How do you call your tacks/gybes?

[AlastairLC]

I grew up saying "Ready about", "Hard alee", and "Gybe ho". Watching the Americas Cup, I hear "Stand by to tack/gybe", and then "Turning". That certainly makes more sense to me. What do you say? Are you a traditionalist or a contemporary?
-Alastair.

 

[Charlie Jones s/v Tehani]

pretty much an old fart
Stand by to tack (gybe) Ready about. Helm's alee.

Although since I am mostly single hand these days, I just do it

 

[kappykaplan]

Prepare to come about (gybe). Receive ready port and starboard. Ready about, helm's a lee / to weather. Break / gybe ho. Yep, an old fart.

 

[uncledom]

Ready about (reply ready from all), hard alee. Ready gybe, (reply ready from all) Gybe ho. Easy, clear, works.

 

[jwing]

Ready about (reply ready from all), hard alee. Ready gybe, (reply ready from all) Gybe ho. Easy, clear, works.

Exactly how I do it. 'Hard alee!' and 'Gybe ho!' are fun to say and fun to hear. I even make these calls when I'm single-handed, just to keep in the habit.

 

[Jackdaw]

If I have time: I'll say '30 seconds to tack'. Or 20.

That lets everyone know. Trimmer get ready. If I need to go quicker, I will.

When I tack, I'll say 'tacking the boat', and tack

When gybing, I'll say ' Gybing the boat'... then 'Dead down wind', for the bowman, as we go thru.

'Hard alee' and 'gybe ho' are from another century.

 

[Charlie Jones s/v Tehani]

'Hard alee' and 'gybe ho' are from another century.

maybe so, but then so am I- pre Pearl Harbor to be exact

 

[thinwater]

I singlehand.

When I do have crew (family), it's generally "We're tacking in a few minutes. Does someone want to steer?" followed by "turn 100 degrees left now," while I handle the lines.

 

[Justin_NSA]

I'm a traditionalist, but I can understand racers needing to be more precise.

 

[Terry Cox]

Always solo here. So I tell me to engage AP, then prepare the windward winch for the tack change. Me unwraps the leeward winch tailer followed by pressing the two appropriate AP buttons to activate the tack change of 100 degrees.

As the bow comes around, me releases (unwraps) the leeward sheet from the winch then aggressively trims the windward, soon to be leeward sheet. Once the boat settles onto the new course, some course adjustment is necessary followed by much grinding then trimming the main sheet and setting up the now windward winch for the next tack change.

Me still moves pretty fast, but a bit rusty at times.

 

[Davidasailor26]

I change mine depending on the crew. With experienced crew that won't be confused I revert to how I was raised - "ready about? Helm's alee". With newer crew it's "ready to tack? Tacking".

 

[capta]

"Stand by to tack". When the crew are ready they acknowledge it with, "Ready to tack".
Then I say, "Hard alee" and turn the helm up. We very rarely gybe with the main up, but if we did of course the helm would go the other way.

 

[Joe]

Well.... when I've crewed on other boats in races, I never heard "helm's a lee" or "gybe ho"... So I made it simple on my boat... Preparation command: "get ready to tack/gybe" crew acknowledgement "ready......." Action command: "tacking/gybing" .... on the race boats a lot of them just said "here we go" for the action command.
Gybing on a race boat often includes spinnaker handling, so there are number of additional commands and acknowledgments involved. These are specific commands that require crew understanding, cooperation and consistency for a successful maneuver.

The most important thing to remember is that there is a call to prepare for action, an acknowledgement that the crew is ready to proceed, then an order to begin the action.

 

[JamesG161]

"Stand by to tack". When the crew are ready they acknowledge it with, "Ready to tack".

The feed back to the command is just like the USNavy. @capta is alway a "Safety first!"
Aye Captain!

Jim...

 

[rfrye1]

Back in my smaller sailboat days I would say "get ready to watch your head"... then "duck"!

 

[Siamese]

me: We're gonna run outta lake if we don't turn this rig around.
wife: You mean I have to move? I just got settled in.
me: Here we go! Hey, you're on the line...can you move?
wife: Okay, how's that?
me: You're still on it. If I yank it now, you're gonna get a rope burn on your $%#@. Move some more.
wife: Sigh...there, how 'bout now?
me: Great. Sailing is hard work, isn't it?
wife: Can you hand me my blanket?

 

[capta]

'Hard alee' and 'gybe ho' are from another century.

So am I, so it works out just fine, arg.....

 

[Jackdaw]

Using positive acknowledgement from every crewmember is hard because now the skipper has to keep track of who he has heard from. Most programs now use the inverse model, where as crew you say nothing after the 'tack in x seconds' warning and that means you are going to be ready. If for some reason you cannot, you say HOLD. And you sort it out fast.

 

[Gene Neill]

We use "ready about" / "helm's a-lee", and "prepare to gybe" / gybe ho". It was just the way ASA taught us. Besides I rather like a centuries-old tradition.

In "Cruise of the Snark", Jack London describes a friend he made along the way, somewhere in a remote corner of the south Pacific, who spoke not a word of English except for those very same commands. It made me smile.

 

[LeeandRick]

Using positive acknowledgement from every crewmember is hard because now the skipper has to keep track of who he has heard from.

But I still bet you look around at all the crew positions in sight to check readiness before action at the helm. I trust my crew but their safety is still in my hands. "Helms Down"