Safe tacking on a sailing yacht.
Tacking is to swing the boat at right angles through the wind. Every close-hauled leg of the zig-zagging motion you do is known as a tack. The boat is on a starboard tack when the wind comes from your starboard side; and reversely you are on port tack, when the wind comes from the other direction. This maneuver is a real speed-buster.
When the best time for tacking comes (and it is a fine estimation, mind you), the helmsperson says "Ready about!" and bears off a little bit to gain momentum for the turn. The people from the crew make sure the jibsheets (ropes) are in the clear, not tangled, and ready to run out. It is a very fast and powerful motion, so if you have one rope tangled or an obstacle gets in its way, this will hinder the whole tacking and it will not be successful. Then comes the command "Hard a'lee!", pronounced clearly and loudly. While saying it, the helmsperson pushes the tiller to leeward which causes the boat to round up into the wind. When the jib sail starts to luff (move slightly and quickly), you have to release the leeward sheet, grab hold of the other rope and all the crew should move to the opposite side of the boat to give it a tilt, which helps the movement. The tilt can be sideways or forward/back. The one which helps turning maneouvres is the sideways one.
It is better to do the turn calmly and smoothly, not abruptly. When you shoot (use momentum to coast head), you gain a few boat lengths to the windward side each time you do it. Once it is started, with the helm down (bending tiller to leeward side), the coasting boat will naturally move and or a few moments it would not even need any force applied by the helmsperson, so he or she can take care of other matters.
After the boat passes through the wind, the sails are likely to luff, especially as she approaches a new tack. When the jib begins to fill, you have to begin trimming it in. Don't bother with the main sail, because it tacks by itself. Watch out for the boom, and warn all the people from the crew to mind their heads as it crosses, because it is really painful to be hit by it as it swings two and fro in full force. By the time the tack is over, the boat will lose headway and needs to regain speed before getting ready for the new tack. So, you should shortly fall off downwind until she is back to speed and ready, then you have to start edge and probing the wind again.
It is best to go windward in a series of many short tacks, than a few longs - it is faster this way; of course sometimes if you estimate that there are not so many lulls, the situation is stable or there are other conditions that it's better to do long ones - do so. Just generally, you should know that the best tactics for regattas have proven to be many short tacks.
If you want to have an idea where you will end after the tack, draw a mental line at 90o degrees, allow for leeway, and you will get the fetch (fetch - the point you will reach).
Some boats can even tack closer to the wind and can tack in less than 90 o degrees - like some race boats can do it at 64 degrees. Others, on the other hand, need even more - 110-115 degrees to do it properly. Again, the advice is to practice trial-and-error method and be completely aware of the possibilities of your boat.
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