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I've been out in my 1998 Mac X quite a few times this summer in soft and heavier winds. I find the boat doesn't perform very well windward. I know that there are concessions in having the power boat hull. Jibing is easy, but I'm having great difficulty getting the boat to tack. I get very close to the wind and have the rudders all the way over, trying to get the sails to switch to the other side, but with no luck. I know one needs a certain amount of speed with any sailboat, but I have not been able to do it at all.

Anyone else find this? Any tips?

Assuming you are close-hauled at around 45 degrees...

fall off a few degrees say to 50-55 to build up a little extra speed to help you through the tack...

Start the tack gently...

Once the boat is into the wind turn the wheel all the way over...

roll out at around 50-55 degrees...

Once speed is back up head up to close hauled again...

Works for me...using a 150 Genoa. Might be different with a smaller jib. YMMV.

Tacking a Genoa at less than 2 knots can be difficult/sloppy.

Jim

My experience is to refrain from tacking if the boat speed is less than 1.5 knots, or so, at least with a genny.
We found that getting across the wind might be iffy without this as a minimum speed.
Any speed above that is usually very easy to tack, in my experience. The faster the boat speed, the better.
Our method varies slightly from that from c130king.
With enough speed, (falling off if you need more,) we will use a quick hard over rudder until the nose is almost dead into the wind and the genny starts luffing. Uncleat the active sheet. (easy to do, with no strain now on the sheet). At that same time, start pulling in the new active sheet while moving the rudder back to amidships just as the genny starts to fill on the new side.
Tweak the heading/sail trim to find the new groove.
Boat speed, helm timing, and crew quickness with the sheets are key to a successful tack.
As always, IMHO and YMMV.

On edit:
We do not use the winches other than as a "turning block" for the cleat.

If you don't have the speed to come about, you can always chicken gybe.

David Welch wrote:If you don't have the speed to come about, you can always chicken gybe.

I found that giving a burst on the throttle will lay me over to 40 degrees and bring the nose over sharply. Then I just ease back up to 15 degrees without loosing much speed, but keep the motor running to retreve the crew that fell off in the manuver

I didn't mention sheet handling...

As I go through the tack I keep the working sheet taught (normally in my hand, but I will leave it in the jam cleat if I need to) and let the genny "backwind" (a little) to help pull the bow through the tack...

As soon as the nose has passed through the wind and with the genny "backwinded" then I release the working sheet and pull in quickly the lazy sheet (which becomes the new working sheet). I do all this single handed (one hand on the wheel and one hand on the sheet).

As far as turning the wheel (fast vs. slow) I found that at slow speeds turning the rudders too far to fast would tend to "stall" the rudders and slow the tack...

Trim up after completing the tack.

But I am sure there are about as many different techniques for tacking as there are for everything else.

Man, I miss my boat...

Good Luck,
Jim

Try it with the engine tilted up.

I find our boat difficult to tack in light airs with the engine down and in the water but much easier with the engine up. I was taught the hard over approach mentioned previously also and find this works with our boat.

Cheers
Kevin

This is prolly a rare case, but if you've taken to using a partially deployed centerboard ... that will deter tacking. Make sure your centerboard has been fully dropped to 90 degrees.

Conversely, leaving the X-boat's centerboard at an angle less than 90 degrees (guesstimate about 75 to 80 degrees) helps to deter weatherhelm, when the hull trys to FORCE its own tack in heavy winds. Pulling the board aft by a little bit improves lateral resistance, and delays that tacking tendency.

You mentioned that you put the helm hard over. It is quite possible you're stalling out the rudders by doing this. Try to bring her about more slowly, putting the helm about 1/3 to 1/2 over instead of all the way. Once you cross the wind, start taking her back slowly.

Leon

Okay, I will try all this and report back after various experiments.

We once sailed in a tidal estuary, and between the opposing wind & current, found it difficult to come about. After a few failed attempts, we turned the rudders in the opposite direction at the point of stall & let the wind push us backwards bringing the bow around...a trick I learned on sailing catamarans.

Another hint to better tacking:

When close hauled, sail to trim, not trim to sail. By that I mean at all points of sail, except close hauled, you should trim the sails to reflect best performance for your course. When close hauled. The sheets should be trimmed in as tight as possible. It is then up to you to steer the course that reflects the best performance. Too often sailors think that they are close hauled when they are actually 5 or more degrees off their best point. The result when attempting to tack is that the sails luff too early and depower, resulting in a slow, sloppy tack, or a complete stall.

~Rich

I believe someone wrote they had to get up to at least 1.5 knots. I did a quick conversion, and that is pretty close (1.73 mph) to the 2 mph I have always maintained is the speed you need to tack in my M. So, with everything that was mentioned above, if your not getting up to that speed, it's not happening.

If you know you are going to tack shortly, fall off from the wind a little in order to pick up speed. If you're close hauled, really tight to the wind, not reaching a speed of at least 1.5 knots, and you know you are going to tack, but still maintain your course..........you will know what will happen, or to be more exact, what will not happen next.

Ray

I must admit I have no problem tacking (I guess you will get better with it with practice)
One other thing to try is backwinding the jib like we do on cats to get arround.
So you start the tack and you keep the jib sheeted on. As you go arround It will fill from the back (back winding) which will push the bow arround nice and quickly. When the boat is headding more off the wind then relese the back winded jib and set it correctly.

Good thoughts above. I recall having a lot of trouble tacking one time early on. Boat just wouldn't perform at all. Finally noticed that I'd forgotten to unclip the end of the boom from the back stay. After unclipping, the boat actually wanted to sail. Another thought, if you're sailing with a genoa. If you're having trouble in lighter air with the sheets catching on shrouds or other things, you might try rolling the sail in to jib size for the tack. A sail which doesn't extend beyond the mast comes across quicker.