After collision, did you get a chance to analyze what you did wrong?
There are lots of ways of messing up a tack.


CJH wrote:
Well, I was trying to tack out during a period of little to no wind.

A good time to practice your roll-tacks.

... As
well as it being my first time out, I was also trying to explain things
to my 7-year-old. [another mistake, splitting my focus] When I was
making the tack to where the wind "should be coming from if there was
wind" I stopped the turn too early. My mistake wasn't immediately
obvious to me because there was no wind. I was only about 5 feet from a
boat tied up at the end of another dock. A breeze picked up and back
winded my jib and I immediately knew I screwed up. The bow was blown
starboard and I couldn't stop it. It was all very slow and frustrating.

So there I was blown against another boat. Even more frustrating, I
couldn't figure out how to get off of her.


Trapped on a lee shore. That can be dangerous as well as
frustrating, I hope there wasn't any damage.

Never be emabrassed to use your paddle, even the best do it
from time to time... Paul Elvstrom wrote about some racing
in England where the wind died at sunset and everybody
paddled back in, and he had brought a small one to save
weight (and to not have it banging around underfoot during
the races); he was not happy to be the last boat back to the
dock.

Tacking is harder than it looks, and a lot of people
(including many racers) are not as good at it as they sould
be. One way to get the turn right is to either use a compass
or sight an object on shore exactly abeam, to windward, just
before you tack. You can quickly check your turn onto the
new course. After a while it gets to be second nature.

Those light air days are a good chance to practice sculling
with the rudder, too. The best way I know is to ease the
helm to hard over, than yank it powerfully back to center.
Then ease it over hard to the opposite side, pull back to
center. The idea is to push as much water aft as possible,
also the stern of the boat will kick sideways and you can
use a little rudder angle to help that push the boat too.

Hope this helps.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King