Vätö Runt 2022 — Boatworks

The whole sailing world was there, looking curiously onto participants of this year’s Vätö Runt. One of the most prestigious races there are, elite sailors, the best sail yachts.

Weather forecast warned for possible rain showers and strong gales. Skippers were prepared for that.

In my crew there was only me and Ray. Meritaten got her deck prepared within 15 minutes and at 1300 we left the pontoon. Wind was behind us so we run only on genua sail, to keep it simpler in narrow Vätö Sund.

Dark clouds were lurking at a distance but we were hoping that they stay above the land.

We passed the start line as first, there was no other competitor in front of us.
None behind us, either.
Ah, well, fuck it - let’s round the Vätö anyway, just for the fun of it (to paraphrase Eric Tabarly when his yacht was disqualified due to detected depleted uranium in her ballast keel) !

Ray took the helm so I could clean up the deck and fold mooring ropes.

Ray at the helm. Reliable and confident crew member on Meritaten.

It was blowing quite freshly, on just the genua we were clocking above 5 knots.

Upon reaching the end of Vätö Sund I could see that water in Björköfjärden was dark due to wind and waves. It’s gonna be fun! Shortened the genua to jib-size we entered in style, close hauled.

Ray had no problem keeping Meritaten close to the wind so I went to the mast to rise the main. To keep us from being too exited I put a reef in the main sail.

Even with reefed sails we were going around 4 knots, sharp to the wind. Dark skies were constantly lurking behind us.

Quick-release cleat for jib/genua roller prove to be very handy. After balancing the boat I cleated the rope anyway on a proper cleat. It would be embarrassing if the sail unrolled by accident in these conditions.

I took over the helm and put Ray into rest-standby position. I think I’ll make a proper rest for him next week.

We kept close eye on clouds constellation - they were carrying rain and wind but may also become a thunderstorm.

Still the sky in front of us was calm and blue.

Just for fun I trained putting Meritaten adrift.

We quickly realized that we cannot play too long here as the sky behind us was getting darker all the time.

Flanking from the West came another formation.

These clouds brought a lot of wind but we were reefed for that so sailing was not overly dramatic.

Beating against the wind we glided through Björköfjärden within a few hours. The clouds started to disperse and went to Norrtälje with their load. They took a bit of wind, too, so I shook the reef and unfurled the genua. Under full sails again!

My contraption for regulating main sail shape was working good: in these normal wind conditions I increased the sail profile to get more drogue and increase speed. Having loose-foot sail makes it all easier to control.

Closing to Flaten, an island on entrance to Norrtälje Viken, the wind changed direction a few times and finally stabilized right in front of us. So no lazy half-wind sailing, my dear - we had to continue beating against it.
But after a while it died altogether. We entered calm waters.