Winter creeping in

The winter is definitely here in Norway, and Silverminken har been prepared for the icy season. On the water this winter.

This doesn't look particularly fast?

Small ripples and waves have frozen, also locking the rudder...

Water freezes on the ropes

All in all a beautiful winter day though.

Elan 310 update from down-under

Also some information about symmetric, here is an update from Margie, always looking forward to these!

"Hi Thomas

We have just finished our winter series in Melbourne with mixed results
Over all we came second on handicap and second in line honours in a fleet of 21
The courses were mixed, from short windward  returns to a passage race.
Our opposition included the SF 3200, an Elan 37 and a 65 foot ketch
This was the first time we raced with our symmetric spinnaker.
(see attached photos and I hope you like the colours)
Our down wind speeds were a little slower than the asymmetric but we could sail 
as deep as 165 degrees.
Since these photos were taken we have fitted another ring further up the mast for heavier airs
In one race we caught and past a SF 44 on the down wind leg must to their horror.
We are very pleased in adding the symmetric kite to our wardrobe and recommend it to others
who run a crew of 4 or 5 
If anyone is wanting details on set up just let me know

regards
Margie"

Nice pictures, Margie!

As for the symmetric, we use an overlength pole to sail deep, which almost achieves the same thing. It's hard to beat a symmetric when you are fully crewed going windward/leeward club racing, though.

So, if anyone wants information, get in touch, like Margie says.

Watski Skagerrak Twostar 2012 Video

Watski Skagerrak Twostar 2012 first report

I know its been a while since I've posted, but here is the first report from this years Watski Skagerrak Twostar. For those who don't know the regatta, it is a double handed race (2 crew total) over almost 300 nautical miles, with a 6-hour pitstop after the first leg. This year the winds were more normal, so no breakage except a tear in the 3DL jib. :)

 Here is a high-level picture from the tracker for our entire track (we used YellowBrick this year - worked great!):

We missed the first leg on poor strategy: ended up going out far to get the best currents, but the wind disappeared completely, leaving us in big waves with sails flapping for ages, while the other boats snuck closer to land. Well, we had our work cut out for us. Eventually some wind returned so we could inch back and we did some nice light (no?) wind sailing to the finish of the first leg. We used about 15 hours from Hankø to Arendal (leg 1). So, right after you cross the line the clock is stopped. 6 hours later, it starts again, whether you are ready or not, so no time to lose: engine on, sails down, fenders out, mooring lines, find a berth, write the report and deliver it, get the exact starting time, eat, drink, sleep, and then everything in reverse a few hours later.

This is a picture from the tracker showing the pitstop at Arendal: (the tracker doesn't update very often, we had a _huge_ number of tacks inside the islands...)

The second leg we sailed very well - Tormod is awesome and we hit some good speeds - reached 16 knots in several surfs - new speed record! The trip across the Skagerrak Sea took a good 13 hours (3 hours more than last year!), but we couldn't keep the spinnaker up for long (too close-hauled for those wind speeds). We thought we had overshot the mark, so we pointed down a bit: BIG mistake. The currents pulled us in the wrong direction and a wind shift was not what we hoped for. Had a couple too many tacks before rounding.

Here's our hopeless extra tack for the rounding:

After the rounding we headed north and stayed close to land to get some good tidal help. It was still a bit too close-hauled for the spinnaker, so we used the jib. Most of the others went for the rhumbline where they could keep the spinnaker up, but we wanted the current.... It was quite special to sail in the night with darkness, fog, no navigations lights visible at all for help, just looking back and forth between the plotter (for depths) and the wind instrument (so we wouldn't accidentally gybe). As the light came we could set spinnaker (we should have set even sooner) so we could point straight downwind at the next mark. There we doused the spinnaker in good time and got the trim ready for upwind. Rounded the mark and pointed to the next mark, in quite strong current. We kept the bow up, broached a few times on the jib, but managed to stand up to the mark with about 15 meters between. Phew. There we rounded and pointed back to Hankø, and sailed on main and jib, wave surfing back to the finish line. We could see several of our opponents in front of us, so we knew we had sailed quite okay.

