Hi all! The details from sail 7 are on:  http://vikingvareo.wordpress.com/
Sorry for typos, 9month baby crying wildly in background.

I have the following questions:

1. 
I succeeded in drowning the kite, attempting to take it down during a reach. According to the User Manual it should be possible but I guess I made a mistake, I was too slow. I salvaged the kite after turning the boat upwind. Thus, A: more tips for successfully taking down the kite in hard winds? B: any tips how to best recover the kite if it does get drowned?
B: I already received feedback, turning upwind was a good idea.  

2.
During the initial downwind reach with gennaker I had one problem: My mainsail was halfway out. So the gennaker leech touched the main sail and the gennaker curled, not looking good. I solved this by sheeting in the mainsail until there was air between the sails. Then I focused on the gennaker sheet until both sails had “nice looking” shapes. I have read the User Manual and Richard Willows' guide, having some general advice, but still feel unsure. Did I do correctly?

3.
I am often unsure about optimal settings for kicker, cunningham, outhaul. Nick Peters has made the RS100 Tuning Guide, available as PDF. This document (and also the RS100 Owner's Manual) has an excellent table for recommended trim settings (mainsheet, kicker, cunningham, outhaul) for various wind strengths. I attach a copy of that file here. Anyways, could we try to create a corresponding table for Vareo? I imagine the settings would be roughly the same.

4.
Has anybody here tried RS100? Comparing to Vareo? I wonder if RS100 can carry 2 people during recreational sail, as easily as Varo. I wonder which of the 2 is quicker and easier to rig.

5.
I have converted kicker to 16:1 with 4mm Dyneema and a 22mm Harken double block, following this illustration:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RSVareo/files/1%20Kicker%20-%20Final%20Version/ 
When adjusting the "zero" position, I slacked the main sheet and made sure kicker had some slack. When adjusting the "full" position, I pulled main sheet block to block, and then made sure the kicker could be pulled some more, bending the poor boom some more. Also I made sure that the rope ends would stop at blocks exactly at "full" position. I also checked that distance from boom attachment point to mast attachment point was same as was with my old 8:1 kicker in both zero and full position. But I still feel unsure. I surely could adjust it again, to be able to bend the poor boom even more. Thus, how much do we want to be able to  pull the kicker and bend the boom in the most extreme case?

best regards

edited by per_akesson on 17/07/2012
edited by per_akesson on 17/07/2012
edited by per_akesson on 17/07/2012

Come on Per! where is our next instalment?