I replaced my VARA folder with one that I had from a recent backup. It contained Vara Chat v1.3.5 and VARAHF v4.8.7.
Bingo, I now have the encryption option available to Winlink and VARA Chat. Upgraded to Vara Chat v1.4.1 and all still ok. Upgrade VARAHF to v4.8.9 and the encryption option is gone again.
So repeated the replacing of the VARA folder and just upgraded Vara Chat. I will keep using VARAHF v4.8.7 until the next upgrade and try it again.
?
I have reported this to EA5HVK and perhaps he has a solution for my delema.