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Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/07/20 in all areas

  1. Speny cyclone bola on a variant at Kawau. No headroom. Angela came back pregnant. Very dangerous boat 😀
    2 points
  2. Kids 13,10. Boys. 13 yo has VHF,HF license and coastguard day skipper. Super keen, Hope's to race but only been involved with over 36 foot and mostly long distance sailing. So new to small boat sailing but totally has concepts and basic col regs. 10 yo marginally interested but keen to be involved and crew to a degree.. helming and loves chart work. They will be a great team if it works out! 13 dreams of single handing around NZ I'm a single hander by nature and bad teacher to kids so hope he joins a club to get advice and inspiration from other than an impatient mother 😅
    1 point
  3. my 1st boat was a Variant - glassed over kauri hull, teak cabin sides and cockpit coamings - had awesome 'Le Vac' shitter that seemed impossible to block:) As with any boat, reef earlier than u think, sliding sideways on yer ear is never fast and also bloody uncomfortable. The one thing I never was happy with was that at anchor she seemed lively, 'sailing' this away then that away - probably a consequence of ratio of anchor warp to chain. I often wondered if having more metal would've calm her down but had moved on by the time I got that idea. Rafted up to the mother ship would
    1 point
  4. Raced on variant back in the 70's, sailed extremely well and often surprised larger yachts with its ability, It was a fin keel, not twin keels.
    1 point
  5. Was out on the water yesterday and saw Deep Purple racing in a bit of breeze. What a little rocket ship. So far ahead of the rest of the fleet they may as well have been in a seperate division.
    1 point
  6. it depends on your situation and what sort of sailing you want to do, regards furler or hank on sails. And personal preference. Personally, we ditched the furler and went to hank on. (37 ft boat), we were racing a lot 2 handed (have kids now, racing not such a priority). One big advantage with hanks is you can always get the sail down, literally just let everything go, and it wont cause much of a problem (good for short handed). The main benefit is that we have the right sized headsail for the conditions. We now have 3 headsails, a very big #1, a blade and a #3. With a furler headsail, it
    1 point
  7. I've no experience of the variant, but in terms of max wind speed, the biggest factor is the state of the sails, not the design of boat. If the sails are old and baggy, wind gives greater heeling force and less forward drive, so every time a puff hits, the boat heels over. With good sails, it will accelerate forward. With bad sails, you might find 15 knts uncomfortable. With good sails, 25 knts could be fine. It also depends on the size of sails, and if / when you reef them. If in doubt, reef early. You confidence and ability will likely be the limiting factor for some time, rather than t
    1 point
  8. Cool little boats, much more a keeler than similar sized Trailer Yachts. 4-5 knots and you are doing well for speed. As for conditions, if the boat is well found and proper seamanship applied they will handle most stuff. I remember lots of the bilge keel versions sailing from Wellington across to the Able Tasman area for summer holidays and they seem to handle the Strait fine - Could often be seen drying out the stern hung outboard though!. In terms of advice, these boats won't go much faster or slower than hull speed so choose sail area for comfort, reef early and often
    1 point
  9. I don’t have experience of a variant, but Allan designed good boats. Several of his small keelers have done ocean passages. Being a fully decked keeler, she’ll be fine in most conditions, albeit a bit lively in the rough stuff. Provided the boat and gear is good and sound, it will be your limits rather than the boats! Hull speed for a displacement boat is easy - 1.34xsquare root of waterline length (in feet) congratulations on the new boat!
    1 point
  10. Hi Dave, Here are a few pictures. She was built in Bellingham, WA when Ian Farrier had an office up there in North America in the late 90's. I found her languishing on the hard on San Juan Island, been there for three years because the owner couldn't part with her in spite of not sailing her. She looked a bit sad and unloved at that point in her life. We love her
    1 point
  11. Cheek of it, bet it didnt have resource consent for ripping out the mangoves
    1 point
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