I'm tellin' ya, even the gurus don't know EVERYTHING... and if they do, they keep a few secrets so they have an advantage on the race course, LOL! I'm sure I've seen Randy Smyth and his wife yanking the wishbone in races off FL.
Think about what I'm saying here: The wind, especially "heavy air", is blowing over your boat and rig, and UNTIL that mast "flops", and the mast+sail+battens "pop" onto the new tack, they will CONTINUE to generate (some) lift in the WRONG (old) direction, FIGHTING the tack you're trying to make! Why WAIT? Give your "wing" some jet-assist, MAKE IT HAPPEN.
Just TRY what I'm saying--won't hurt nuthin'--and the results are IMMEDIATE and very noticeable! (I'm not talking about some long-term studies done while you're sleeping--lol.) Before the crew passes under the boom, just yank it over to the new tack. If singlehanding, cross over, then give it the "boot" with your (new) forward foot.
If you've got any downhaul tension/mast bend at all, the sail will IMMEDIATELY begin aiding your tack. Like opening a big bottle of compressed air. It makes so much aerodynamic sense it's like "cheating"... lol. PLUS, the more mast bend you've dialed in (e.g. in heavy air), the more delayed the "flop-over" is going to be from wind alone.
Added bonus: it shifts a lot of weight (boom, battens, mainsail) and LIFT over where they need to be anyway, countering crew shifting.
Of course you don't want to do this TOO SOON, but there's a large arc of swing during which this REALLY helps out, starting say, 5-8 degrees BEFORE head-to-wind, up to any point where the sail fills/pops-over "on its own". Waiting for that is just WASTED TIME and MOMENTUM.
When uni-rig, i.e. NO jib, it's even more effective. If you're tired of doing the reverse-rudders-while-backing in order to tack, then BOOST your rotating rig into its new position!
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