There were less than a dozen boats in the fleet, and we ended up last (again!), with me trying to persuade myself that I was at least learning something.
This was the first time that Hannah & I had sailed together in tidal conditions. Since we were planning to do Poole Round the Island and Poole Regatta in August, this was going to be a "dry run".
I usually have a "focus area" each time I sail; in this case it was tide predictions. The conditions were such that initially the tide and wind were together. For the first race, we set off along the shallows, where hopefully the tide would be weakest. Seeing "Scoobie Doo" (13316) ahead of us have me confidence that we were doing the right thing, even though our boat speed was not as good. As it happens, James and Richard in "Scoobie Doo" eventually won the regatta. I also checked out our "RaceQs" gps tracker afterwards and was delighted to see how we had tracked to the shallows just where I had wanted.
But it's all very well knowing the right direction - it does help to be able to make the boat go fast as well ..!
The other challange is that, in sailing at least, you need to see the evidence of your eyes, and not get fixated by your prior opinions. The final race illustrated this.
At the start of the final race, there were a gaggle of boats at the final 20 seconds, with a number of boats over. It was a general recall. At the restart, the same thing happened. I was left puzzling about how I managed to time the start, and everyone else was over. Hours later, talking over the evening meal, the penny dropped - the tide had turned ! My entire tide strategy had been wrong for the last race.
One-off these days, I might be able to get a handle on this sport.
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