Here's a view of the final two roundings before heading to the finish line (where the curve slopes to westward we set the spinnaker):

Turns out, we had the best time on the second leg in our class. We ended up in fourth place, which is quite good considering the awful result from the first leg.

Update from down under with magazine article

Margie writes us again with another update (really appreciate the contributions, Margie):

Hi Thomas It seems that you are doing well with your sailing through your postings, we enjoy reading your blogs and looking at the youtubes. Attached is an article that is in the current issue of Australia's main sailing magazine. You do get a mention despite the facts being not quite right There is to be a proper review of the boat later in the year. We are still sailing over our winter and racing against a Dehler 32 and a SF 3200 on a regular basis, some times they win some times we win. The other week we raced against a stripped out all carbon A31 and were soundly beaten on most points of sailing Are they that fast in Europe ? regards Margie

The article is great, Margie gets some great reviews, as does the 310 - Wild Child is looking good! And although the facts aren't correct (I wasn't first...) it is cool to get a mention. :) As for the question about the Archambault 31: yes, it has a lot of potential. If you strip it out, get the sails it deserves and keep the weight low, it can really fly, especially in the light winds. However, it is quite a handful in heavier winds, which makes sailing up to its potential a bit tricky. There is an A31 here in Norway which is being sailed by a good crew, and they are getting good results. We will have to see, but I suspect the "PHRF" rating in Norway is a bit low for a well-sailed A31. Heres the article split up in three images:

Silverminken at Færderseilasen 2012

The worlds largest overnight regatta, this is from the first rounding at Slemmestad, with very light conditions (and 840 boats)....

Had to speed it up for it to be interesting....hehe.

Watski Skagerrak Twostar 2012 Doublehanded regatta

On thursday at 10:00 norwegian time the Watski Skagerrak Twostar 2012 double handed regatta will start. Silverminken is in the LYS (PHRF) <= 1.24 class, and we are using the Yellowbrick tracking system (direct link: http://yb.tl/ws2star2012).

This will be very exciting, and we have to work hard in order to defend our title from last year!

After the regatta I will post more about the regatta experience so far this season.

Two new 310's to Norway!!

It is official: this July two new 310's are arriving for Norwegian customers. One of them testsailed with me during the Oscarsborg training, and I have spoken to both of them on several occasions. Cool! If my memory serves me correct, then we have 7 310's currently in Norway!

One of the boats will be used in the Oslo fjord, while the other is going to Stavanger as far as I know.

A happy testsailor on board Silverminken!

Congratulations to both new owners!

Oslofjorden Rundt 2012 regatta

We entered the Oslofjorden Rundt regatta this year as well, with varying and windy conditions. The sailing instructions said the race might be shortened, and this would be posted with a flag at the starting line. We saw the flag, but were certain that it indicated the normal (longer) course. We got off to an okay start and started heading upwind to the windward mark. At the rounding I was not careful enough to protect our position, and a boat got space to turn inside of us (well behind). This became a problem after rounding, because they fell down on us as we were about to set spinnaker, and we had to push them away so as not to collide with us.We should have protested, but anyway we didn't.

Then we sailed further to the port layline to wait for the scheduled west/northerly shift. All the other boats eventually ended up on the starboard layline, which would mean trouble when the shift came. After a loooong time the shift came, and we were able to point the boat directly at the leeward mark while under spinnaker, with a lot more speed than the rest of the field. Woohoo!. Only problem was, we suddenly met boats in our own class that were returning. Oh no! Did we actually get it wrong with the flag during start? Yep. So we had no other alternative but to gybe in to the shorter mark (which we had overstood by a LOT), get in line with the other boats and get to the finish line as fast as possible. 11th out of 14 or so. Yuck.

Next day was a lot better, spinnaker start, and we were one of the first boats to the mark. Waited too long to douse the spinnaker, but did an okay windward beat in the winds (16-17 knots, up to 20+ in the breezes) and ended up 4th that day.

Not a great result, but it was a good practice round!

Here are some pics from the race:

The race has two race days, the first day we sail about 27 miles (or so we thought), the second day about 17.

Navigation lights on beating to windward.

Happy sailor in the Norwegian spring night. :)

Not so happy with the results, though! Hehe!

Boatspeed was pretty decent.

