Notice of Race for Langstone Harbour Race Weekend event now available.

The 6th annual Langstone Harbour Race Weekend is planned for the early May bank holiday in 2014. For those who have not entered before, the event is hosted by three sailing clubs which share the waters of Langstone Harbour; Locks SC, Langstone SC and Tudor SC. The event invites dinghy sailors from all across the south coast and beyond to compete in the series of exciting races held within the harbour.

The Laser Vago Class Association will be holding an open meeting at the event this year; a great opportunity for land-locked Vago sailors to brush up on their tidal sailing before the Coastal Nationals at West Kirby a month later.

The notice of race for the event has now been published and is available here

 

Laser Vago Specification & PY Numbers

Today’s Vago feature is our Vago Stats page, including all the key facts and figures that define our boat; including the differences between the Standard and XD rigs.

 

The page also shows the current (2013) RYA recommended Portsmouth Yardstick number – 1064, although I know many of you will be sailing using local numbers. If your club has a variance on this PY number, perhaps you can post the number below this post?

http://www.vagoclassassociation.co.uk/index.php?y=thevago/meetthevago.php

At TudorSC, we produce our own local numbers (as per the RYA recommendation) for both the Standard and the XD rigs – and our latest numbers are due to be published in March. The Class Association prefer to publish just 1 yardstick number and all rig configurations are considered with the same handicap (i.e. the standard main is considered to be a reef), allowing all rigs to raced against each other at open meetings.

Vago National Champions – Roll of Honour

Today’s introduction to a new website feature is the Vago National Champions, Roll of Honour page. Long after the podium celebrations are enjoyed and the taste of Champagne has faded, we remember those who gallantly fought their way to the top step to be crowned as National Champion for the year. Your names will be remembered amongst the greats of our beloved sport for many years to come!

http://www.vagoclassassociation.co.uk/index.php?y=events/champions.php

If you know any of the missing information from this list, please email me at vago200 or post a message below.

Vago Tuning & Rigging Tips

YouTube has become the ultimate ‘how to’ guide on the internet; if you ever need to learn a new skill then the chances are someone has filmed themselves and posted it up for others to view. From changing a headlight bulb on a car to learning how to knit, there are a wide range of self-help videos available – it’s not all Cat films you know!

The class association’s very own self-help video bloggers, Ed Deacon and Dave Baxter have been sailing Vago’s for many years and have a wealth of experience between them. On our ‘Tune a Vago’ webpage, Dave and Ed demonstrate how to get the most out of your boat.

http://www.vagoclassassociation.co.uk/index.php?y=thevago/tuneavago.php

We currently have three videos available online, although we hope to build on these as time goes on – perhaps even capturing some additional footage at our training days. Our three current videos include:

• How to rig a Vago singlehanded
• How to right a capsized Vago
• Vago Trapeze Coaching Session

If you have a particular request for a training video, please post your ideas here and we will try to film some more footage during the Training days later this year. Alternatively, if you have made your own Vago training video, please share it with the wider Vago community, by posting a link below.

Vagos For Sale

Happy Monday everybody! Hope you all managed to get out in your Vago over the weekend? We had a cracking, albeit chilly blast around the harbour yesterday, hence I missed yesterdays feature post…hey ho.

Today we introduce our ‘For Sale’ page, including links to the main UK Vago distributors, but also some great second-hand resources. Making it even easier to find and source a Vago or parts in the UK.

< Buy a Vago >

Thanks for all your positive feedback regarding the new site, we really do appreciate it. Especially to the two former Manx Vago sailors living down under, who have posted an awesome video of their attempt on the Vago speed record… 16.1 knots or 18.5 mph recorded on the Swan River, Fremantle/Perth Australia – awesome! Although it has rattled a few cages amongst the pond sailors out there – so we have split the speed record tables into Tidal and Non-Tidal in the name of fairness. For those who have not seen the video, you can watch it here

http://youtu.be/7iQsg4AfiYg

I just love the backing music .. an Aussie band called the Wolverines – their other nautical hit was ‘oh $*&! I’ve broke my Rudder’ is also a favourite of mine. Available to listen to on Spotify (warning contains some strong language).

