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.

Stats.....

Winter is approaching, and Silverminken is now ready to meet the harsh Norwegian winter.....so now the blog should get even more attention!

Even this somewhat quiet autumn has brought a lot of visitors, and I am happy to say that we have now passed 56.000 hits on this blog. Which is really awesome, considering that it is a blog about sailing (not politics, religion or the credit crunch), and even more specific it is about ONE sailboat! Hehe!

The Norwegian distributor, Fjord Sail, is arranging two cool events next week, about "how to sail faster with your Elan sailboat". Maybe something other distributors (or owners) could get inspired to spread around the globe?

The agenda for the two afternoons is:

Day 1:

• Sailing close-hauled
• Beam reaching under genoa
• Basic sail trim
• Obtaining the right sailshape when trimming
• Choice of sails

Day 2:

• Spinnaker sailing
• Asymmetrics using the sprit and/or a pole
• Techniques for setting, dousing, gybing the spinnaker
• Trimming the spinnaker in different conditions
• Choice of sails

I'm really looking forward to it, and if I know the distributor (and I do), there will be videos and examples that I will link to from this blog so others can see what we have been through.

So I hope there are many of you that can keep on sailing through the winter, keep on sending updates for the less fortunate of us!