# Tacking - Loss of Speed



## Kenif (Jan 6, 2010)

Guys,

I am fairly new to sailing and have been fortunate to land a seat on Rusalka i a Phantom 32 class yacht designed and built by Nick Shein in Sydney in 1988.

Now the racing we do is very cruisy and relaxed but you know a race is a race.

We seem to drop a lot of speed tacking.

I have suggested:

bearing away before our mark to build up speed
rather than a hard 90 degree a more gradual radius
when enoughcrew manually assist the clew around the shrouds (large No1 that some times gets caught up

Anything I might be mssing or should I find a faster boat?

Ken


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## tager (Nov 21, 2008)

Single line sheet seized together for smoother tacks. Experiment with backing the jib. Bearing away is probably a good strategy depending on position of other boats.


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## Sailormon6 (May 9, 2002)

It's difficult to identify the exact cause here, but it's a matter of timing. The boat will only coast so far when the sails stop driving. The trick is to figure out how to get the boat across the eye of the wind, and get the sails driving again, before the boat loses way. You have to analyze every aspect of the tacking procedure to figure out exactly where you can reduce the amount of time between the sails breaking at the start of the tack and the sails beginning to drive as it comes out of the tack. 

If the helmsman is steering hard 90 deg. turns, that's a very likely cause, because it's almost like putting on the brakes, although some boats turn faster than others. 

When the helmsman turns too fast, it causes other problems. It reduces the already minimal amount of time the pit has to release the working jib sheet and to tail the jib sheet on the new side. If he can't get it tailed in and trimmed quickly enough, then the sails won't begin to drive again on the new tack, and the boat will continue to lose speed coasting. Making a fast turn doesn't help if the crew can't keep up with it. If the pit can't get it done quickly enough, it might be because he is inefficient in his sail handling techniques, but it could also be because he isn't being given enough time to get it done. If the helmsman gets the boat onto the new tack, and the jib loads up before the pit can get it trimmed, it's much harder to tail and trim an already-loaded-up sail. The helmsman and pit should coordinate their work.

When I'm at the helm, I watch the pit man during the tack to see if he's keeping up with my rate of turn, and, if he needs more time, I'll make the turn slightly broader. I'd much rather make a slightly rounder turn in coordination with the pit man, than a tight turn with him struggling desperately to keep up. Ask yourself this: "What good does it do to make a tight turn, if your crew can't keep up with it?"


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## SW329xl (Mar 25, 2010)

Kenif said:


> Guys,
> 
> I am fairly new to sailing and have been fortunate to land a seat on Rusalka i a Phantom 32 class yacht designed and built by Nick Shein in Sydney in 1988.
> 
> ...


You should definitely take a gradual turn for your tacks. Aside from dinghies where you can roll tack them, you always want a slow smooth turn.

You are also right, that whenever possible you should have someone help the genny through the foretriangle. I would usually have one person assigned to the foredeck. On the windward beats that person starts to walk the genny through the foretriangle. This person should stay with the clew until it is fully trimmed on the other tack, then should move to the high side of the boat (or wherever you need them for balance). By staying with the clew, you can get the sail trimmed in quicker and avoid having it end up on the wrong side of the lifelines.

Also, make sure you have someone with a lot of upper body strength trimming the genny. If they are not quick and strong, they will need to start using the winch to crank the genny in way earlier than otherwise. Cranking a winch handle is way slower than hand over hand. The more you can get in with a rapid hand over hand trim, the faster the genny will be powered up again.

When do you release the genny sheet during the tack? Ideally, you should keep it trimmed right up til the point where the bow is approaching head to wind. Releasing it too soon can cost you some drive going through the tack. As soon as you release it, immediately start trimming on the other side. There should essentially be no gap between release and beginning to trim on the other side.

Lastly, trim for power when you come out of the tack. Think of it in terms of gears. If the boat is slow accelerating after a tack, try powering up the sails immediately after the tack. Ease the backstay, foot off a little to power up, then slowly bring it back up to your ideal pointing angle. Just like downshifting in your car after you exit a sharp turn.

ANd of course, practice, practice, practice. You should have regular practice days which include 50-100 tacks and 50-100 gybes. The more you practice the smoother your boat handling will be. And of course practice is free.


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## Sailormon6 (May 9, 2002)

I agree with everything SW329xl says except for his statement that you need "...someone with a lot of upper body strength trimming the genny." Anyone with ordinary strength can tack a genoa quickly if the helmsman does his job well. The pit man only needs upper body strength when the jib is loaded, and he has to grind in the sheet using the winch. As long as the sail and sheet have no load, the sheet is easy to tail. To avoid loading the sheet, the helmsman should stop his turn momentarily when the jib is streaming, unloaded, parallel to the genoa track, thereby giving the pit man a fraction of a second more time to haul in the unloaded jib sheet. As soon as the pit man has taken in all the slack in the jib sheet, the helmsman should then bear off a few degrees and load up the sail. 

