World Olympic Champion Tom Slingsby tacks his Laser in the 2012 Laser finals

Now this is what everybody ( except me ) should know on what to do to tack a Laser properly.

This is an extract from  "Tom Slingsby (AUS) Wins Men's Laser Sailing Gold - London 2012 Olympics"  where it is of course done correctly. ( An amazing bit of drone based photography ....


So this is me trying to micro study exactly what to do to do it right instead of using deck mounted sheet jammers which is an aweful lot easier but jamming the main is bad ( and potentially risky ) practice.

Here sailing on the starboard tack :-







Just starting to get ready to tack :-




4 Most people let the main go a bit when tacking … he pulls it in to accelerate as far as is possible during the tack :-


5 Gets under the boom with main sheet and tiller in the hands in use before the tack started ( I think there’s a phase where he moves his grip on the main sheet closer to the main sheet block to speed the tack ) :-



6 Looks like a grip on the main near to the main sheet block :-


7 Heres the tricky bit : he’s going to be steering the boat with the tiller extension behind his back ( and a short grip on the mainsheet in the wrong hands for the new tack ) :-


8 Bit further round :-


9 Getting weight out on the new tack with everything round the wrong way for the new tack :-


10 And further in this mode on the new tack :-



 11 This is the clever bit : the right hand which has the main sheet  goes to the tiller ...



12  and the left hand then takes the mainsheet off the right hand 


13 fully underway on the new tack :


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