What made the difference?

Last weekend I managed to sneak out of the house with the boat on the back of the car, and took myself to Datchet SC for a Laser open. I was pleased with my boat speed, and general tactical/ strategic decisions, and still need to work on my start. (The good thing about a Laser open is that with four races you can expect a couple of general recalls so get to practise at least 6 starts in one day.)
I managed to win despite 2 poor starts almost throwing away the two wins I had managed in the first two races.
After the open I have been thinking about what made the difference that allowed me to win? I was generally faster than most other boats, and more often than the others was on the right side of any shifts. This allowed me to win two races fairly comfortably and sail through the fleet to take a third place in the last race.
There are three things that I noticed I did differently to all or most boats.

1. When I got to the club I had some time to spare as the start was postponed due to lack of wind, I used this to flip my boat over and polish the hull, and make sure my boat was well prepared.

2. As there was a little wind I got out on to the water early, sailed around the race area and practised my tacks. I was first out by around 30 minutes.

3. I adjusted my mainsheet tension upwind as the wind dropped and increased, I didn't get the mainsheet block to block until I was close to hiking and then made sure I eased it again if the wind eased slightly. I didn't notice many other boats adjusting this key control upwind. Most went block to block and stayed there.

If it was just one thing that made the difference or a combination of all three, or something else, I will never know. One thing is for certain, there are three things I will try to repeat at my next event.

Andy