Re: Tacking

In the interests of prolonging this thread - if you don't tack in a header 
and just bear off, I would say that would turn out to be much slower.

I've often seen beginners bearing off on a header and ending up sailing
away 
from the mark.

-- 
regards,
Malcolm Osborne
Benoni, South Africa

"andrew m. boardman" <amb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:e6ug7c$2ba0$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Stephen Page <steve@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>What's the best to read up some more?
>
> I really like Jobson's 'Champion****p Sailing'.  But I'd also say that
you
> can spend too much time reading and not enough time on the water 
> practicing.
>
>>Also is tacking on a wind ****ft the thing I need to get nailed down
>>first and foremost?
>
> I wouldn't worry about the ****fts and just work on the fundamentals of
> tacking.  Hitting the ****ft just right is nice, but not losing several
> boatlengths in a tack is a lot nicer.  It's really all about maintaining
> and maximizing boat speed.  (I'll also happily argue with whoever said
> that not tacking is guaranteed to be faster than tacking.  Lots of boats
> can gain with a good roll tack; 42.2.e is there for a reason.)