Yesterday got off to a slightly iffy start when we discovered that the wire which holds the forestay was frayed. It will be alright to sail with for a day or two but we won't want to leave it long, so this morning I will be finding a rigger to see how soon they can make a replacement.Apart from that, though, everything went smoothly and we were all off to the races in very light winds.
Some were more anxious than others to actually make it out to the race area - racing started at eleven and in the light winds we wanted to allow an hour to get there, so we set off at about 9:15 and had plenty of time once we got there to try to find transits for the start line and judge the wind direction carefully. Others decided to take more time relaxing before getting going, as it was going to be a long day.
The first race was in light winds and flat water, the conditions which suit us best. It took three attempts to get the fleet away to a good start - for the first two there were too many boats over the line at the start signal, so they used the black flag for the third start. That's a very severe way to stop people from pushing over the line: anyone who starts early is disqualified without any way to return to the correct side to fix their error. Suddenly everyone found it easier to figure where the line was! 
There were still three boats which were disqualified for being over the line - in a fleet that size it's very tricky to sight the committee boats at either end of the line, let alone spot the transit (the nice visible landmark which should be behind the committee boat when you are on the line which you use to tell whether you are over it or not). We got off to a decent start but didn't accelerate as well as some others around us, so after a minute or so we had to tack away onto port, which meant most of the boats around us had right of way over us. Luckily we managed to find a way through the fleet, crossing close behind or close ahead of many other boats to get out to the right hand side of the course. That was definitely the place to be, as the wind shifted to the right, as forecast, and we found ourselves on the inside of the shift and well placed in the fleet. We made a first-timer's error at the top mark, though, approaching the mark on a line which would have been good in the absence of the other boats around us instead of going out further to be in the stream of boats "too far" to windward. That stream of boats took our wind and, though we did make it round the mark, several of them overtook us at that point. Lesson learned, we'll make sure we're in the "fast lane" from now on when we get to that position. From there on we sailed a good steady race, holding our position near the top third of the fleet with many newer boats around us. We ended up in 37th place, with only one Silver boat ahead of us.For the second race the wind had picked up a little, and the waves with them. Again, there was a general recall at the first attemted start, but this time the race officer used an I flag instead of a black flag. That's an interesting choice - it means that the penalty isn't actually disqualificiation, but you have to go round the end of the line instead of dipping back behind it if you're early. In a half-mile start line, that might as well be disqualification for the boats in the middle, but it's not really a very severe penalty for the boats near the ends. I guess they don't use the Z flag here as often as we do at home ...
We didn't get such a good start the second time - we found a decent spot but we had another boat above us spoiling our air and this time when we tried to get away on port we had to tack several times to work our way through the fleet. By the middle of the first beat we'd fallen back to about the bottom third of the fleet, in amongst a number of Classics and Silvers (and still a good few modern boats, which is some consolation). There were a number of good tussles with various boats on the way - mostly legal involving getting onto the right side to have right of way and force the other boat to tack away, and one little crunch at the bottom mark when someone snuck inside us where they weren't entitled to be and then didn't stay out of our way as they were obliged to. At least, that's our version of the story and I'm sure we'd have persuaded the jury of our rightness if they had put in their protest ... No damage done and most satisfyingly we managed to pull back the place they'd taken by sneaking in there during the following beat to the finish! In the end, we finshed in 67th place - nothing famous but we were close behind the leading NZ Silver boats so we are not too disappointed.
So, all in all a great day's racing with some good lessons learned and one good result to go with one that is at least solid and something to build on. As I type this it's just after 8am and the sky is blue and the morning is already starting to get hot, so I think we can expect more of the same weather with perhaps stronger sea breezes as the afternoon goes on.
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