Put these factors in order ....

I would categorise it this way.

Before the event

• Practice boat speed preferably with a training partner. If you do this enough it becomes basically automatic. IE breezy with waves go low with power in the rig etc etc. The body weight question takes care of itself here. If you are definitely the wrong weight for your class you will never have adequate boat speed over all conditions.
• Practice boat handling so you are confident that you can tack gybe etc at least as well as the opposition.
• Strategy for the venue. Is it windy, tidal, does the sea breeze come in at a predictable time etc etc.
• Make sure no bits are going to fall off your boat - basic maintenance.

During the event

• The start. If you have the above right and you get a good start it is unlikely you are going to go too far from top of the fleet. A bad start means you have to fight to get a respectable finish and you won't win.
• Tactics. If it is a good fleet some other guys will have done all of the above things and you need to be aware of where they are and make sure you know this before making any "brave" strategic decisions. 

Why do you like being anonymous?

Are you saying things here you would not say in person?

Rick

Correct - most of the front third of any fleet will have the boatspeed issue resonably under control; it's the human factors that make the difference from that point ...

Yeah. How many tacks would you do in a Nationals race first beat? I'd say either 4 or 6 would be the most common answer in a displacement boat if you're near the front. Probably 4 for the leader.

I wasn't talking about being so bad at tacking that you're falling out of the boat, but just being of an average standard. If an amazing roll-tacker is in the race as well, and takes 1M out of you each tack, that's only 4M in a beat. If his boatspeed isn't quite blistering, then he will at some point find himself dropping into another boat's lane or not quite crossing a starboard-tacker and having to do some extra tacks as a result and his boat-handling advantage will be meaningless.

An Enterprise nationals race probably wouldn't be started in under 5 knots of wind, and would be on the sea, so not that shifty. Always boatspeed conditions. If the wind dropped so light in a race that it was quicker to roll-tack up the beat then I'd expect to see an abandonment flag.

Now, winning an Enterprise open meeting would be a different matter altogether. Boatspeed wouldn't be all that important at all, compared to tacking and mark-rounding ability but my example was about a nationals race.

To anyone who thinks tactics are more important than boatspeed, quite often a nationals winner's scoresheet will look something like this: 1,3,1,2,11,12,1,1,4,3   :  The winner would have a string of good results from most days and a couple outside the top 10 in some different conditions, say when it's windier.   Given that this person is employing the same championship-winning standard of tactics throughout the week, it must be the case that the change in conditions has left their boatspeed affected to the worse on that windy day. Enough to drop them from the front to outside the top 10. So how important would tactics be on the windy day for someone who struggles in those conditions but wins races when it's light and medium? Compared to their boatspeed problems, not even remotely important.

In my example, the range of results on the days when you're fast could be from say 1st to 4th, decided by your tactics and strategy, but a small decrease to boatspeed for a day would be enough to drop the national champion out of the top 10 in many cases, regardless of any other factor.

BTW, I don't remember it saying you had to disclose your identity to contribute to this forum. I thought it was optional. There are loads of anonymous people on here. I choose to remain anonymous because it suits me. Does it make my points any less valid? Well, probably, yes, but so what? It's not a court of law, just a discussion forum.

I reckon boat speed on the day is definitley important, even if half of it is psycological. Ive definatley had days and races were I just dont feel I have speed on boats I would normally expect to be with or be beating. At that point sometimes you need to start tweaking. Other days you feel like your flying and you go well. The one that really messes you up is when your speed is OK but you start tweaking anyway. So when Im driving and I start saying it all feels slow my crew usually tells me to shut up and drive and stop worrying about it.

I know this question was originally about the top end of the fleet where general boat speed is going to be good but feeling fast on the day is probably still important and knowing how to get from being or feeling slow to being fast.

And if compasses count as insturments then there not nessesariley irrellavant to dinghies....