For about 6 months I have been trying to smooth out my tacks using the conventional method. Head to wind, front hand on mast, back hand crosses over to other side of boom, but it never feels particularly smooth and half the time I end up backwinded and having a swim.
I went back to my original method, head to wind, front hand reaches over and as far back on the other side of the boom you can reach then foot change. Half way round you have both hands on the boom but on different sides of the sail.
I found this much better, the sail seems to just end up forward and in a good position to drive the nose off the wind and because you are not fiddling with changing your hands half way round you can concentrate just on your footwork.
Does anyone else use this method or is it just me? Any comments?