A respectable first race

Yesterday was Wharf Rat's (the J24 I now crew on) first race. It was a tune-up Weds Night race round the cans. As there were only 50% of the boats racing they mixed up the fleets and we were in among the big boys (J29s, J105s, etc). There were 4 on the boat, with yours truly on the bow.  The winds were 15-18kts as we boarded so we rigged the jib rather than genoa for caution. Lesson learned, the wind can be much stronger on the mooring than in the bay and we wished we had gone with the bigger headsail. That's why they call it a tune-up.

Despite taking a long time to rig and get to the line we had a reasonable start and we were in among the big boys. Unfortunately after the start we tacked too early onto another boat. No collision thankfully but we were in the wrong so we sailed our 720. As we were the smallest boat in our race, with the penalty, we were soon out of the pack and on our own. It was a three leg windward-leeward race and we sailed a fairly error-free race. I failed to set the guy on the pole once but was able to recover quickly. Other than that I can't recall any significant errors.

We placed 5th our of 8 boats (might have been 7) which was respectable all things considered.