roll tack help

J

John Gilmour

Member
I was out trying to learn roll tacks, and have a question. When I heel the boat to windward, what is the best way to hold on and avoid falling out of the boat? In Tillman's book on p. 69, there is a useful set of photos, but I can't see how the sailor stays on board in the second picture. Do you hold the grab rail on the opposite side?
 
When your turning you can hold the side of the boat with the same hand as the tillerextension (it will be on the same side that you are turning it to), this works particually well when gybing as when it goes wrong you can rip yourself across the boat.

Roll tacking makes this harder as you want to keep your weight on the same side of the boat to get it to heel quickly and high. What I do is before you tack put your back foot over the top of the hiking strap, this is so when you do throw yourself across your back foot will naturally pivot underneath the strap and you can hike out hard for a few secs while you get the other one under. I also twist my body so its facing to the side (not at bow) and sorta spring load my whole body ready before I even tack.

Dunno if this makes sense.

Also one of the best ways you can learn to tack is get on the water with other boats. They sorta force you to tack well.
 
also grab the hiking strap by the main sheet block with your forward hand and pull the boat on top of your self
 
Vang setting causes the boom to limit mobility through the tack.

How much vang do you guys have on in roll tack conditions?
 
I'm having a ton of trouble learning to roll tack also.

I'm in my 30s and I hover around 200 lbs -- usually OK in a windy place like SF, but when I move my weight outboard to initiate the windward heel, the boat goes quickly from no heel at all to a near capsize. I usually end up aborting the tack or moving my weight way to early, and I never achieve that beautiful "old weather rail in the water" look all the juniors can pull off with ease.

Anyone have any good drills for figuring this out?
 
You have to remember the weight of the mast affects the the heel. The further the mast is past centerline, the more it will roll the boat towards a capsize. Once you get momentum in your roll, you should immediately start thinking about getting yourself to the other side. Hopefully that helps
 
Thanks -- I'll keep it in mind.

I guess what I can't quite seem to master is getting the boat through the turn still heeled on the old windward side. I watch the kids do this and they're standing up almost vertically on the water when the boat crosses the breeze, and sit down squarely on the new weather rail to get that nice pop in the sail.

If I wait until I can stand up that far, the boat just keeps going. So I end up crossing early, because a capsize is slow ...
 
I'd suggest that you try putting your old foreward foot against the sidewall of the cockpit, and use that as your lever to roll it down, as you stand up under the boom. Keep your hand weight off the new top rail, but available as needed. My suggestion is for 0-10 kts.

That helps me, but in 15+ or whatever, I just go.... GM here, so modified roll tack suggestion.

Al
 
When its pretty light, like under 7 kts, i lean in to make sure im not healing to windward before i cross head to wind. Then I actually shift all of my weight to the back of the boat in order to pop the bow out of the water. I have found that this helps to help the boat cross head to wind faster. Once the boat has crossed head to wind, I stand up on sidewall and go for a big flatten. My flatten is not all at once, but done in increments in a way that fans the leech on the way down. During the time I am also playing the main. Generally I am not fully trimmed until I am flat.

If it is windy enough for my body to be out of the cockpit (12+ kts), I make sure before I tack that my back leg is under the hiking strap so when I cross over, I can immediately flatten the boat. I also am hardly rolling at this point since the kinetics I get from rolling just aren't enough to justify a big roll. Obtaining laminar flow as soon as possible is crucial.
 
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