Most helmsmen turn the boat, and expect the crew to adjust their jib handling so that everything gets done whenever the helmsman completes the turn. The problem with that thinking is that the person handling the jib has so much to do and so little time to do it in, that he has almost no latitude to make such adjustments. The helmsman, however, only has to turn the wheel, and he has a great deal of latitude to adjust his rate of turn. Don't just think about how you do your own job. Give some thought, also, to how you can make adjustments in your procedures that will help the other crew members do their jobs well.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

I'd point out that some designs can be helped through the tack by backwinding the jib. This is very common on many catamarans.


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## SW329xl (Mar 25, 2010)

Sailormon6 said:


> I agree with everything SW329xl says except for his statement that you need "...someone with a lot of upper body strength trimming the genny." Anyone with ordinary strength can tack a genoa quickly if the helmsman does his job well. The pit man only needs upper body strength when the jib is loaded, and he has to grind in the sheet using the winch. As long as the sail and sheet have no load, the sheet is easy to tail. To avoid loading the sheet, the helmsman should stop his turn momentarily when the jib is streaming, unloaded, parallel to the genoa track, thereby giving the pit man a fraction of a second more time to haul in the unloaded jib sheet. As soon as the pit man has taken in all the slack in the jib sheet, the helmsman should then bear off a few degrees and load up the sail.
> 
> Most helmsmen turn the boat, and expect the crew to adjust their jib handling so that everything gets done whenever the helmsman completes the turn. The problem with that thinking is that the person handling the jib has so much to do and so little time to do it in, that he has almost no latitude to make such adjustments. The helmsman, however, only has to turn the wheel, and he has a great deal of latitude to adjust his rate of turn. Don't just think about how you do your own job. Give some thought, also, to how you can make adjustments in your procedures that will help the other crew members do their jobs well.


Sailormon, I agree that on a daysail or cruise you don't need a ton of upper body strength, but in a race it sure helps. If that strength saves you a second or even half a second on a tack, it will add up to 10 to 20 seconds by the end of the race. Many races are decided by a much smaller margin. You can win races without that strength, but it sure helps to have it.


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## JohnRPollard (Mar 26, 2007)

SW329xl said:


> ...
> Lastly, trim for power when you come out of the tack. Think of it in terms of gears. If the boat is slow accelerating after a tack, try powering up the sails immediately after the tack. Ease the backstay, foot off a little to power up, then slowly bring it back up to your ideal pointing angle....


Some good suggestions here. I just wanted to elaborate a bit more on the comment above.

There are really two issues here: Losing speed during the tack, and accelerating after coming out of it. You want to minimize the first, and maximize the second.

After coming out of the turn, there is a tendency to over trim the sails by resetting them where they were on the previous tack. But on the previous tack, the sails were released when the boat was at full speed and closest angle of attack to the wind. After coming out of the turn, the boat is at neither of these initially.

After the tack, the boat is usually sailed "fat", i.e. with sheets slightly eased and not extremely close to the wind. This allows the boat to build speed and develop lift in the foils (sails and keel). As speed increases and the foils begin to generate more lift, the apparent wind both increases and moves forward. As this happens, the boat can be steered progressively higher into the wind, and the trim of the sails must be adjusted accordingly.

It's a gradual process, lasting varying amounts of time depending on the type of boat. Ideally, the sail trimmers will gradually bring the sails in to close-hauled, with the trim corresponding closely to the boat's increase in speed and higher point of sail. Eventually the boat returns to full speed and closest angle of attack, the trimmers can go hike out, and then it's up to the helmsman to steer the tell tales.

On the other hand, if you just pull the sails in tight and try to steer closest angle of attack immediately after the tack, the boat will feel anemic and will take much longer to build speed and harden up on the wind.


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## Sailormon6 (May 9, 2002)

SW329xl said:


> Sailormon, I agree that on a daysail or cruise you don't need a ton of upper body strength, but in a race it sure helps. If that strength saves you a second or even half a second on a tack, it will add up to 10 to 20 seconds by the end of the race. Many races are decided by a much smaller margin. You can win races without that strength, but it sure helps to have it.


I was talking about racing, not cruising. Upper body strength can make up for a helmsman's lack of skill, but it isn't necessary, and I'd much rather have smart crew, who know all the ways to do their jobs with skill and finesse, than strong crew. Strength isn't a bad thing, but if you need to rely on it every time you tack a masthead genoa in 15 kt winds, something's wrong.


