After every regatta on the drive home I review the races and what went wrong on my boat, boat handling wise, and my starts, mark roundings, etc. I keep a journal and log the wind speed, tides, courses, what went right and what went wrong. Then I go out and work on what went wrong boat handling wise, and before the next regatta I review the journal again to be sure I don't make the same mistakes over and over again, which is easy to do if you don't focus on the mistakes.


After one regatta where I hooked the A mark anchor line, I told my (then crew) Son on the way to the next regatta, "If I do nothing else right today, I WILL NOT HOOK A MARK!". Well later in the regatta, he was on a crash boat and I was sailing alone. The crashboat driver said, "Why is your dad going so wide around that mark?" He said, "Because last time we cut it too close and got hung up."

Oh...and right after I went around, someone came in close behind me and hooked the mark. It was the crash boat driver's husband.

Focus on your mistakes and try to eliminate them. Gary Jobson says, "Sailboat races aren't won, they are lost. Good moves don't win them, bad moves lose them."