In light weather the gains available for looking for where the wind is are huge.
Look for the dark patches of water both up wind and down wind
Also look and see what other boats are doing – who has wind, who is going faster than you and where are they pointing, and so on. It might be worth copying them!

Don’t get drawn into boat on boat battles as you are likely to let the whole fleet catch up.
Clear air and clear water are fast.
Keep good separation when overtaking

Turn the ratchet block off in light weather.
Remember smooth and controlled.
Heel to leeward to bring the boat into the wind hike the boat through the wind, ease the sheet. Once the sail is across and you have the boat slightly low of your course bring the boat back upright keeping the sail full remember to sheet in as you bring the boat level and back on course….
Practise it!

Don’t go too far from the line.
Use your watch.
Don’t stop on the line it takes ages to get going again. Being over the line is a killer in light winds especially. In winds as light as Saturday you can’t always tell where the right place is  so be on the line and moving.
All the other pointers about starting apply

Its very easy to stop the boat in light winds.
Sail smoothly.
Ease the sails out without backing. A backed sail is like a brake.
Don’t pinch you need all the power you can get from the wind in light weather

Some of the points in “Don’t stop” apply but too much kicker in light winds will hook the leech of the sail too much causing turbulence it also stops the top batten from flicking across and this will stop you. Similarly beware of too much sheet tension up wind.
Sailing in light wind is all about maintaining air flow over the sail. Once you are moving forward this will induce more air flow

Remember the description about wetted surface area and the flat after sections of the boat compared to the u shaped sections forward. Sit well forward to get the flat sections out of the water and only move back as the bow wave starts to build. When going very slowly most of  the resistance is from skin friction so reduce wetted surface area. As you go faster the hull makes waves and the energy used to make them slows you down, that’s your cue to move aft but upwind don’t go further aft than a thigh width aft of the main cleats. We’ll talk about where to sit and how to get the boat through waves when we can do some heavy weather coaching.
Heel to leeward but don’t stick the gunwale in the water or fill the boat up. Leeward heel helps to keep the wind in the sails. Keep your boom end out of the water and don’t trail your sheets on a run. It might help to let your boom out beyond 90 degrees so that the sail can ‘flop’ forwards and keep the sheets out of the water, but look out for gusts!

Painters mainsheets control lines ends of booms in the water are all very slow.
Sometimes you’ll need to keep some tension in the mainsheet and hold the boom out to stop the sheet from dragging. A dragging mainsheet really stops you.