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## tommays (Sep 9, 2008)

I let you know BUT after this years North-U


WERE sure the helm is turing to fast

HELM is sure we are grinding to SLOW


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## zz4gta (Aug 15, 2007)

tommays said:


> I let you know BUT after this years North-U
> 
> WERE sure the helm is turing to fast
> 
> HELM is sure we are grinding to SLOW


Tell them to switch, and do 4 tacks. both will adjust accordingly, and then forget everything they've learned when entering the starting box.


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## puddinlegs (Jul 5, 2006)

sailingdog said:


> I'd point out that some designs can be helped through the tack by backwinding the jib. This is very common on many catamarans.


Only in very light air for a mono-hull.

To the OP, as others have said, sounds like your driver is turning too fast and perhaps steering too far down (away from the apparent wind angle) on the new tack. This is very very slow, and makes a ton of work for your jib trimmer and/or grinder. You do need to foot a bit in the acceleration phase of the new tack (the trimmer shouldn't bring the jib all the way in until the boat is close to it's target speed, then finish the trim, and the driver will have both guage and speed.) If done well, while it's good to have strong bodies, it isn't necessary. Always better to have quick, light footed, and smart folks than gorillas. And yes, you need to designate someone to help the clew around the mast.

Oh, all of what J.Pollard said. Sorry for the truncated repeat.


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## wunhunglo (Apr 5, 2010)

*Tacking...smoothly to keep as much speed as poss.*

Some great posts. I tend to do as Sailormon6 and JPollard do.

I don't know the boat the OP is sailing, but light vs heavier displacement boats will alter the general guidelines in terms of speed into the tack, through the tack and how long it takes to power up again. Practice is the key; use a stop watch, watch the boat speed, but also watch the shape of the stern wake. You want to try and achieve a smooth arc...no "S" bends or sharp 90 degrees in the wake.

My general thoughts as a helmsman approaching a tack are:
1. Come into the tack with max speed, even if that means sailing a little "fat" (bear off a couple of degrees to sail fully powered) just before tacking.
2. Heel the boat a bit more so that natural weather helm will bring the boat into the wind with little or no use of the rudder (the brake)
3. With 1 and 2, I should be able to get a lot of momentum to head straight upwind for half a boat length at least, as I go through the wind smoothly. This is a good drill to practice and to find the trade-off of how long you can hold a course head-to-wind, vs the rate that speed drops off too much. The key to this skill is if you get it right, you will gain half a boat length straight upwind on every tack. That can often beat trying to pinch your way up past a competitor. It's some of the easiest VMG you can find !!!
4. Skill 3 should give the trimming crew a chance to have the genoa almost fully trimmed at the time you are through the tack, and as others have said... very slightly eased sheets to allow the helmsman to steer a little "fat" to build speed after the tack.

Sea state and wind speed will greatly affect the timing of steps 3 and 4 and how much you have to rebuild speed.

How can the mainsail trimmer help?:
- before the tack ease the backstay to power up the genoa. This will help add some heel and weatherhelm, and also suit the shape when you're through the tack to help the speed build.
- As the boat come up into the wind, smoothly bring the traveler up to windward to keep the main filled as long as possible. Need to make sure it's not faster that the rate of turn, otherwise the main will put the brakes on.
- ease the traveler to match the genoa trim coming out of the tack
- Tighten the backstay when the genoa trimmer finishes the speed build.

My thoughts as a genoa trimmer:
1. Release before the genoa is back-winded. Any back-wind will put brakes on. If the helmsman has built the speed sufficiently and timed it with the waves, no back-winding will be necessary (on a monohull)
2. Don't start tailing the new sheet in until I see the bow head to wind...then tail as fast as possible with no more than two wraps on the winch (too many will cause friction and probably an override).
3 Get the jib in all the way just as it's about to fill, then immediately ease fast to the "fat" heading..hold it there and watch the boat speed climb back to targets.

Foredeck crew:
1. Smooth body movements... no jumping about trying to muscle a genoa clew around. That can slow down momentum through the tack.

On boats with big genoas on round-the-cans racing, a mid-foot line can greatly speed up getting the clew around with no one on the foredeck, forward of the mast. Put a grommet in the foot of the genoa, at mid-foot. Attached a line that runs to a block near the tack, and back to the cockpit ( or near the mast for the mast crew). As the boat comes head to wind, haul in the line fast... this pulls the clew forward and around the mast, then immediately release all the line. This worked well when match racing IOR boats with big overlapping genoas, and reduced the fumbling around trying to clear a flogging sail. It kept the crew weight where it should be. Sails with LP's of under 140% don't get much benefit from using this line.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

I'd add that with some boats, easing the mainsheet as you come through the eye of the wind can help the boat tack, since the mainsail can often force the boat to weathercock if the main is sheeted in too tightly.



wunhunglo said:


> Some great posts. I tend to do as Sailormon6 and JPollard do.
> 
> I don't know the boat the OP is sailing, but light vs heavier displacement boats will alter the general guidelines in terms of speed into the tack, through the tack and how long it takes to power up again. Practice is the key; use a stop watch, watch the boat speed, but also watch the shape of the stern wake. You want to try and achieve a smooth arc...no "S" bends or sharp 90 degrees in the wake.
> 
> ...


