Well, time to establish my "absolute noob" status, I guess :) I have learned to sail on relatively simple open keelboats, without fancy things like "kickers" etc. Sail trim was something I did based on aestetics:  if the sail looks good, without wrinkles, and the telltales look OK, it must be good.

On the Vareo, however, I have heard several people state that the kicker is the most important control on the boat. I have read up a lot about it and learned much, but there is one thing that keeps confusing me. Perhaps someone here can shed some light.

The way I understand it, is that when you pull down the boom with the kicker, you flatten the sail, thereby giving it less "wing" characteristics, and hence depowering the sail. So far so good. Mental note: if I feel uncomfortable with the amount of wind, pull hard on the kicker. But then, in more than one place, I heard the following advice from people that really seem to know what they are talking about: in windy conditions, let up on the kicker a bit to make the sail less receptible to gusts. 

Of course, my first sail in the Vareo was under exactly such conditions (well, I would have laughed at it in the boats I used to sail, but on the Vareo it proved a challenge). And I was thoroughly confused on what I should do to feel a bit more at ease - pull the kicker to depower the sail, or let it up to deal better with gusts.

Err... help?? :)

I know how you feel.  Looking forward to your replys from someone who knows what to do!

I used to use too much kicker when i first started sailing the vareo almost to the point of pulling the fitting out of the deck a few times but i found in the end you needed more cunningham on than kicker plus to keep the speed upwind you needed to hike like hell and a bit more also use plenty of power in the foot of the sail as this seems to increase the flow across making more power with really pulling that much kicker on keeping the boat flat and almost a little heel to windward helped