Hey Aggie,

Hope you enjoy your new boat. The tacking will come to you eventually. IF you want to accelerate the learning curve, checkout Rick White's video on upwind sailing. It really would help you out.

Secondly, if you want to find out where your hulls are leaking try this. I did it on my Nacra 6.0 and it worked great. Get an old "Cool Whip" platic lid, then find a vacuum cleaner that you can reverse the hose on so it blows out. (A hair dryer on cool, low speed would work too) Cut a hole in the lid, and duct tape the hose so that it seals. Now, remove or unscrew the port on your hull and tape the plastic lid onto your boat so that it seals. The "Cool Whip" lids fits just right, but you could improvise with another type. Make sure that you take the drain plug out of each of your hulls, before you run the blower. Now mix a really concentrated solution of dishwashing soap and water, and put a rag in it. Use the rag to soap all the areas where you think you are taking in water. Turn on the vacuum (which will be blowing out now), and go down to the drain plug. Put your thumb over the drain hole for a few seconds or so. Keep doing this and start looking for bubbles to appear. Trust me, if you have any leaks, the bubbles will show you where they are. Make sure you don't seal the hull so that it will completely pressurize. Flat surfaces don't like pressure and they try to go round. It wouldn't take a tremendous amount of pressure to damage your hull. As long as you leave a relief like the drain hole, that will be enough. I found three leaks on my Nacra 6.0 doing this and repaired them all without any problems -- and it worked.

Good luck finding the leaks.

Don