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## smackdaddy (Aug 13, 2008)

Okay WHL - that's going into the Salt's Thread. Great breakdown!


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## Kenif (Jan 6, 2010)

Great feedback Guys,

I will print out and discuss with skipper this weekend and practise.

Will provide comment next week.

If you can find me I'll buy a beer.


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## Kenif (Jan 6, 2010)

*Feedback*

Okay Guys,

Attempted to put it into pracrtice on Staurday.

Port Phillip Bay - 20-25 kmh

Bearing away tom increase speed worked and was propbaly the sigle biggest 9nfluence.

The ability to coordinate the rate of tack with the sail handlers probably got away from us. Practice.

Going fat or bearing away after the tack to build speed was a bit hit and miss also. Again practice.

We did place conduit around the shrouds which seemed to act as a roller and minimise heady hang up.

Have forwarded this page to the skip so hopefully we will all be on track next week!

Thanks and now to investigate some info on sail trim!


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## zz4gta (Aug 15, 2007)

Were you hitting your target boat speeds? 
How many people did you have on board? 
What sail did you have up? 
What were your tacking angles? 

20-25 kmh = 10.8-13.5 kts


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## Kenif (Jan 6, 2010)

zz4gta

Unfortunately I was handling the sheets so was somewhat concentrating on other tasks.

We had four pers on board.
We have a massive No1 that I think is about 130%+
The skip likes to tack at approx 100-110 degree
As for speed the skip suggests approx 3 knts.

I am thinking that we should set the GPS to track and see if we can useful data off it.

Starting to get serious.


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## JohnRPollard (Mar 26, 2007)

Kenif,

Thanks for coming back and telling us how it went. We get a lot of "drive-bys" where we never hear from folks again (maybe our advice is really bad and they're lost at sea ). 

Don't expect to get this all down in one outing. It takes a fair bit of practice to get everybody synchronized. Also, every boat has idiosyncracies, so these general suggestions may need to be adapted / modified somewhat to fit the situation.

Good luck and keep us posted!


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## RichH (Jul 10, 2000)

John Pollard said it. 

I'll say it another way. 
To keep the boat's momentum going during a tack is ***NOT TO FORCE THE RUDDER***. Forcing the rudder will cause a LOT of friction with the water and this will decelerate the boat. So when tacking, CONSTANT **PRESSURE** on the helm to turn the boat & will result in less momentum bleed-off'. Dont over-pressure the helm during the tack but keep CONSTANT PRESSURE on the wheel or tiller during the tack until 'head to wind', then returning to the SAME (opposite) pressure when exiting the tack. All this will keep the rudder from stalling, etc. and will keep the MOMENTUM at optimum for the next 'leg'. 
The important thing about CONSTANT helm ***pressure*** during a term .... is it needs to be PRACTICED to do it 'right'. So, you may need to do several trials .... with your stopwatch (counting the seconds from entering the tack until you reach max. speed on the 'other side of the tack' to see what CONSTANT HELM PRESSURE during the turn works best for the 'current' wind/seastate conditions. Constant helm pressure during the turn will cause the boat to do an eliptical turn; jamming the helm will produce a constant radius turn which will bleed-off momentum/speed as the rudder starts 'dragging' the turn. Practice, Practice, Practice and then verify again just before the race. 
FINGERTIP pressure on the helm during the turn, not knuckles, not palms. Your 'stopwatch' will show when you are doing a 'constant helm pressure turn' correctly ...... it will be a the MINIMUM SECONDS between falling off the highest speed (starting to tack) on the entry leg and back to the SAME speed on the opposite tack. Dont FORCE the rudder.


An 'accessory' to clean/optimum tacking: hooking the mainsail's leech to weather, 'just before' tacking, will allow the boat to 'power pinch' just before and up to the point of 'head-to-wind' - by radically over-trimming the mainsail via the mainsheet. Hooking the mainsail leech to windward will slightly slow down the boat just before the tack but the SAVINGS on the next leg may be several boatlengths on the NEXT leg .... and sailboat racing is a game on 'inches'. 'Hooking the leech up to weather' is like putting down the flaps of an aircraft when going to LOW speed .... more POWER developed for slow speed (acceleration phase) sailing. I start 'hooking the leech' at about 95% of the length of the 'leg'. 
With a hooked leech, drop the traveller down very slightly after you pass the 'eye' of the tack to rapidly accelerate onto the next leg ... and slowly get back to 'normal' mainsheet tension and traveller position as you accelerate back to your target boatspeed. 

Learn how of 'roll tack' the boat. Do websearch for same.


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