Sailing in the lake Vänern

Vänern is the biggest lake in Western Europe. Some 80 nm on the longest. Its very deep. More than 100 meters (330´) Its also very clean. In fact its a drinking water reservoir and you can drink the water when you are a little bit away from the coast.
There are lots of small rock islands archipelagos and since most of them are natural parks, its very quiet and unspoiled. I’ve sailed in many places in Scandinavia, but the lake Vänern is definitely one of my favourite places.

The Vega was built in Katrinehamn in the northern part of the lake. It was a good feeling starting out in the boats home waters.

My girlfriend sailed with me for 10 days and one day she said: “look there, is it a car?” It wasn’t a car, but we realized that we hadn’t seen a car for 6 days!! Something very unusual in modern life.

The archipelagos are not very deep close to their coast and finding a place to moor directly against the rocks can be difficult. Especially when sailing alone. Here’s what you do. You look at the sea card and you ask locals. When you decide for a spot, you go in using your engine. You stop some 5 – 10 meters out and go up in the front of the boat and take a look. If it looks ok, you go out and prepare.

You need to have two lines ready in the front. both with metal wedges attached in the end for hammering down between the rocks. You also need to attach a front ladder to your front pulpit. Behind you prepare the anchor leaving it hanging half a meter down in the water.

Then you go in slowly. If possible go so slow that you don’t need to reverse the engine. When some 25 meters from the rocks, you let the anchor down and when you are very close to the place where you want to moor, you go up front, stay on the ladder with one of the lines with wedges and you jump in. Don’t forget a good hammer. Try to be fast with one wedge. Go back to the rear of the boat, stop the engine, and slightly tighten the anchor line. The back to the rock with the other line/wedge. That’s more or less it.

On the last two pictures, you can see my favourite spot on “Ormholmarna” An absolutely wonderful and very quiet spot, where you can only go in with smaller boats like the Vega. Don’t worry, there’s no tide and the bottom is mud.