After the first two races I decided that starting at the boat end of the line was not critical to winning races, especially when the line was shorter. Starboard tack was the tack that you where on the majority of the windward legs, so my strategy was to get a clean start to the middle-pin end of the line going fast on starboard. If you were one of the people who did not have to tack to port at the beginning of the first beat to clear your air you where doing well. The right side did not seem to work out (see my second race). The left side seemed to have a little bit more pressure the further upwind you got. After the start I would foot a lot to establish myself in the first row off the start. Once I was in the first row, getting closer to the port layline AND if there were people above me I would starting pinching a little bit to entice them to tack over to port before I did or at least move into there lane to make sure I could tack. Upwind my mainsheet tension was constantly being adjusted to changing wind velocity. Downwind for most of time I was trying to keep my air clear and keep my bow on the leeward mark. The last race I gained a lot rounding the windward mark and just heading straight for the leeward mark instead of jibing to the inside. The leeward mark roundings where crucial as well. In my second race I was over early and caught up to a pack of boats at the leeward mark but was not close enough to get to the inside the pack (6 or 7 boats) so I slowed up to get a clean rounding. The last boat rounding the leeward mark was slow getting around which was expected but I jibed to quickly and got my bow hooked below the boat in front of me. This set up my upwind leg which sent me to the far right side of the course, not where I wanted to be. Big thanks to Mike and Bob for running 6 good races! |
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