I had a lousy day in the club races yesterday. In the postmortem analysis I identified a few things I did wrong but no major disasters. So, in the big scheme of things, it was just one of those days when my karma was out of whack (yes, I know that karma is never out of whack - it is all connectedness, synchronicity, causality, etc - but I have to blame something external for a lousy day).
Putting aside karma, I did identify a few things that need to be worked on.
We had two races and I had a bad start and a mediocre start, so clearly that is still my one consistent area to work on.
After both starts, I went quickly off onto a port tack to reach the deeper water where I hoped the outgoing tide would give me a boost - tide usually trumps wind
Tide Trumps All. Several of the better sailors were initially doing the same thing and I thought that confirmed my own analysis. But these were pursuit races which meant that at the first mark a number of boats were still ahead (having started earlier) and so to reach the windward mark on my starboard tack, I had to go through a huge amount of dirty air from the earlier boats who were about to round the mark and those who had already rounded and were headed downwind on port. Sure, I had priority over them and even managed to make a couple duck behind me, but I was collecting a huge amount of garbage air. So, lesson learned - think ahead more about where the other boats will be.
After the race, I went over things with a guy who usually beats me and asked about going right to the deep water. He said he planned to do the same thing and started that way, but realised there was some significant pressure in the middle of the course. In both races he stayed much more in the middle and even with a few extra tacks did very well. So, next lesson - read the water better and try to look at the bigger picture.
And there is always next week.
