrying out practice gybes, sight down the transits before you gybe to access where you think you will be pointing when you exit. This way you will get a good idea of your gybing angle for the given day, and have a real reference to work from.