Well I seem to be in the minority here with my practice of easing the sheet as I begin the turn. I know it's not conventional wisdom, I stumbled onto it myself. Have you ever looked at your telltails as your tacking? They will tell you that the wind just went aft bigtime. I used to think I was tacking just as I was hit by a huge lift and was tacking into the header. After a while I figured out that it was the rotation of the boat swinging the sail through the air causing the apparent wind to shift aft. Keeping the sheet tight only stalls the sail and slows the boat.

Clearly I'm a minority here but thats why this sport is so cool. You guys keep doing it your way. Thats fine.