I've sailed my P16 many times solo and what I found was that the culprit of not tacking well was the wrong handling of the mainsheet. That is when you don;t have a jib on the boat when solo sailing.



I agree with mr.Norris on all point but want to underline that you need to tighten the mainsheet in the turn to weather and as soon as you pass throught the wind uncleat it and ease it a foot or so. The boat should now continue to turn on its won momentum and NOT weather vane back. After easing the mainsheet you go to the new luff side of the boat (roll tacking)



When you have headed some 45 degrees of the wind tighten the mainsheet again. Not in one jank but gratually. The boat will weather vane up a bit but when you have turned away enough you should pick up speed soon enough to use your rudders to back on course again.



Not handling the mainsheet in this way causes the boat to weather vane with it's bows straigh upwind and only sailing backwards can get you out of irons as they say.



When you master the technic of mainsheet handling during tacks on the P16 you be able to tack pretty fast and in a clean way. When applying the same technic on boarded cats you

'll out tack everyone.



Wouter