Elan 310 second after first leg

The Elan 310 "Kårstua" came in to the pitstop as second boat, 55 minutes corrected after the leader, the Swedish X-382 "Chamsiin" after an 18-hour long beat upwind in difficult conditions. This is a great achievement! The next leg starts automatically 6 hours after reaching the line at pitstop, so the first boats are already on their way.

The second leg will bring westerly winds, turning to southwest and increasing as they sail north again, which will allow incredible speeds if the sailors push their limits. Lets hope they all sail safely and have some cool surfs! The conditions are certainly there for getting record speeds, so maybe our own 17-knot BSP will be beaten today? Andreas and "Kårstua" are certainly capable, so lets see!

Elan 310 in this years Skagerrak Twostar shorthanded race

Although we are not participating this year, the Elan 310 is still a contender in this years Skagerrak Twostar shorthanded race, starting right now as we speak.

The 310 "Kårstua" which got second place in their class in last weeks "Færder" race is also racing shorthanded this year.

Strong competitors in their class, and I think one of these will win the class this year:

• Elan 310 "Kårstua"
• J/92 "Jolla"
• Archambault 31 "Angelique"
• Dufour 34 "Piteraq"

Due to extreme weather forecasts (up to 40 knots and 12 foot middle-to-top waves),  the second (and longest) leg has been changed to go back up the coast and into the Oslo Fjord instead of crossing over the sea to the Swedish coast. Wise decision I think.

Tracking here:
http://yb.tl/ws2star2013

2nd place for Elan 310 in Færderseilasen 2013

The newest Elan 310 in Norway, "Kårstua", got second place in its class in this years Færderseilasen, which is one of the worlds largest overnight regattas. This is a great achievement and shows that the 310 is highly competitive raced well.

In addition to second place on handicap (the new NOR Rating/ORC Club offshore) the 310 was only 2 minutes behind the class winner (X 372 Prestige) in actual sailed time.

The results can be found here (Norwegian): http://www.færdern.com

Congratulations!

(And ofcourse congratulations to the class winner PopX, clever bastards. Hehe - the great Tormod which I was privileged enough to sail shorthanded with)

Our own results were mediocre - lost two (almost four) battens in the jib and had to find a temporary solution only four hours into the race. Also the jib fastening to deck broke soon after that, which also required a temporary solution that wouldn't allow decent tightening of the jib. So we couldn't really shape the sail as we wanted at all. But we still finished the race, and were happy that we didn't give up. :)

Both problems were due to poor race preparation on my account. Sigh. :)

Brand new Elan 320

The yard has just released information about the Elan 320:

Looks like the changes are (among other things):

• Windows in the cabin sides
• Twin steering wheels
• The hatch looks a bit longer/different
• 6% lighter

http://www.elan-yachts.com/en/news/1369826547.html

Norwegian distributor continues with the Elan yard!

Breaking news: the Norwegian distributor Fjord Sail has now decided to continue the cooperation with the Elan yard. This is great news, and means the yard has listened to what this important distributor has had to say about the future direction of the Elan brand.

More information about the disagreements have now been disclosed, which is a great, transparent move:

• There are many differences between sailing in the mediterranean and sailing in northern Europe; most notably more wind north and less regatta participation in the south. This means these markets need to address different characteristics in terms of performance, comfort etc.
• Performance boats are also very suitable for cruising, which is what Elan should make
• The new Elan 400 is going to be made a lot lighter, with vacuum + vinylester. It will weigh less than 7000kg
• The yard is going to initate a yacht weight-reduction focus programme, which has been fundamental for the Norwegian distributor, also with support from Rob Humphreys
• The yard has agreed with its subcontractors to increase warranty coverage and length so they better correspond to Norwegian requirements

The distributor goes on to regret that this has been a time of uncertainty for Elan customers, but that the end result is a lot better, and that many new and exciting things are to come from the yard.

More information (Norwegian) from Seilmagasinet: http://www.seilmagasinet.no/id/40203.

ORC Club certificate for Silverminken

Hello all. The Norwegian rating system has now changed from a mixture of theoretical and empirical (the LYS-system) to using the "offshore" time-on-time handicap from standard ORC Club certificates. This will take some time to get right, not least because the ORC certificates for most of the boats are "conversions" from registered boat data from the old system. Some of which is obviously wrong, and therefore brings those errors over to the ORC rating.