How do you Tack?

[trouville]

How? with an autohelm or simrad? press the button and do 180!

Thats what exactly what i was told when i went to look and (buy?)I had the same last time i boughtone??

How do you tack a sail boat with a 150%?????????????

Good to be back!

 

[webcraft]

Simple . . .

Resile the helmsheets, pork the tiller and thrish into wind.

How do you do it?

- N

 

[LadyInBed]

I'm not quite sure what you are asking, but try this for size!
If I want to tack using the ‘auto tack’ and the tack is greater than the angle set into autohelm, I do a +/- 10 (x times) then auto tack to put me on the new heading.
On the Autohelm auto tack is activated by pressing the +1 and +10 together (or minus to go t’other way)

“How do you tack a sail boat with a 150%?????????????”
If you are asking How do you tack a sail boat through 150 degrees
Then
Auto tack set to 120 degrees
So
+10 (x3) then activate auto tack

 

[trouville]

The first well yes, but i always end up going back the way i came!And in bad conditions terrified!

And ladyinbed:ive tried but i cant? either i press the wrong button or set the wrong tack!

---at least the simrac has Stop.I sail alone no galley slave to do that for me and far to complicated for the skipper.

WANTED: autohelm 800 ca1985 or autohelm ca1974+

Anything analog

 

[ongolo]

I never tack, I follow the logics of the drunk who hung onto to the lamp post and said:" if this earth is turning, my house will come past sooner or later".

Keep going and do it long enough, you wil get there eventually.

ongolo

 

[AlexL]

I never got the tiller pilot auto tack to work properly on my old boat. I put the pilot on standby, tacked, got settled on the new course and then put the pilot back on auto. With a bit of practice and some judicious kicking of the tiller with my feet I could do this single handed.

 

[boatmike]

First I have a cuppa.
Then I go out in the cockpit and see who I will get in the way of when I do.
All being well I then come 10% off the wind until I am going as fast as I can
Then I dial the new course into the autopilot and press GO
The next 3 minutes are a fury of activity with me releasing sheets, swearing, jumping around the foredeck releasing the genoa from all the things it has hooked up on and trying not to get the clew stuck in my ear.
When everything has settled on the other side I go back to the cockpit and spend the next 3 minutes winding handles and pulling strings until the boat starts moving again.
By this time I am pointing dead downwind and might just as well have jibed.
The autopilot is beeping at me.
The world and his brother are bearing down on me,
Eventually I get going again and stop panting
Then I have a cuppa
Oh the joy of multihull sailing!

 

[IanPoole2]

Now that sounds familiar - except you forgot you are now running out of water

 

[peterb]

I assume that your 150% relates to the size of the genoa. A 50% overlap is always going to give problems when tacking.

Let's assume that the boat will tack through 90 degrees. To start the tack, punch in 60 degrees on the autohelm. As soon as the genoa goes slack, strip the sheet off the winch by pulling the tail straight up. Now leave the sheets alone until the boat comes through the wind.

The boat should steady up about 15 degrees past the wind. Pull the genoa over as quickly as possible, put three turns on the new winch and pull in as tightly as possible by hand without winching. Once the sheet is cleated, give the autopilot the last 30 degrees. While she's coming on to the new course, winch the last bit of sheet in.

It's important to get the genoa across and hand-tight before there is any wind load on it. Racing crews can get it in fast enough to avoid the little hold at 15 degrees past the wind, but most cruising crews can't. The thing I hate to see is the boat that swings round in one go (probably even overshooting) with the genoa hanging right out and someone (probably SWMBO!) sweating their guts out trying to winch the sail in; all this while the skipper (on the helm, of course) shouts at them for being slow. A little more attention from the helm could make it so much easier.

 

[Guest]

[ QUOTE ]
Pull the genoa over as quickly as possible, put three turns on the new winch and pull in as tightly as possible by hand without winching.

[/ QUOTE ]

I always encourage crews only to take only one turn round the winch, not three. The problem with three is that pulling it in by hand fast like that is a recipe for a riding turn. One turn is enough even with a 150% genoa before the wind has filled the sail, and it can be pulled in faster with one. The next two turns should be whipped over smartly just before the sail fills, and you start grinding with the winch.

 

[LadyInBed]

I did wonder if he was talking about 150% genoa.
I have found that I can't hold my genoa with just 1 turn, so I start with 2 and get the 3rd on pdq when it starts to draw.

 

[peterb]

Winch loading.

Most of the sheet comes in without even one turn on the winch. At that point the sail is just flagging down the side of the boat, and you're just taking up the slack. But you're right, you can if you like put one turn on and that can prevent any jerking as you handle the sheet.

Doing this short-handed though (why else would you be tacking on the autopilot) you need to get the sheet in and secured quickly, while the boat still has way on. We find it easier just to pull, without using the winch. I suspect that it depends on how many turning blocks, etc, the sheet has to go through.

 

[Guest]

Re: Winch loading.

Did you bring Pegasus of O back to the UK, or still in the Baltic? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Guest]

AH does not tack 180 ...... !! It tacks approx. 90.

I regularly press both port or stbd buttons to tack .... and to help genny, hold it till it backs and wind pushes it through to other side .... this gives faster turn to the bow and is a help to heavy sluggish boats like mine.

If I was to let genny fly in the tack - head would most likely stall and she would be in 'irons' - fail to go through the wind .... and then its fight to get her moving again.

On the race boat in Tallinn - we do similar - hold the genny to get the wind to push it through .... but of course then its 100 times faster !! and appears that we do not hold it ....

 

[snowleopard]

[ QUOTE ]
AH does not tack 180 ...... !! It tacks approx. 90.

[/ QUOTE ]

the default is 100 deg. but it is adjustable in the setup.

everything depends on having the right setup... i look out for traffic, reach up and press auto-tack on the autopilot repeater above the chart table then as the boat comes about and the rig tacks itself I shift my drink to the other hand. simple.