Hello everybody!


This forum seems dormant, so here is a brief report.
I just imported Vareo 158 to Sweden and today was my second day of sailing.

Second test sail:
Today I made second test sail. Wind strength 3 and gusty. All seemed well on a
beam reach.
I felt cocky and raised gennaker. When next gust came I did not react properly
or I did not know what to do. Too late to turn upwind, I tried to release main
sheet but the gennaker had enough leverage to capsize me. I climbed over to
centerboard and easily raised boat. I was a bit scared so I quickly pulled in
the gennaker. I need to practise on handling wind gusts using gennaker. 

Main halyard:
My main sail constantly slips down 10-20 cm, and I think I do everything right.
Today I fastened triple elastic cords to the clip that holds the halyard and I tried to jerk the cunningham, holding
halyard tighter down, but main sail still slipped down ca 10 cm, resulting in
main sail lower edge having a constant slight bulge over the boom. Perhaps I
should replace both halyard and the camcleat near mast top.

Launch mistake:
Since I have trouble keeping main sail up. I hoisted sail on land and went with
launch trolley into water against the wind. Very difficult and boat nearly
toppled. I shall never try that again. Next time if strong wind against land, I
will tie the boat to our jetty and launch main sail there, in the water.

Landing:
When I returned to the club the wind direction was head on to land. I did not
see an easy way to release main sail. So I sailed head on and made a daring
u-turn just before crashing into the club jetty. It worked. And this seems to be standard procedure with Vareo.

Extra equipment:
When I go for shorter recreational daytrips I bring this: retractable paddle
stuck between gennaker sock and hull, seachart in plastic pocket, water bottle,
waterproof box containing camera, snacks, wallet, phones. On my lifevest I have
s small compass.

Rigging time:
I think it took 15 minutes for me to get boat (mast up) into the water today, including
taking off top cover, and changing to dry suit. That is OK.



best regards

please read my tuning tips on getting the best from the vareo(on this site). Mainhalyard slipping sounds as if cleat or halyard is worn or both. Cut 10cm off th etop of the halyard so a new bit engages the cleat, if still slipping change the cleat. Launching into the wind, you have to go in bow first & get wet , I usually go in far enough to slip the boat off the trolley & the work the trolley inshore whilst holding the boat. Getting the kite up, only do this on a very broad reach to start with, otherwise you describe exactly what happens. When gusts hit , keep the boat flat by bearing away sharply, if you luff, you will fall in !!! To get the kite down , bear off onto nearly a run, then drop, finally practice ++++.

Launching into the wind, you have to go in bow first & get wet , I usually go in far enough to slip the boat off the trolley & the work the trolley inshore whilst holding the boat.
I have now done exactly this several times, when launching into the wind. Works fine, no problem :-)

Coming from a boat class where launching was nice and relaxed from a pontoon. The Vareo launch and recovery routine is a little hectic and very wet. Sailing in a shallow lake, I have to take the boat out quite a bit to get her off the trolley, then struggle to bring the trolley ashore whilst holding on to the boat.

Coming from a boat class where launching was nice and relaxed from a pontoon. The Vareo launch and recovery routine is a little hectic and very wet. Sailing in a shallow lake, I have to take the boat out quite a bit to get her off the trolley, then struggle to bring the trolley ashore whilst holding on to the boat.


when I do this trick, I always have a 4 m long mooring line attached around mast. I pull it around an iron ring at outmost part of a pier next to our ramp. The rope end I lock in the kicker or cunningham camcleat ot the side. Thus I prevent boat from sailing away. When I release the rope in camcleat I just sail away. This is a trick I used when singlehanding my old 2-man racer Windy, even in force 4 weather. 
Thus in your case, it would be nice to have a mooring bouy a bit from the shore, to do same trick.
edited by per_akesson on 17/07/2012