Its true in sport as in life that nothing worth having ever comes easy. Its also true to say that if you set yourself a goal to win competitions, then you need confidence and confidence only comes through success.
I'm not having much success recently. Although all my on the water training is going really well, I'm having real problems turning them into success. Take today for example. A club series race, mixed handicap with about 20 boats on the line. 5 or 6 Lasers, a Buzz, a Laser Vortex, 3 or 4 Lightning 368s, 2 or 3 Enterprises, an RS300 and a few others. The start line is made more complicated by a pontoon moored a third of the way along. There's another one half way up the first beat, which given that the lake is only about forty acres, and L shaped, is only about 15 boat lengths. Today the wind is from the West which means it can, and usually does, come from SW or NW and occasionally both at the same time. The lake is tree lined and surrounded by low hills which also means that the wind can gust in at 20 mph and just as quickly drop to virtually nothing. 3 or 4 times in a minute.
I have a choice whether to got out through the small gap between the pontoon and the point on the starboard side of the line, or go for a virtually straight run to the first mark from the port end. But at that end there's a 10 metre railway embankment and the wind can do some really funny things. I've been caught out there before. I decide the starboard end gap is too risky and I opt for a start half way down on starboard tack in clear air and hope I can get up to speed quickly, using the starboard advantage on the port tackers. But, in this case the conservative start doesn't pay off. I'm at the line doing full speed at the gun heading to cause mayhem and havoc to about 3/4 of those on port tack, but then they are all lifted by a big gust and I have to tack, then tack again to miss the pontoon. By the time I get to the first mark I'm well down the fleet.
For those of you who haven't sailed on small inland lakes there are two golden rules. Start in front then get round the marks smoothly - on a small lake such as ours there are usually about 6 marks to go around 3 times (or more) each. Lose a half a boat length on each on the boats in front and - well, you do the maths.
Conversely, taking a mark really well means you can pull back untold places in one hit. On a small lake there are much more exaggerated changes in direction, so you have the chance to get out of the dirty air of those around you and catch a gust or shift which will be long gone by the time those behind you get there. Its the second lap and I'm still well down the fleet, but, apart from the leaders, we're all sitting in each others dirty air and there's not much between us. Mark no 4 is a close reach to a beat and I notice that a lot of the boats in front of me are taking it wide to miss the congestion. I notice that by the time I arrive there will be a boat width gap so I go in wide and come out perfect, sheeting in block to block and hike just as a gust hits, zooming me out and away from the congestion. I pick up 6 places in as many boat lengths and as I tack back for the next mark to bank my lead I'm at least 10 boat lengths ahead, barely able to conceal the huge grin on my face.
But that's the end of the story. Eric Twiname says a sailboat race is like walking up an elevator the wrong way. Its the mistakes that allow those behind to catch up with you. Those who sail without mistakes whilst in front, stay the same distance apart from those behind, but they stay in front. I can't make any more progress on the boats in front and a couple of silly mistakes means two or three of those boats I got past gradually get up to me then past me.
So those are the thoughts I'm going to hang onto. Learn to react quickly to shifts and control the boat so you don't have to make conservative starts. Work on those mark roundings so every one is as sweet as No 4 today. Hopefully I'll be grinning more often.
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