I would have to echo the comments about the Vega's "lack of desire" to sail close to the wind. On my maiden voyage up the New England Coast, I encountered a 15-18 knt wind with gusts up to 23. Unfortunately, the wind was NE and blowing straight into my face. After a 6.5 knt race out of Mattapoisett, MA off the wind, I came to a screeching hault once through the canal and into Cape Cod Bay. I made Plymouth Harbor at nightfall which after calculating my speed, discovered that I made roughly 1.2 knots up the Bay.
I would have also set either the sink to the Portside, or the head to the portside as it never made sense to me why one would place a salt water intake on the same side as the toilet discharge??
I would toss the boom furling as mine is frozen and no longer works. It was a nice idea, but I have heard from others that this design has caused some problems.
The last thing I would mention is the location of the winches and how they seem to interfere with the lifelines, though this has actually been less of a problem that I originally thought, But I still need to do some adjusting with the lifelines to allow for the sheets to run free to the winches.
Despite some of the shortcomings (and they do seem minor once put on paper), these boats are just a joy to sail off wind and in heavy weather (though I have yet to sail her in anything above 30 knots). I feel completely safe and comforted in her capabilities and her simplistic and economic design suits our needs just fine. I wouldn't trade her for the world! I write this as I sip coffee from my Vega mug!!! grin
Chris
V1865
vegatern vegatern@... wrote: When I first saw a Vega at the docks, surrounded by other sailboats,
one of my first comments was "Good, it's a short mast." because I
don't like heights much, and the mast is plenty tall for me, when I'm
looking down from the top. Which brings up that other optical
illusion, that everyone else points higher than me. ;-)
When I decided to buy a new boat I began by looking at the Westsail
28, and though, overtime, decided that perhaps heavy displacement on a
short waterline, along with other issues, made the Westsail unsuitable
for us, I kept comparing other boats to it. One of the strengths of
the Westsail is it's small cockpit, not much more than a footwell
really, and just the opposite of the Vega's. The volume of the
Vega's, to the level of the aft coaming, is about 49 cubic feet. A
boarding wave would put an astonishing 3100 pounds of water in the
stern, or over 60% of the unloaded boats displacement. Even if boat
motion were to throw out most of it, perhaps leaving only 3 inches
covering the seats, she would still be carrying and extra 1100 pounds.
This would take forever to drain from the two small drains provided
and make the boat vulnerable to additional waves. I think the
original companionway is not up to that kind of abuse, and that weight
of water could probably tear the locker lids up as well. Visions of
David Mercy and Walt Brown standing knee deep and bailing with buckets
encouraged me to purchase 2, 2 inch through hulls which will be
installed, from the aft cockpit bulkhead to the stern, in the next few
weeks. The air vent/intake on the port cockpit wall, instead of
draining below, will eventually be covered with a disk of clear
acrylic and a cockpit light installed behind it. Perhaps not a reason
to "not purchase" a Vega but worth thinking about.
Craig Tern #1519
