Dear all,

Suppose you want to go as fast as possible from A to B, where the wind blows exactly in the direction from A to B.
At most wind strengths I use gennaker and zig-zag on broad reaches in order to reach high speed.

But in very light winds I have not noticed any sidewind advantages from the gennaker. In very light winds I have tried these 3 variants:

1. Running straight downwind with only main up, slowly reaching B.

2. Running straight downwind with gennaker and main on either side of mast. Sometimes it works.

3. Running straight downwind with gennaker and main on either side of mast, holding out the gennaker with my paddle as makeshift pole. Illustration: http://vikingvareo.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/dsc02766-chico.jpg

I realise that #3 would not be permitted in a race. I just want to learn best behaviour in light winds when the wind i straight behind you.

Any tips?

 Hi, I do a lot of experiments alongside my fellow Vareo sailors on all aspects of Vareo sailing. For the Downwind leg in particular, the whole zig-Zaging about game is often no use at all if the leg is stright downwind; especially in lighter winds.
 
As our club does round-the-marks sailing for the benefit of mixed dinghy types there are quite often legs which are dead downwind - sometime marks get moved to create this situation.
 
In lighter winds its often better to concentrate on getting clean wind being on the inside at the downwind mark. Playing with the kite just slows you down as all that fidgetting kills of boat speed.
 
I've tried goosnecking the spinnaker and rather given up on that. It worked on a Comet Race which had a wing-wang pole - but a vareo spinny does not fly at arms length, and the boom on the other side won't go out far enough to complete this. Maybe if I was eight feet tall it would help.
 
Generally there is a certain low wind strength below which the Gennaker is just not going to help much regardless of the course.

Two things to experiment with if you can't get quite the angle you want down wind 
- lift the board a little to encourage the boat to slip sideways for a deeper angle 
- drop the halyard 6" or so to point a little higher.

In light wind when flying kite is pointless would it be safe and sensible to detach shrouds to allow boom to move further forward?