Stay tuned Colby might be putting out a You tube video of his gybing technique.
here is Pat Porters interpetation of the technique

Gybing while looking forward" Gavin brought it to my attention that cats are probably the only boats where the skipper turns around and faces backwards to gybe. I have used his forward gybe technique, but have not used it consistently. To perform, it is really quite easy. While holding the tiller in the overhand position,push the tiller up and over past the twelve o'clock position to about the three o'clock position thus pointing the tiller in the exact direction you want the boat to go. As you reach this position pull the tiller back towards you which turns the rudders and starts the gybe. As the boat is gybing continue facing forward and pass the tiller behind your back to your new tiller hand. What complicates this process is that before the tiller can go from one hand to the other, the mainsheet blocks must be pulled across with the free hand, as the blocks come across the tiller hand releases the tiller and hand pulling the blocks releases and grabs the tiller and all this occurs behind your back. The value of facing forward cannot be denied. In traffic this is the only way to go. There are times when you do want to look back however. Frequently I time my gybe by watching the boat behind me and the rate of the gybe is varied according to their position, also I look back to time my gybe to waves and or puffs. Not to say that this can't be done facing forward. I'm just not good at it.


Last edited by mmadge; 09/20/10 06:20 PM.