Coming About or Tacking: Free Online Sailing Lessons

Video Transcript

"If we look straight ahead, pretty soon we’re going to run out of water and run into land, so we have to make a maneuver, the first maneuver we’re going to make is called coming about or tacking. What we’re going to do is turn the boat all the way through the wind, 45 degrees would get us back straight into the wind, so we’ll go another 45 degrees, it will be a 90 degree turn. When I’m steering I can look out over the side of the boat 90 degrees, in this case there’s a building there with a green roof and that’s going to be our target when we come out of the tack. If I have a crew on the boat I’m going to let them know, so I’m going to say prepare to come about or ready about, that will tell the crew they need to man the sails. We’re getting ready to release the jib and we’re going to pull it in on the other side. The mainsail is going to take care of itself, so why don’t we go ahead and do this before we run out of water. I say ready about and then I say hard to lean and I push the tiller to the lowest side and we’ll notice the boat turning towards the wind. As the boat comes into the wind, I’ll pull the jib in on the other side. We’ve just made a 90 degree turn and we’re sailing close hauled, now the wind is coming over the right or the starboard side of the boat, so we say we’re sailing close hauled on starboard tack."