It's all, and always, about learning. Take away everything you can from every event. Learn the physics, understand the wind, observe the angles, and know your competition. Above all, focus on your mistakes and shortcomings until you truly understand them and immediately start scheming to overcome them next time.

The really good sailors do this from leg to leg. The mediocre guys do this race to race. The average sailors do this from regatta to regatta. The more you can refine the speed and cycle of this process the faster you learn, the smaller the mistakes, and the better the result.