Starting weekend one.

Here follows an analysis on the first weekend in my aim to improve starting.

News to report.

A successful day of racing. Three races, one great start, one acceptable start and one fairly poor start.
What happened:
Before race one we spent some time finding a good transit, and then sitting on the line using the transit to get a feel of where the line was. Lesson learnt here was that sailing slowly away from the committee boat on port with the boat and pin in line was a good way to sight a transit. Stopping for long enough to identify a transit on starboard was hard.
The bias was moderately starboard, there was little advantage to be gained by going left, so starting next to the committee boat seemed the preferred option. Only problem was it was going to be busy. As stated in my previous post my goal was to be brave.
What happened and lessons learnt.

Start one was ok, was on the line (pre start exercises worked) at the starboard end, but came in on a close reach and was a little at the mercy of other boats, could have been travelling a bit faster, and controlled the boats around us a bit more.
Before the second race we practised accelerating from stopped, working on a set procedure.  We made a note of how long in terms of distance and time it took us to get up to speed. In the Merlin in a force 2-3, seven to 10 seconds seemed about right.

Start two. Came in  to the line far too close to the committee boat and was prevented from getting a good start due to boats luffing and blocking our path. Big mistake.
On a positive note accelerated well, and managed to get clear wind soon after the start.
Lessons learnt. Find the starboard layline to the committee boat end of the line, and approach from just above it, controlling boats above to get a clean start.

Start 3. As there were 2 starts before ours, we used a lot of the preparatory signals to practise accelerating and hitting the line at full speed, as the gun went.
This time the approach to the line was perfect, luffed hard to protect the committee boat end of the line. Timed the approach well and hit the line flat out, only one boat (who was well over the start line) was in front of us.
Great feeling when all the practise paid off, hopefully wasn't OCS and converted the start into a win. Will have to wait until next weekend for the results......

Next time you go sailing try to have some similar goals, and really analyse how it went. Writing a log is a great way to reflect, and can lead to some really significant improvements in your sailing.
Looking forward to the next time..