A tack is a controlled 180 degree turn where the sail sweeps across the back of the board and the body nips round the front of the mast before sheeting the rig in on the new side. It’s how everyone first learns to turn round.

Tacking

HOW TO TACK

Successful tacking relies on good vision and always moving the mast in the opposite direction to the body to maintain a counter balance. You’ll find your upwind and downwind steering skills link into the beginning and end of the tack respectively. You then add in some swift footwork in the middle of the turn to tack successfully. Once mastered you’ll be able to tack very quickly on very low volume boards.

Vision

Vision

To turn upwind, look upwind and push off the back foot whilst leaning the rig back towards the tail. To counter balance the rigs rearward movement, step forward with both feet, simultaneously moving your front hand to the mast or front of the boom near the mast as the board turns more towards the  wind.

Rig Back-Body Forward

Rig Back-Body Forward

To keep the board turning, angle the rig back and down so that the clew almost touches and then passes over the tail. Imagine trying to knock a beer can off the back of the board. To counter balance against the rig, move the body, hands and feet forward. As the rig is angled back, wrap your front foot right around the mast base and move the whole body forward.

Body and Rig Cross Over

Body and Rig Cross Over

As the board keeps turning, look back down the board and pull the clew end of the boom right over the tail. This indicates that the board has crucially passed through the eye of the wind. Never try and tack until you truly have swung that clew right over the tail. To initiate the tack, swivel the head to look out of the turn.

Switch The Feet

Switch The Feet

As your body moves from one side of the board to the other, the rig moves in the opposite direction. Keep the mast raked back and use the mast hand to force the rig across the board and downwind as the feet switch close to the mast base and onto the new side.

Rig Forward-Body Back

Rig Forward-Body Back

To re-establish your counterbalance, step back with the new rear foot and force that rig forward. Note how the head looks out of the turn, not down at the equipment. Sink into your drop and push stance to steer downwind.

TACKING PROBLEMS

Most people fall in mid tack because they pull the mast to close to the body or fall by moving the same way as the rig.

Simple summary

1. Look where you want to go.

2. Oppose the rigs movement with your body to maintain that vital counter balance.

Rig back body forward for entry.

Rig across, body across mid tack.

Rig forward, body back for exit.

3. Use a quick two-step movement close to the mast base to switch the feet.

Next time we will cover a more dynamic and rewarding downwind turn; the gybe! 

Simon Bornhoft Windwise www.windwise.net

Simon makes his move...

In this new series Simon Bornhoft gives us the best possible method to achieve the ‘stock moves’. A self-coaching, run-by-run methodology and specific skills training for land and water will get you well on your way to making your moves! Photos: WindWise / Karen Bornhoft

It’s always tricky to transfer the performance enhancing effect of coaching onto a written page. But my mission has always been to illustrate the actual skills which ensure that the key principles and minor details of windsurfing become embedded in your sailing psyche. It’s impossible to sail with more than one or two ideas in your head, so we’ve kept this very much action based and broken each run down into component parts to allow you to take it one stage at a time. As ever these skills are just as applicable to beginner-improvers as they are to intermediate-advanced windsurfers. So, no messing about – get active, accentuate and enjoy.

Click here to read WindWise 265 in full…

SB shifting and switching

Simon Bornhoft reveals how our body mechanics determine if we can or can’t move our feet for tacks and gybes.

“Everything’s fine until I move my feet!” This is a refrain that has echoed around windsurfing technique’s hallowed halls since the first tentative tacker’s toe crept in front of the mastfoot, and it can also be heard before and after moving the feet in a gybe. On smaller boards moving the feet can be the hardest, most disruptive make-or-break moment. If you’ve found you keep falling off the front in your tacks or you’re unsettled moving the feet in gybes, there’s a very good reason… You could be trying something that’s not actually humanly possible. No matter how many times you try it, it will never, ever work. In so many cases our body just doesn’t bend, move or flex the way we hope it will. So this feature is simple – and judging from the thousands I’ve coached, it’s hugely influential.

Click here to read WindWise 257 in full…

Jem's tack attack!

In this instalment of his comprehensive series examining every aspect of wavesailing, Jem Hall looks at tacking and its place in the wave environment…

In a nutshell, if you are a wavesailor, you tack. It’s as simple as that. You are always looking to get upwind – and stay there – as so much of your fun time is spent losing acres of ground downwind. It never ceases to amaze me how many people do not go for or make tacks, but this is about to change as your new wavesailing mindset craves to ‘get the money in the upwind bank.’

The tack is a fundamental move in windsurfing, and even assists intermediates in their quest for the carve gybe, giving them that all-important upwind advantage from where they can bear away and go for gybes. You cannot hide from the fact that, if you tack at both ends in a wave break, you will shorten your reaches by about a third and therefore get more jumps going out and more rides coming in. It’s a win-win situation. The more runs you do through the break the more you’ll get the chance to improve and – most importantly – enjoy the fantastic feeling of big air and sweet rides. So ease up on the ocean grooving and please get tacking.

After my wave coaching clinics clients will go home and invest in a bigger board to nail their tacks, and then look to bring these skills down to the smaller boards. The results year on year are plain to see, and if you see someone nail a good tack in strong winds, bumpy seas and on a small board, well, then you know they are a sound sailor.

Click here to read Jem’s Wannabe 244 article in full…