300 log: More evening racing at TISC

Date: 30th April
Venue :TISC
Race : Handicap race, 1.5 hours
Tide : Ebbing hard for the duration of the race
Conditions : Initially SE F2/3 (for 20 minutes), dying to nothing (for 1 hour), then NE F2/3 (for 10 minutes)
Result : Probably 1st of 12ish boats, 1st of 4 300s.

Positives:
- Good start.  The tide was ebbing hard and taking the fleet over the line, so good time on distance was required.  I practiced the start at least 15 times, and got off the line 1st by a couple of boat lengths.
- Good speed all round the course.  Spent lots of time tweaking to get the top tell tale flying on all points of sail, surprising amount of vang required.
- Good read of the tide to find the best route round the course, and sneak around buoys laid in adverse tide (if you didn't make it, you were done for the race).
- Very low state of arousal, which is good because the whole arousal thing is getting a little wearing.

Points for reflection:
- Missed East Head when in first (navigation in this part of the harbour is not my strong suit), and lost 6 boats as a result.  But in a way this was good news, as it meant I had to work back through the fleet, and that's good practice!
- Could definitely have used a wind indicator at the top of the mast when the wind dropped below 2 knots. Frank Bethwaite writes about using a balanced feather, I wonder how you make one.

So an interesting race, it is just nice to get out midweek.  Finishing a race in the dark was novel.  Next race Thursday!