Why gybe when tacking?

I've sailed some cruising cats which were pigs when going about, and making a sternboard had to be part of the drill. Often going the long way round deliberately (ie gybing) was quicker.

That sed then full support for sacking your so-called teacher, but after you've pressed for a better explanation. nb Post mortems are best held in the pub!
 
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Fair enough.

One might argue that when you turn downwind to gybe you are no longer beating to windward, but that would definitely belabour the point, so I won't.

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No, you're quite right. That's why I would distinguish between beating and tacking.

It's all just terminology, anyway.
 
Lots of sensible info on here....Before I bought a new mainsail, my boat would often stall head to wind in a tack, so the only way to go around would be to keep bearing away then gybe around. Centring the main before you instigate the gybe can often stall a boat from bearing away....in my yacht I try to get it all done in one move, instigating the gybe, then starting to haul in as she goes around, then immediately easing the main once she has gybed. Please please do not develop a fear of the gybe...if done correctly it should be as controlled as as fearless as the tack. I was taught many different RYA methods to gybe a dinghy but prefer the move across, stand in the middle, or crouch at least, then duck under the boom method...works every time, even in strong winds. As a newbie your instructor may just have not had the time right then to explain all it's intricacies. As said it seems to be accepted practice to gybe cats rather than tack them.
 
the stresses when gybing a dinghy are very small by comparison with that in a +30 ft boat. It is very bad practice to allow the main to gybe on its own on a big yacht as there is considerable danger of damage to mast , sails and rigging. It is normally ex-dinghy sailers or racing crews that do not follow this seamanlike precaution of tightening the main in as much as possible in preperation for a gybe.
 
if I leave my main sheeted hard, I sometimes have trouble tacking on my cat, especially if in a lightwind but with a pronounced solent slop. I find that releasing the main at the same time as the genoa makes the procedure much easier. Is probably a peculiarity of the 9m Catalac, but it works for me!
 
I would agree with your terminology. For another angle on it, most fractional rigged boats including mine are not very happy sailing directly downwind since the boom won't go far enough out, so we tend to proceed by making a series of gybes - which is generally referred to by myself and others as "tacking downwind". I think "tacking" refers to changing the side the wind comes from, and "gybing" and "going about" describe more precisely how you achieve this.

That should start a rammy!
 
Are you sure? In my experience "Wearing Round" is the opposite to what you describe. ie Its too windy to Gybe so you tack through the wind the long way, instead of 60 degrees onto new gybe, go 300 degrees the other way.
 
No, not sure. Maybe it could describe either? Anyone got a dictionary?
 
Yes, I've heard that used.

Nautical terminology tends to vary a lot, and was probably never very precise, anyway (try the definition of cutter as an example).

Tacking downwind is a recently developed technique, of course, so it represents a new usage.
 
Maybe he was trying to show you how to tack around instead of gybe, something I should have done last week in 30mph gusts and the mainsheet traveller took 10 stitches worth of flesh out of my knee.
 
Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea (nearest thing to a nautical encyclopedia):

wear, to. (1) The operation of bringing a sailing vessel onto the other tack by bringing the wind around the stern, as opposed to tacking, when the wind is brought round the bow.

In the past tense, a ship is wore, not worn.
 
Bit late to this, but replying to Talbot,

I don't think it is just the Catalac. The BB385 is supposed to tack OK and generally it does. However with the prout-like rig the mast is well aft and the main therefore has quite a turning force behind the pivot point of the boat. If you leave the main sheeted hard in you need some reasonable momentum through a tack to avoid weathercocking. You also need to get the timing right on such a big genoa. Too quick and it backs, making things worse. Too slow and it comes head to wind as there is nothing to offset the main.

Tacking steadily up the Solent is fine, short tacking up a river would be tricky.

On the other hand, as we discovered a few weeks ago, a crash stop (heaving to from hard on the wind at 7knts) is very effective /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I was inclined agree with Stork_III and I nearly posted along the same lines when the expression was first used in this topic believing that it was a shortened form of weather, perhaps more correctly written as wea'r meaning to turn through the weather ie tack. However I looked in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary and was surprised to find that wear means: "To bring a ship about by turning its head away from the wind".

I do agree though that matnoo should press his "sailing teacher" for an explanation although it is becoming obvious from some of the posts on the topic that "sometimes you just do" is not such a bad answer after all.

Note Matnoo refered to his instructor as "sailing teacher" he never in any way implied that this was a qualified instructor.
 
My cutter rig is not very efficient dead downwind so I also sail the way you describe, from broad reach to broad reach, gybing each time. Yes this is tacking downwind, but it can be confusing to call it this when teaching novices. As to another poster's comment that not sheeting the main in can result in snapped shrouds and dismasting, I was always taught to sheet in so the main is just off the shrouds to prevent this, so do the same in my ,admittedly only 26ft, yacht.
 
Not quite sure what you are suggesting there, but I always sheet in and then out in what I would like to think is a fluid motion as I gybe to avoid any crash of the boom across. If it smashes across I consider I have failed.
Sometimes when I have decided to change direction after beating up against the wind and to head back home with the wind then a gybe is needed to get me on a homeward run. Perhaps that is what the instructor was refering to?
 
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