Tacking with auto skipper

[Jon Allen]

With auto skipper on, whats the best sail percentage to be at when tacking?

 

 

[OlavDeng2]

Preferably you want to use manual sails, tacking with auto skipper is not good.

 

I have a guide coming up on thursday on manual sails on my channel, it might be useful to watch out for that one.

[Chustler]

Ya don't tack with auto sails.  Manual all the way.

[Scorpio Shirica]

What Olev said. Though I've found if you absolutely must with auto skipper, it's best to be at full sails and begin turning when you have as much speed as possible. Then hit "T" just as your bow hits the wind to depower your sails. After your sails flip to the other side, hit "T" to power your sails again. Keep turning to you see speed coming up again.

 

This is still going to be a much longer tack than using manual sails, so you still want to check out that guide when it's available. 

[jodgi]

Ohai, Jon. Sorry about earlier.

But you did see me turning faster than a more maneuverable ship in that match. That's your motivation to learn manual tacking.

[maturin]

Faster is always better, AFAIK. Certainly it would be in real life.

[jodgi]

Tag a trader, let it run away and practice this:

[LeeUK]

It doesn't take long to learn to use manual sails in battle, but it will take some time to get good at it and definitely a lot of time to perfect it, especially with what could be going on in a battle, give it a go, you'll pick it up quickly, then just practice it.

Edited January 6, 2016 by LeeUK

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

It doesn't take long to learn to use manual sails in battle, but it will take some time to get good at it and definitely a lot of time to perfect it, especially with what could be going on in a battle, give it a go, you'll pick it up quickly, then just practice it.

Exactly. If nothing else, make an arrow with your sails that points in the direction you're turning (until your bow starts to point up into the wind, then reverse the arrow to tack and come across). While this won't be quite as fast as carefully tuning your sail stack to be perfectly in line with the wind as the awesome animated GIF above shows, it's an extremely easy way to gain a lot of maneuverability without sacrificing a lot of attention to it.

[Ink]

There are some older videos, without notes and voices tho, but for now while OlavDeng2 is preparing the video it might be also helpful a bit

 

 

[Jon Allen]

The first video has no sound and the second doesn't really explain anything verbally.

 

So...looking forward to Olav's video.

[mirror452]

You can also figure it out by yourself, if you imagine your ship being just a lever and the sails the point where forces can attach. Now look at your sails and the direction you want to turn to, and see what kind of forces you want where to turn the ship. Turn the sail accordingly: Sails parallel to the wind, no force generated, sails in 90° angle to the wind, maximum force generated

 

And don't forget that the wind can also push your sails from the front. Helpful for tacking and sailing backwards.

 

Edit: Alternatively watch Ramjb's videos on Youtube. He has some older video tutorials about tacking. Very well explained, that's how I learned it... back then...

Edited January 6, 2016 by mirror452

[Jon Allen]

Thanks for that tip on Ramjb's video. I actually found that somewhat helpful.

 

Related question. As is default I have the "F" key set to auto skipper but it doesn't seem to be working. I hit F and it stays on auto skipper, I can't get it to go to manual. Glitch? Or am I missing something?

Edited January 7, 2016 by Jon Allen

['Sharpe]

Jon you need to use "e" and "q" to control your foremast yards and "z" and "c" to control your main and mizzen.

[Jon Allen]

Thanks for that...but F should turn auto skipper on and off, yes?

[OlavDeng2]

Thanks for that...but F should turn auto skipper on and off, yes?

F just turns auto skipper on, you need to press either q, e, z or c to turn it off.

[Jon Allen]

Ohh....

 

That isn't explained well anywhere.

 

Even in videos I've watched, I thought F was like an on/off key for auto skipper.