How often do you hear this excuse when doctrine continually changes, often back and forth? The Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger is altering its doctrine, often going right back to the original belief. When pressed for answers why, they claim they need to "tack" to find the real truth.
Now, from information readily available online, I checked up what this all means. It refers to sailing. When you are trying to sail upwind, you cannot sail straight into the wind. Instead, you sail in what is known as a "close hauled" position. This means you are sailing about 45 o away from right into the wind. Most sailboats can do that. But, you are not going where you need to. So, every so often, you must cross the wind. The process of turning a boat across the wind, when going into the wind, is referred to as "tacking" or "coming about". When you come about, you will be headed in a different direction--off course by the same amount in the opposite direction. You come about again, getting closer to where you need to be.
Trouble is, each time you come about, you are wasting time. This slows you down, and if you slow down too much, you might not be able to steer. If you are now headed straight into the wind, you are "in irons". If this happens, you are going nowhere. You cannot turn away from the wind because the rudder is useless without forward motion. This is useful if you are trying to rig up the sails or need to take a break, but not if you want to reach the destination quickly.
Additionally, suppose the navigator is trying to come about, but in doing so is leading you away from where you need to be. Not only are you wasting time trying to change course, but you are not even getting closer. In sailing, if your destination is upwind, at least you are making progress. However, if you want to reach a place that is downwind, all the tacking and coming about in the world is going to get you nowhere. Thus, you are going to be lost. Notably, every time the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger alters their doctrine, they are "coming about"--often going "in irons" (as with the "a generation" fiasco). They are effectively wasting a lot of time doing this.
Instead, often what is required when the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger wants to come about is a "gybe". Doing that will take you into the opposite direction--this is when you turn across the wind, and you are traveling in the same direction as the wind. In sailing, it carries less risk of stalling or capsizing but you can get knocked into the water. In doctrine, a "gybe" often takes you directly to the correct understanding of a doctrine. Example: While the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger keeps "coming about" with the "a generation" definition, giving us several bad understandings including the latest disaster, a "gybe" on that doctrine will lead to "a generation" is the group of people that were around to hear Jesus speak those words directly. Which is more correct, since the end did come within that generation.
And yes, it can knock you right out of the "boat". They speak so much of tacking when referring to changing directions, that one good "gybe" will knock you out of the "boat" (the boom comes across the boat, often at high velocity, and can knock you into the water). You will then be out of the religion, seeking your own course and probably getting much closer to the real truth than what the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger wants you. And no more "tacking", or flip-flopping, beliefs.