Sooner or later you are going to run out of water or need to turn for some other reason.
There are two ways to turn a boat around.
For your first sail, you should turn the bow of the boat through the wind.
This is called tacking.
The other way of turning, which you should avoid to start with, is called gybing.
This is where the bow of the boat turns away from the wind.
When tacking the boat will slow significantly, and it is for this reason that you should
use this manoeuvre on your first sail.
Don’t worry too much about your technique just now the full tacking procedure is the
subject of another video.
To tack round you should be sailing along your beam reach.
In preparation look around and make sure that the immediate area is clear from other vessels
or hazards.
The object of the exercise is to sail back along the track from where you have just come.
Check once again that your turning area is safe, you can then start the manoeuvre.
Gently push the tiller towards the boom.
The boat will immediately start to turn.
Duck under the boom and move across onto the other side of the boat.
Once the boom has passed overhead keep turning until you have gone through 180 degrees.
You should now be on a beam reach once more.
Sit down, straighten the tiller and swap your hands over and resume the dagger grip once
more like this.
The sail is then adjusted once more to find the point where it just stops flapping.
Now let’s take another look.
Sailing along on the beam reach point of sailing, take a quick look to decide where you plan
to end up heading and check the area is clear.
Gently push the tiller towards the boom and turn the bow of the boat through the wind,
stepping across the boat ducking under the boom keeping the rudder in the same turning
position, once you have turned 180 degrees, straighten the tiller, swap the hands on the
tiller and resume to the dagger grip.
You can then find the point where the sail just stops flapping.