Enjoy!

Rich, Vago #200 ‘VeeBee’

Vago Doc’s – A wealth of knowledge available

Whether you are a salty old sea (Vago) dog, or a relatively new Vago owner, you will find our library of Vago documents a very handy source of info.

< Useful Vago Documents >

The page includes the class rules, the rigging guide, spare parts list, along with various other technical documents ready for you to download.

Having difficulties rigging your Vago? The rigging guide is a great place to start. The guide gives a step by step introduction to how to rig your dinghy, including both the standard and XD rigs. However, if you are still struggling, then I would recommend you come along to one of our Vago training days, where the top sailors in the class are on hand to offer advice, from rigging and tuning your boat, to sailing technique. We have one in the North at Yorkshire Dales SC (May 2014) and one in the South, at Hunts SC (April 2014). They are a great opportunity to learn new skills and I promise you will come away from them with a smile of your face!

I feel the need the need for speed!

The Vago Speed Record has been running ‘informally’ on our class association forum for some time now, so we thought we better collate it and add a few conditions to make it fair. The website currently has a top 5 ranking of speed records, but new entrants will be added to this list as they occur.

We have put together the following rules to even out the playing field….

• All Vago sailors can have an entry in the speed record list, although only your highest speed will be logged.
• Speed attempts must be verified using a GPS (most phones have these now!)
• A photo of the GPS readout must be produced (and posted in the forum).
• Speed records on tidal or flowing water do not count.
• If available, video footage of attempts will also be linked into the table.

So what are you waiting for speed freaks? Get out on the water and show us your skills! The table is currently topped by Stuart & Fraser Harris, who set a record of 15.9 knots or 18.3 mph at Rutland last year – think you can beat it?

Today’s new feature – the Vago Speed Record.

http://www.vagoclassassociation.co.uk/index.php?y=thevago/vagospeed.php

P.S. Thanks for all your Vago Register updates from yesterday.

Where have all the Vago’s gone?

Today’s feature post introduces the ‘Vago Register’ to the wider world. Many of those who attended the AGM at Rutland last year may recall a request to keep a register of Vago’s. The aim is to help the class association keep in touch with Vago owners and understand where in the world the boats are sailed (this helps with event planning).

Click here to visit the < VAGO OWNERS REGISTER >

Laser started producing Vago’s back in 2005 with sail number 50 and are now approaching 1800. A production run of nearly 1700 boats in only 8/9 years is pretty impressive and they are still selling like hot cakes! Laser Performance has kindly provided the base data of what boats were manufactured and in which year – so thank-you to LP for their support in kicking off the register. But this is just the start – we need your help to fill in all the missing data.

So if you know of a Vago tucked away in your sailing club compound, or if you are the proud owner of a Vago, please send me the boats details. You can send as much or as little information as you wish and we promise that your email addresses will not be published and only used by the class association to send out relevant Vago information.

If you would like to help the class with this data, please email me direct at vago200@vagoclassassociation.co.uk with the following info:

Sail No.(mandatory field):
Your Name:
Your Email:
Sailing Club:
Boat Name:
Notes:
Image / Photo:

Vago Class Launch New Website

The Vago Class Association have been designing a new look for their website over the last few months and are pleased to announce the site has now gone ‘live’. Our new URL is www.vagoclassassociation.co.uk although the previous web addresses (www.vagosailing.com) will also forward to the new site by the end of this week.

We have introduced some fantastic new features to the site which we hope you will enjoy. In an effort to introduce you to each new feature, we will be posting one new feature per day during the next week on our new Facebook Page. Please help us spread the word by ‘liking’ our FB page and sharing it with your friends.

To start the ball rolling we would like to introduce our events calendar for 2014 – it looks like we shall enjoy a fantastic season of events, and I for one can’t wait to get out on the water with the class again!

< Vago Events Calendar 2014 >

If anyone finds any glitches or has a neat idea for the new site please feel free to get in contact with me using the email address vago200

Fair Winds!

Rich

Vago #200, VeeBee

Vago Training and Friendly Open @ Hunts SC