lesson 5. MORE On Tacking

Stolen from another blog, but good stuff.

>. When you begin the tack, throw
> the helm gently over. Don’t throw hard over. Sail thru the tack, as it were, make
> a big U-turn; as you begin the turn, sheet harder as you are essentially sailing
> closer to the wind. As you reach head-to-wind, let out the main, LEAVE THE JIB IN.
> The jib will help put you on the new tack. As the bows cross the eye of the wind,
> let the jib backwind and blow the bows on over to the new tack. Once across the

> wind, then cut the jib and sheet it first, on the new tack, then harden the main.

1,how fast you ‘throw’ your helm over, depends very much on wind & the boats
speed and the waves. The magic word is slow and as said before sail
your boat to the new tack.
2,Once on the new tack, don’t push hard upwind in the beginning,
get speed an then sheet in.
3,If you have missed (e.g. wind change during manouvere), do it like the old square riggers, reverse
tiller, sail backward to your new tack
4, In case you have a traveller rigged for you main sheet, you can
even sheet the main to windward and skip the jib backwinding job.