Back to Basics - Tacking.

Really? No honest, I'd really like to see that Neppy old chum, I once managed a wire to wire in the Musto, it was so sweet I had to frame it... Once the only time, the rest I spent ironing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ_SG5397FE&list=PL6D14C56C264E4B92&index=3

The object of a good tack should be to make best VMG to windward.  Sometimes that might ned a quick tack where loss and gain of speed is less important than being on the right tack, and sometimes it might be about making the tack as efficient as possible.

But from a coaching point of view we need the latter.  And as efficient as possible means the right balance between minimising the rate of deceleration, maximising the distance gained to windward in the tack, and accelerating to maximum speed as quickly possible.  When I coach this I break it down in to 5 parts:

The start/initiation.  Much as described here.  Sheeting, and heeling to get the boat turning at the right speed towards the wind with the minimum of additional drag.  In practice that means following the turn with the rudder, but as stated not pushing it.

The turn.  Turn  refers to change of course and rotation of the boat athwartships.  Note that the act of turning the boat towards the wind will create a little more wind, and move the apparent wind aft as well.  In many conditions this is what allows you to sheet out (which you need to do for a later stage).  To maintain the right angle of heel (or flatness) in this stage it is usually necessary to move weight further in.  Doing so may enable you to "sail" all the way to head to wind.  The classic roll tack mistake is to sit out too early in the process.  This should be the longest phase.

The spin.  As the boat reaches the point where it starts to come over to windward naturally it should be accelerated by moving crew weight to windward (this is the skater style bit).  This phase should be relatively short and end with the boat on its new close-hauled course, heeled quite hard to leeward on the new tack.  It again creates wind over the sails - but most importantly it primes the boat for

The pull-up.  In this phase crew weight crosses to the new side and flattens the boat of.  It is relatively quick.  The movement of the rig to windward again creates wind over the sails, and moves the apparent wind aft.  So it is not yet time to sheet the eased main (and not yet fully tightened jib (if 2 handed)) back in.  Save that for

The drive.  In which, as the boat accelerates, the sail(s) are pulled in, creating more wind again.

In practice the drive begins before the end of the pull-up on most occasions.

Now the great thing about this is that the long duration turn means you spend lots of time pointing to windward, therefore maximising the use from the speed you had at the start of the tack.  And an efficient pull-up and drive returns you to your old speed quickly....and you remain legal.

Here's the bad news GRF: you have a boat which stalls its foils easily.  This makes it hard to get the rate of turn right so that you can accelerate without the foils having stalled.

And as already pointed out - the wings mean that you can't mitigate the stall with a big pull-up and drive (like we do in the 300).  If you do you'll hit the water.

My advice would be to borrow something conventional (perhaps singlehand in a miracle - it roll tacks beautifully....) and learn the technique, and then apply it in the Equipped with Privy Seat.

Finally if you are already in high and slow pointing mode it becomes much harder to initiate the tack and do the turn, because you don't have speed to take you to windward and the power on/off is very binary.