When to Pull the Trigger for a Light-Air Start

make sure you have a runway to leeward, and that' you're close enough to the line, here I have a nice runway, I'm bearing away at about 8 seconds

Bearing away starting to trim in and generate some speed and heel which is important in the next step, this takes a few seconds and timing is critical

now that we have speed at around 3 seconds, our next goal is to hike the boat flat and headup, now that we're at max speed we want to trim in block to block

Being too far from the line or too close, then add a boat too close to leeward - that absolutely kills your start - so make sure you have a runway, and that you can actually make it to the line by go. If you're father away start your acceleration sooner, if you're too close, hang tight and focus more on the last 3 seconds and getting that heel, powerup, hike, headup in almost one motion.

Trigger **when** you can sheet on smoothly and grow flow **without pinching** and **with room to bear slightly** if needed. Pressure uptick + leeward space = go.

Don't forget to check for line bias, here in the video the pin was favored, and I won the pin, if you're on the wrong end, you're starting behind other boats, so make sure to check during the sequence not just before the warning, this way you give yourself the opportunity to get a great start, winning the start can sometimes win the race, but also if you don't have a great start, don't sweat it, you just need to get going as fast as possible and dig yourself out of that hole, thie faster you recover, the better your chances of being in the mix, we're talking a few seconds in a wind hold behind other boats, you are hemmoraging boat lengths, so get the heck out of there!