I have never sailed a Hobie 17 myself, but I want to tell you the advice of the late, great Carlton Tucker about tacking the Hobie 17.

He said, right after you cross through the eye of the wind, you need to let out a lot more mainsheet than you would with a sloop. He recommended approximately 4 feet in light-to-moderate air to up to 8 feet in heavy air and chop.

He said that in heavy air, when he was trapezing off the wing, he would stay out until the boat went through the eye of the wind, and then as he went to center to exchange the tiller, he would basically just bring the sheet with him -- about 8 feet of it -- and then when his hand reached the mainsheet cleat, he cleated the sheet, exchanged his tiller, and grabbed the sheet again right at the block and went back out on the other side, pulling the sheet with him.

Rick does not agree, because he thinks that is too much sheet to let out -- slows the recovery from the tack. But I am sure that 1 foot (as somebody recommended) is definitely not enough on a Hobie 17.

And Carleton would have been appalled at the idea of letting out the traveler instead of the mainsheet. He believed the twist in the sail is very important for helping it to bear off on a reach to get speed after the tack.

Now, I am only submitting this as something additional for Bolivar to try. But if it worked for Carleton, it can't be too far wrong. The most important thing is to keep the sheet tight and not let any sheet out until AFTER the boat has gone through head to wind.

I would think the best way to approach this would be to let out more sheet than necessary in each of various wind conditions and then keep perfecting your tack until you are able to achieve the best possible speed through the tack letting out the least possible amount of sheet in each wind condition.

Just my 4 cents.