I found the starts to be really hard this time. My son was helming during the races but he was not comfortable with the starts so I had the tiller for the start up to the first mark. The boat reactions with the jib on are completely different from usual, parking the boat was a challenge.

First race we were rubbish. We finished last due to my complete inability to read the wind: we ended up twice stopped in a dead wind zone with the boat not moving at all. Oh yeah, and my son has only started sailing in May, it was his third time on my cat, his second time helming and his first race ever, so I have excuses

Second race we did not finish last, but only because Paul and Wayne went past the layline by a mile on the second beat (the wind had turned slightly and I think they did not notice or something).

The third start was a complete chaos. First we had a general recall (good thing, black flag was flying and I was one of the boat over the line) and then on the restart I was in a rotten position with nowhere to go but OCS with a little more than a minute to go. So I crossed the line, got out of the penalty triangle quickly, jybed around the committee boat and started on the second row.

The end of the second lap was a disaster with a 49er coming up at full tilt under spi on starboard and a whole fleet of mixed boat scrambling to avoid them. Most of those boats were finishing but the cats (due to the general recall we were now late) but everyone passed the finish line anyway as there was no room to tack in between the flying fifteens. I knew we only had done two laps, but I saw cats going back ashore and we were hooted while passing the line, so I asked the committee if they had done a shorten course. They said no. I was pondering what to do when I noticed three boats not going ashore but sailing to the upwind mark. We crossed the finish line to get back on the course and gave chase. We finished last of the 3 laps finishers.