Hi all, as a relative Vareo novice I have three questions for the forum:

1. Is there anywhere a diagram explaining how to rig the Kite on the Vareo. I have sailed a Vareo with Kite, but the boat was not mine. My own boat is as yet unrigged.
I have downloaded the Vareo manual from the RS site, but this only contains a sketchy verbal description (the Feva manual is so much better). I think I know how it all works, but I need to visualise it to be sure. 

2. My own experience is that the Vareo flies off downwind very nicely in a blow with the main alone; does the kite really offer that much extra speed, bearing in mind that racing is not a priority?

3. I use my Vareo as what might be described as a performance cruiser; simply for my own enjoyment rather than racing. I often sail completely alone, sometimes where help is unavailable. It would, at times, be useful to drop the main quickly before coming ashore, particularly coming ashore dead downwind in a blow. The masthead cleat for the main halyard makes this manoeuvre very tricky, if not impossible. Has anyone rigged a mast cleat at the bottom of the mast? and what might the shortcomings of this approach be?

4. In anything above F4, I find the Vareo bit too lively for my taste, even with the dacron sail. I would like to sail year round, even if the winter winds make the prospect daunting. How does she sail with a storm sail? Any comments?

Best Wishes
Martin

Hi!

Your questions are good. I had similar feelings when I bought mine in May, and i'm still a newbie.

1. There is not much, the only manuals I know are on my blog http://vikingvareo.wordpress.com/ under "Links & docs"

2. The kite adds turbo. With only main, maybe top speed 10 knots, with gennaker maybe 17 knots. Big fun to feel it kicking in! Last week we were twin crew and I think we reached 15-17 knots on flat sea in the gusts.

3. Same here. I don't race, just cruise around for fun. I consider making a halyard cleat at mast foot. I always want to be able to drop the sail from the cockpit. But first I try to learn it the way it was designed. Also, the present design may be needed in order to bend the carbon upper half of the mast as intended. With a mastfoot cleat it might be harder to bend the mast top. Anyways in calm weather I can climb out on foredeck, pull the halyard forward and the Clamcleat is loose. But that is awkward.

4. Same here. I want to sail through the winter as well. In F5 and above I would prefer storm sail. You can read on the Yahoo forum that people are pleased with the storm sail. But keep practicing! I'm slowly improving, learning to handle any situations up to F4 with full sail and my body weight 85 kg. 

Being an old kayak paddler, I love the concept of a light fast gennaker dinghy that works singlehanded, and still big enough to go places. But there is no perfect compromise. When I can afford, I'd like to have 2 dinghies: RS100 for sports, and something bigger and heavier for long distance cruising on open sea, where I ran reef all sails, e.g. RS Vision, Laser Stratos, Laser Bahia. Where are you at? / Best regards
edited by per_akesson on 07/09/2012

Many thanks for your reply. Food for thought! Good sailing, Martin