Love hate relationship

Why is it some days I can go out and sail like a god and then others the devil gets into my head and it all goes wrong.

My sailing a Poole yesterday was an example of what not to do on the race course. Misjudging starboard crosses, trying to do turns in the middle of the fleet, being conservative when an aggressive attitude on the start would have been so much better.

We sailed at the south end across the inner pond by the clubhouse. The beats were short and racing tight with a bunched fleet, meaning any mistake or penalty turn would be punished by most of the fleet sailing past you. That was the story for me in the morning as well as at one leeward mark where a gust caught me 4 boatlengths out causing a sharp nosedive and a broach taking me the wrong side of the mark. In addition I was struggling to get the right windshifts off the start line. All in all a day to forget. 10th at lunch recovering to 5th. As a well known kiwi, never one to mince his words sail "You sailed like a ...." I am sure you can fill in the blank.

You can see from the results, 4 bad races from penalty turns and average results after that deserves a 5th place. Next stop is the ranking at Southport at the beginning of March.

The wind shift were through 90 degrees. Starts were heavily port or starboard biased

Tight racing on a short course