Varne 27 / 850 - Varne Owners Association

[chops_uk]

I recently began creating a website for my Varne 27 / 850 and ended up going completely overboard to the point of forming an Owners Association (see www.varne.co.uk).
If you've ever sailed a Varne (whether Varne 27 / Varne 850 or Varne Folkboat etc), it may be of interest or use to you.

I'd be very grateful for any feedback or constructive criticism.
If you happen to know history of the company / boats (i.e when Weston aquired the moulds and made the Weston 850), or anything, however trivial which may be of interest to others, I'd be very grateful for any information to pad out the site with useful details!
So far, I've had interest from all sides of the North Sea as well as closer to home.

Let me know what makes your Owners Association great / bad and what you'd like to see..

Many thanks!

Matthew Geyman
Varne Owners Association

 

[gordon029]

Hi I am not an owner , yet. I have been trying to get info on the varne range for some time, in particular the bilge keel model.I just missed one early this year and I hope it was not the only twin keel model in existance.So maybe someone out there knows how many were made.I wish you every success in your efforts and will be watching for the buy and sell page.

 

[chops_uk]

Gordon

Varne Marine was Essex based (Maldon), so you may find that enquiries to boatyards there yield results.
I know that many Varne's were bought as hulls and then finished by the owners and some westons (later models & '85 +?) look slightly different, so although I've not heard of any bilge keel Varne's (by no means an exhaustive survey), I'd not be suprised if someone had a bilge keel model somewhere, although the original options were just for iron or lead fin keels.

matt