Norwegian importer ends 15 year relationship

The excellent Norwegian importer of Elan boats, Fjordsail, has just announced that they will end the relationship with Elan effective immediately. All warranty issues will still be honoured by Fjordsail for new and existing Elan customers.

Press release here:
http://fjordsail.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/fjord-sail-slutter-som-elan-forhandler/

This is sad news for all existing Elan owners in Norway, as Fjordsail has been both a key driver for sailing in Norway, both cruising and racing (especially shorthanded), and provided Elan owners access to his great knowledge of sailing and tuning.

Fjordsail continues in the business, though, primarily with the Seascape brand.

Hopefully a new importer will be announced soon to take the Norwegian Elan market and make plans for the future. After all, I'm not afraid to say so: I'm quite proud of Silverminken, as it's a great little boat.

Perhaps the Swedish importer will reach out and become a nordic distributor? "Nordic Yachts" does sound like that, doesn't it? Who knows...

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: