Very hard wind but between the gusts I succeeded raising the sail and fastening the clew to the boom. Nice sail. I pulled the kicker hard to flatten the sail. Had one capsize but raised the boat easily.
BANG. The kicker line snapped. Without kicker I had to sail back carefully. Back home I saw it was all my fault. I had constructed the 16:1 kicker with a line that had too small dimension and no quality, just sort of a “household string”. Now I replaced it with a good piece of rope.
Strong wind 10 m/s (20 knots) and 15 m/s (30 knots) in the gusts. Very difficult to launch from shore. As soon as I raise the sail, the boat is capsized by the wind or the clew starts fluttering violently and I fail to fasten the clew to the boom.
I resort to the “wet launch”: I lay the boat on the side in the water. There I raise the sail and fasten the clew to the boom. Once everything looks good, I raise the boat, jump into the cockpit and sail away. Once I am in the cockpit, I can handle the extreme wind.
This is a problem with Vareo, difficult to launch in extreme wind. In a traditional boat, I would raise the main sail sitting in the cockpit, pulling the halyard.
Returning to the beach in extreme wind is easier. If necessary, I can capsize the boat on shallow depth, release the halyard, retrieve the sail, and then bring boat up on beach.
Nice sail with Annika and Edwin.
Medium hard and stable wind. Short sail with Junior, 7. Boat tilted and rocked heavily while I hiked. No gennaker and no risk for capsize. We had fun.
Sailed to Jungruskär and back. Followed the fairway trying to outspeed larger sailboats. I failed. The wind was too weak to reach planing speed with gennaker.
Total time 2½ hours. Top speed 7½ knots.
Just for fun, I tried to pass a narrow strait in shallow water dottet with granite rocks. I raised the daggerboard halfway and released the rudder blade lock. It worked.
“Three Men in a Boat” is a funny book but today we were four in my boat. Light winds, no problem.
Same as yesterday with kid. Unpredictable winds. No gennaker.
Same as last time. With kid in light winds. Several gennaker gybes. No problem.
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Viking Vareo 