Here we are also using the longer tiller extension I bought for this season. We are now using the 75-120cm version, and not the regular 60-90cm version.

Some of the visiting boats for the race (on the outside of the berths).

Silverminken close to the finish line

Here is a picture of Silverminken heading towards the finish line in one of the short regattas at the 2012 training session. Only beaten by the Class 40 and Elan 37 boats (all 350s were behind hehe!).

Silverminken training at Oscarsborg

Here's a brief clip of Silverminken at one of the short regattas at Shorthanded Sailing Norway's annual training session.

Elan 310 "Delan" at Elan training session 2012

Here's a brief clip from the 2012 Elan training session at Oscarsborg, Norway onboard the Elan 310 "Delan". Onboard are the two happy owners, myself (couldn't really tell if I was filming in the beginning....) and expert Thomas Nilsson from North Sails.

A really cool session with experts in the areas of sails and sail trim, rigging, electronics and more, jumping onboard and giving tips and tricks, all arranged by the Norwegian importer Tor Hove at Fjordsail.

Silverminken en route to Elan training session

Here's a shot of Silverminken en route to the 2012 Oscarsborg Elan training session, where the Norwegian Elan distributor invites Elan owners to practice sailing before the season starts.

This year we have distinguished guests, top Elan executives are here with us to sail, in addition to several experts.

The setup is like this:

* Several small groups of similar boats
* One boat in each group takes turns being the "leader"
* The leader sails upwind with a constant/stable trim
* The other boats in the group attempt to trim to beat the leader
* Sail upwind for about 15 minutes, then return to start
* Repeat, changing leaders

Sounds like a good routine, so I am looking forward to getting the season started!

Directly after this training session (and at the same location) the Norwegian Shorthanded Sailing club is having their annual two-day training session for shorthanded sailors, so this weekend is packed with training! Cool!

Preparations for a new season

The sails have now been carried down from the loft, packed up again, and have just been delivered to the local North Sails loft for a checkup.

They suffered a bit last season, but I am surprised at how much these can take. The only obvious problem was a small tear in the spinnaker, chafing on something when we took the spinnaker down in 36-38 knots of wind.

Looking forward to the season, will post more pictures and info as I progress.

The first activity this season looks like it will be an Elan gathering at Oscarsborg 26-27 april, where we will focus on sailing Elan boats (mostly 310s and 350s) upwind and getting some matching done. That goes straight over to the annual shorthanded training session (which is also at Oscarsborg) that weekend, where the focus is on downwind sailing and doublehanded boathandling.

Cool! If you would like to share some of your own activities, please post comments or just send me an email and I can post on the blog for others to share!

Updates from down under and a new backstay solution

Sorry for the delay getting this out, but Margie writes us from down below with an interesting backstay solution for more control.

Hi Thomas
Hope you are well and enjoying the winter break. We are in the middle of summer here and we have been sailing in a number of regattas for mixed results. In the stronger winds ( 20 to 30 knots) we have been struggling against boats we beat in light winds. ( even with 6 on board)
We have had problems flattening the main sail and have found pulling on the back stay a real
hard task for little results. Firstly we added another block to the back stay rope (as we noticed
you and others had done) but we still found it hard to pull on the rope. We then filed back the edge of the cockpit cover as the block near the traveler was rubbing against it when you pulled on the rope. Still we had problems We have now changed the block arrangement to make a continuous rope system. Adding to two single fixed bullet blocks to the back plate and fitting an extra pivoting block has fixed the problem. The triple block does not move or rub against the cockpit cover any more. The ropes run to each side of the boat and can be pulled on by the
helm with one hand. Even though we have reduced the ratio from 24 to 1 to 20 to 1 we can
now flatten the main at the top of the sail significantly more now and
easily

Here is a picture of Margies new backstay solution. Looks quite interesting, and everything that makes boat-handling easier is worth considering.

Margie also informs us that pictures have been sent by the local dealer to the factory as a suggested change.

I have thought about a new backstay solution for Silverminken to make it even easier for shorthanded sailing. Maybe this solution is the optimal one? I'll certainly ask the Norwegian dealer what they think of it as well!

Thanks Margie!

Creating interest

....an example of how to create some interest from a few pictures....

Make your own slideshow with music at Animoto.