Optimum big up.

In the days when these things used to matter and I gave tactical talks on the subject, I used to point out that in a hundred strong start line you can lose potentially 99 places in the first second delay. Now stop for a second at windward mark you might not even lose one place.
I even went to the lengths of working out the potential place loss that a second delay can count for in the first third of the beat as against the final third, according to the rule of thirds that breaks a fleet of sailing things up, but it was a long time ago now and things are quite different in these mixed boat fleets on small lakes, but I still cannot go to a start line without a functioning countdown time piece or I'd have a nervous breakdown.

Waterproof stop watch from eBay, Velcro .  You can get the lot with change from £6.

I have a cheap countdown watch which is fine but... the first warning always seems to happen when I'm mid tack, so I miss it by a few seconds.... And my club has a pursuit fetish, and I can never work out which horn is my start!!

It'll be easier once I have the Frosty finished.... my start in a pursuit will always be the first one!

Because my performance is so poor split second start timing makes little difference. Because of this I wear a cheap analog watch waterproof to 50m. I just look at the sweep second hand when the bell goes and remember it. 20 sec after the hour or whatever. The advantage is that I wear the same watch all the time and never take it off (except for weddings or funerals when I wear my fake Rolex). My present watch is a Casio all black resin thing waterproof to 100m. which cost about 18 quid I think. Battery goes then I bin them and get another one.

Nice to hear. Mine was borrowed by offspring and dropped in the lake before it got the chance for the battery to run low.