When I first started racing my then brand new 1987 H31, I quickly learned that helming is the most critical job on the boat. A good helmsperson can counter, to some extent, poor sail trim. But a good sail trimmer can do very little to counter poor helming. Distance lost is distance lost forever. Helming is like putting in golf, in the sense that one must practice, practice, practice. Of course, as in golf, there are those few lucky people who seem to have "the touch." Unfortunately, I'm not one of the lucky ones. Every time I go sailing I try to hone my helming skills. This Fall, my crew and I were honored to be asked to race in our club's "Champion of Champions" race, which includes top crews from each fleet, from 17' Thistles to 36' PHRF boats. We raced on J-24's, and it became painfully obvious that my shortcomings at the tiller (in partial defense, my boat has a wheel) was a major drawback. We had good to great starts, good tactics, excellent sail trim work, and fair spinnaker sets and trimming. However, with the boats so close to each other I could see the results of every little mistake in helming. We didn't do well. So, next season it's practice, practice, practice on boats with tillers. One of the many reasons I like to race is the challenge of improvment--helming, sail trim, tactics, wind and weather predicting, understanding and using the rules, boat preparation. No matter how much I learn, there's always more to be learned.