Day 1

What can I say. I had two bad starts today, and in this fleet, coming back from that was next to impossible. My boat speed needs to be better, yes, but the most important thing is to get two good starts every day!

So, to break it down to the details, I think that my pre-start set up is okay, and my general plan for where to start. Its usually in the last 30 to 5 seconds that something goes wrong.

Race 1: I found myself getting a little to close to the boat to leeward late in the sequence, (need to do a better job staying to weather in my 'hole') so I backed up so I could sheet in and sail back into the same hole with flow and speed. I messed up the timing of this move and did it too late (I think anything less than 20 seconds is too late). As I went to trim in to sail back into my hole, I realized that I was going to be late, so I immediately tacked and ducked a few boats.

Well, I should have done a better job of staying to windward in the hole I was in, but the next thing was to recognize the problem earlier and back up with 40 or 30 seconds to go instead. Another options at 30 or 40 seconds would have been to back up, tack, and tack back into the same hole.

The bail out at the start at least gave me a lane heading right, which was part of my plan, and I managed to cross a couple boats on that upwind, but the next major mistake was hitting the lay line too early, which caused me to lose the boats that I had gained. With the density of our fleet (the leaders weren't that far ahead of the the stragglers at the first mark, so the entire fleet was rounding close together) the wind on the lay line is so turbulent that to actually lay the mark you have to over stand quite a bit, very expensive.

Race 2: I did a great job building a hole to leeward and was primed for a good acceleration, but I pulled the trigger just a fraction of a second too late, and got shot out the back. Although I worked hard to stay in pressure, on the lifted tack, and actually managed to find lanes to do this, I could not claw my way back.

Tomorrow: focus on building a good hole on the starting line, and pulling the trigger at the right time.