Transform from racing to cruising...

As the summer vacation is approaching, Silverminken needs to transform from racing mode to cruising mode. Here are some of the to-do issues:

Repair log:

• Change cockpit "hatches" (the two small hatches on either side, the hinges were broken due to a wrong installation, warranty) (Done - turned out great)
• Get the spinnaker halyard back - it blew out during a broach under the Twostar regatta (or, if we are being diplomatic: it blew out during our very well-timed "drop")
• Get the tackline back, which also blew out (Done, but I am considering a longer tackline so I can drop the kite without tripping the tackline from the deck - which is a very dangerous maneuver in extreme conditions)
• Change the lower part of the furlex - the "eye" which the jib is attached to broke straight off during Twostar (Done, but I will send the parts to Selden to ask them for an explanation!)
• Change the tiller extension since it got bent under Twostar, also change to one that is one size longer (starting at 75cm instead of 60). This is important especially in heavy, shorthanded conditions where you need that reach without being afraid of falling down, which we did a couple of times in the extreme waves and ended up bending it...
• Find out what hozes I forgot to reattach after laying up last autumn, causing the water tanks to leak. :)
• Change battery since it wouldn't take any charge (Done - did it before Twostar, under warranty)
• Tape some minor damage on the spinnaker (Done). Will have to send in the spinnaker after this season for some minor repairs.

Cruising gear:

• Remove stickers and flags from regattas
• Remove the battens from the 3DL, pack it up and take it home (Done)
• Remove the horizontal battens from the no 4 jib, change to vertical battens and mount on the furler (Done)
• Remove some of the excess (actually, not much) security gear from Category 3 racing (Done)
• Duvets, pillows, bedlinen (Done)
• Pots and pans, cutlery etc (semi-done)
• Cockpit cushions, cockpit table (we have a separate aluminium folding table which goes in the big locker) (semi-done)
• Attach the sprayhood (Done)
• Strap for the spinnaker boom
• Boom awning (Done) (We use a Gaastra non-inflatable awning)
• Clean water tanks
• Inflate and bring dinghy
• Fill diesel- and watertanks
• Bring instruction manuals and more tooling for spare time
• Bring cleaning gear - rubbing, polish, wax to get Silverminken shining, which also gives the kids some tasks, fender cleaning is a favourite believe it or not
• Change propane tank
• etc...

Update from down under

Margie from Australia writes us with some updates from down under, including some nice pictures and a movie showing their kite set under a regatta.

Hit the title for the full update!

Video from Watski Skagerrak Twostar 2011

Here is a video from Silverminken in this year's Watski Skagerrak Twostar regatta:

Watski Skagerrak Twostar 2011 winners

We won our class in Watski Twostar Skagerrak 2011!!

Here is an interview with the winners (regrettably in Norwegian) just after the race:

Updates from the racetrack

It's been quite a while since the last posts, regrettably, but we've been busy sailing, so now I'll try to get some more posts out (and movies) from the recent events.

The Færderseilasen was a great race, considering the fact that I had a hard time getting crew....we ended up with my little brother and a friend who was interested in testing out the 310....not really the best ramp-up for entering the LYS Racing 33 class hehe.

Anyway, we finished 36 of 40, which is pretty much what we could expect under the circumstances. If we had entered the regular handicap class (and not racing) we would have finished 7 of 12, which is quite ok. The race itself was over in just under 15 hours for us, with long spinnaker legs.

The Watski Twostar Skagerrak Race was a huge success for us. It is really a tough doublehanded regatta with two legs, totalling about 300 nautical miles. We were third into pitstop on the first leg, and on the second leg we had some incredible surfs in very extreme conditions. We bore the spinnaker in 32 knots of wind with huge waves over skagerrak, with speeds regularly hitting 14 and 15 knots - max was 15.5 on the log, whereas the GPS had just over 20 knots SOG. Amazing! We hit some great windshifts on the way north again and ended up winning the second leg and winning our class! Yippi!!

I'll get some video footage and detailed posts from both races out as soon as I can.

Here are some pictures from Færderseilasen (images courtesy of Seilmagasinet):

Here are some pictures from the start of Færderseilasen, right after we had to avoid colliding with the windward boat:







Here are some mobile pictures from Silverminken in Twostar:

Next regatta....

It's been a while since the last post ... a lot of stuff going on at the moment, but now we are getting closer to the focus of the season, the Watski Twostar 2011 regatta! I'll post more on that next week, but this weekend we are sailing Silverminken in the "Færderseilasen" regatta ,which is the worlds largest overnight regatta.

We don't really have high expectations for this regatta, since we will only be three people on board, and haven't sailed together before, so it will mostly be to get some more hours in the boat. But the regatta is always a great social event with great competition. We have entered Silverminken in the highly competitive LYS Racing 33 class, which will probably be a bit more than we can handle. :)

We also talked to another Elan 310 owner and got them to start in the same class - the Elan 310 "Sagitta" that Tom owns. It will be fun to see if we can get some tight racing!

 There is a GPS tracking for the regatta here:

http://www.endomondo.com/event/iUZKXMpQuyE#