More from the test

First of all I would like to say that these are my own, personal, subjective views more than a scientifical and objective review. I am, after all, a bit biased.

The sample we were sailing was an early build, one of the first ones, and as such there were some minor issues. The shelves were not removed on this boat, and the locks did not all fit snugly, but this is something the later production boats have corrected. Anyways, the locks are adjustable so this is nothing to worry about.

All cushions except in the aft cabin were removed and most everything was protected for racing, which meant that interior shots are a bit "hard-core". This did give us an appreciation of what is located where, how the boat could be stripped down, better views of the joinery, etc.

Here's a picture of the interior as it looked that morning:

There is no storage under the benches, as that is where tanks, hot water and other heavy stuff is located (in the middle of the boat close to the keel).

We previously sailed a Maxi 909 as the family boat, and the interior volume is quite comparable to the 909, with a lot less storage possibilities, but in general more space all around.

We sailed out from the yacht club and hoisted sails, getting the spinnaker up as soon as possible. It was now blowing about 15 knots. The boat quickly sped up to about 7 knots.

We decided to head upwind bearing south and go outside. For those not familiar with Poole, here is a map showing the general area:



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We sailed out and experienced what the boat felt like on the beat. We took turns helming, the wind picking up somewhat, and on the beat we steadily had 6.5+ knots on the log. Though I don't know how well the instruments were calibrated. It behaved like a much bigger boat, and was not at all like I expected.  Close-hauled I had expected her to dig her nose down like so many modern hulls do, but this was not the case. The 310 kept its bow up and pierced the small waves nicely, with little or no bobbing at all.

We sailed south with beatiful scenery, the cliffs were steep around Old Harry Rocks and we sailed in very close. Wow, felt really strange this close to christmas to be experiencing this.

We sailed past these close-hauled into the wind, now steady between 6.5 and 7 knots, which is pretty respectable for the 31-footer. The polars say a bit less at these winds, but she was really tracking and the rudders were gripping very well.

I tried the helm and to my surprise I had a little trouble finding the "sweet spot", but since the others had no problem with this I attribute this to me not helming a boat for almost two years (yikes). There was little pressure on the tiller and there were a lot of comfortable positions for the helmsman, though you really need those footbraces when she heels.

Through the tacks she behaved well, losing little speed, but it was clear that the rig was not setup correctly. Tor meant it had too much prebend, which meant that more power on the backstay didn't give any more forestay tension. This meant we had a less than optimal setup, to say the least.

Heading downwind we hoisted the assymetric spinnaker and initially had a few broaches. In gusts we had trouble bearing off since the spinnaker would fold, meaning that in order to keep the chute up we needed too much angle. This was because the assymetric really was a cruising G2 gennaker, pretty pointless for performance. This boat needs a chute that will allow you to run down to 150-160 degrees, whereas we were limited to 100-110 before it folded.

Anyways, with very little waves we tried to get some top speeds on the way back, and we saw steady 9's, occasional 10's and a top speed of 11.2 knots. Great fun, and she was very steady.

We were standing all over the place, not hiking hard (actually, not hiking at all at times) and the boat didn't misbehave or become unruly because of this. Another "bigger boat" sensation, which would indicate that this is a very decent shorthanded boat which also gives the dual-purpose cruising argument hold.

We gybed "inside" with this setup, quite easy. Before getting into too much trouble with the sail setup we dropped the chute and reached back towards Poole. Here we steadily saw 7.5-8 knots and an incredible stability - families will appreciate how well the 310 behaves reaching, eating miles.

We sailed a while on the inside and talked about the performance with Jim and Tor, finally ending up in the berth before the light faded. A quite wet experience, but a lot of fun.

Here's a pic of the bow, with the pole recessed into its slot. There are fittings for a bow roller, and the harken furler is below deck with lines along the side.