I've recently lost a little performance in my tacking recently - but I've been sailing the boat with less crew weight than usual too which could make the boat a bit more sensitive. I think I do two things poorly in conjunction with each other that occasionally leads to boat feeling stuffed and sluggish coming out of a tack. I think the first factor is not quite turning the boat enough to get it breathing on the new tack. This then compounded when I sheet in hard before the boat has managed to regain enough speed. Since I've raked my rudders more to give myself more helm feel, I can litterally feel this condition in the rudders and resolve it by easing the sheet until the boat gets back up to speed. Next time out, I plan on working to be sure to steer deep enough after the tack and to try and get a sense for the boat acceleration before I start sheeting in the main.
Last edited by Jake; 01/31/06 09:53 AM.