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Yacht Racing

This boat is just coming up to round a buoy which marks one "corner" of the course.	Racing yachts is very different to a running race. When you run in a race on a sports day, you stand behind a line, and when the starting gun is fired, you run as fast as you can along a marked track until you get to the finish line. Yacht races are usually in a triangle, so that the boat has to deal with the wind coming in different directions.

The start of a race is pretty complicated. The boats can't sit still - they sail around the area between the two buoys (floating markers) that mark each end of the start line (they have to guess where the line would be, because it isn't marked on the water!), being very careful not to collide with each other. They have to count down the time from warning signals so that they are as close as they can be to the line when the starting gun goes off, and that they are in a good position. The best position is called being to windward, because it means that the wind hits your sails, and your sails block the wind getting to the other boat.

When the race starts, you have to work out the best way to get to the next buoy, and this is why the boats carry tacticians, who figure out the best way with the wind, and the weather.