By Rich
I’m not one of those racers who can remember every leg of every race in his/her career. In fact I remember very little of any of them, but I remember this Annapolis Nood race and this beat in particular. We made the right call by choosing the genoa instead of the #3 (it was a borderline call). We substantially outpointed Huster for the entire first leg of the beat on starboard tack and had a big lead when….a massive lefty filled in. They tacked over and crossed us by a significant margin and beat us to the mark.
That’s yacht racing. Sometimes you can make all the right decisions and still come up short! Still this was only a slight negative in a regatta full of positives that resulted in a podium finish. Best of all was the sailing itself – just look at the J/29 going upwind with a full rail of crew and a nice, flat, 150% heavy genoa. The J/29 in its prime.
Rover's Blog 
I suppose they’re right when they say it’s all about the start. And by that, I guess they mean it’s really all about the decisions made at the start.
The start is important to be sure. In general, the larger the fleet the more important it is because otherwise you get buried by a ton of extra boats. Big fleet racing is really a different skill set. On this boat, we typically sailed in small fleets – generally under 20 except for the North Americans in 2001. In smaller fleets its easier to recover from mistakes than in larger ones. Still, choosing the right side of the course remains important.