PART 2 , S ECT ION C, RUL E 18 : TACK ING, GY B ING & OTHE R EXCE P T IONS 211
The situation will commonly arise at gybe marks and leeward marks to be
left to port when the leeward/inside boat or the starboard-tack/inside boat will be required to gybe in order to round the mark. Notice that a boat’s proper course is the course she thinks will get her to the finishing line as quickly as possible. Therefore, especially if there are boats just ahead of her, she can cer- tainly swing wide to set up for a “tactical” cut-close rounding. Note that rule 18.4 applies any time boats are overlapped. Therefore, if the
boats are not overlapped when the boat ahead enters the zone, but the boat astern obtains an outside overlap later, rule 18.4 applies. Similarly, if the boats are overlapped as the boats enter the zone and then the overlap is broken at any time during the rounding, rule 18.4 does not apply.
