Swim racing tips

I found this article from Triathlon Magazine Canada - 

Conquering your fear of the open water swim

Tips to become more confident so you will not only survive but have a great open water swim.

This article was useful for me for two key reasons:
- I never thought to ask people around me about how long they expected their swim time to be, and to therefore find a similar paced group
- know the swim course is important and from my experience ask about buoys for shorter distances as they may cause confusion or assumption that one needs to stay outside of them.