Vago in flesh

Ok, we are now at the start of Vago deliveries. My dealer "confirmed" the first week of July (that was when I ordered my XD 3 months ago). Any first lucky owners out there?

1. Saw on a Dutch website that the weight is 75kg - is it from the manufacturer/estimated based on prototypes/or what?

2. I fully intend to car top it - any first ideas on the best way to do this, especially on what to do with the mast?

I used to cartop all my boats (Lasers mainly) but stopped as it became too much of a pain. 75kg is a heavy boat to cartop, you will probably need 3 or 4 people to load/unload onto a car roof. Its also only really practical with boats that have a two piece mast too.

So I wouldn't recommend it,  though I used to know a guy who cartopped his Fireball on his old Volvo estate so I guess anything's possible!



 

Portsmouth uni sailing club have had one for a while on loan from laser for pretty much destruction testing. So far it is very much in one piece as far as I know. There has been talk of making it twin wire and taking it out when it is stupidly windy to see what happens

I haven't sailed it but it appears to be a good concept and very easy to sail. I guess this is laser's 3000 replacement? Pretty slow though, a very old fireball on a two sail reach overtook it when it had the kite up...

Edited by m_liddell

Re: cartoping, will post the pictures here. By putting it up on its stern and the sliding on the racks upside-down, it's a one-man effort (some physical aptitude required of course).

Re how much a trapeze worth: since there is no keel, the righting moment you generate is equal the heeling moment generated by the sail. The boat is 150cm wide. This means that by hiking you have 75-100cm times you weight as the righting moment. By going out on the trapeze you double your righting moment since you centre of gravity shifts about 75cm out (depends on your height). So for some tacks in strong wind you speed can theoretically double (in practice less, because drag increases more than linearly with speed). So across all tacks and wind conditions, I'd say trapeze is worth 25%. Skiff sailors can add more insight off-course.

Re: speed - there is no magic in making a boat and calling it "racing" - just put a bigger sail on. Don't think anyone can argue that either Vago or RS400 has a more efficient hull shape, not until there are a few years of data and like-for-like testing to make a claim. RS400 has 14.75m main+jib and 14m spi. Vago XD is at 12m and 13m. There you have it, less sail. Probably means that downwind in light wind and double-handed, RS400 is faster. Also means that upwind in strong wind and single-handed Vago can maintain a more efficient sail shape and likely be faster.

Vago is also smaller and cheaper. There are many definitions of "better" in boats. It may turn out that more people will have more fun with Vago, and this means better in my book.

your specification sounds as though the mirror is exactly what you want