A fantastic morning sailing at Gosport in mid A rig condition. Wind was straight down the lake, well just coming off one side which always makes life interesting picking the correct side of the beat.
What I learned and developed.
The ability to Precisely hold the boat in the right position on the start line. On several starts I wanted to be the most windward boat and achieved that. It was always nice to see other boats pull the trigger too soon and shoot of down the line.
Position on the right hand side of start line to control fleet. The favoured side of the course was to the left, and despite the line being slightly port bias it paid to be too windward so you could stop anyone tacking before you did.
Position on the favoured left hand side of beat. Keeping left often meant picking up large port hand lifts. Occasionally this did not work but the punishment was not severe.
On the run it paid to get away from tree lined shore on run. It takes a bit of nerve to duck down at the windward mark to get a lane to leeward of the fleet. Initially it appeared the boat boat lost ground but the reward later was worth the pain.
In the end it was a match race between me and James Hadden. We both ended up with 3 firsts and 3 seconds. Great fun and often the boats were within feet of each other round the race track. Just the job to sharpen the skills ready for meeting more competition on Sunday at Hampton Court where a good breeze is forecast.
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