Burnham to Solent Part 3 - new boat home

[Racecruiser]

Well the new boat is in her new home at Warsash. She's an Elan 295 of '95 vintage and while there are niggles and plenty to do to get her race-ready we like her a lot already.

After my Mustang 30 the accomodation is positively fantastic and all in an exta few inches in length.

There was plenty of wind forecast and it was accurate for Thames and Dover plus some nasty squalls, reducing as we got towards Wight. A departure at 03:30 Sat got us to Warsash berthed up 26 hours later which was great - not always pleasant sailing but the strong northerlies gave us downwind or reaching all the way. Single reefed main and jib varying from full to half to none in the squalls. Just one tack motor sailing at the bottom of Southampton Water.

We took the Princes channel route across the Thames Estuary which meant adverse tide all the way down the Crouch and then up the Swin, but as we gybed towards Princes it was fair tide from then almost the whole way. Any other route looked imprecise in F 5/6 gusting 7 in the squalls and crossing the sands out to sea in a seaway was not something we were comfortable with. This crew of three are not in a hurry to return to the Thames Estuary thanks.

Tillergirl's help after Part 1 and 2 particularly appreciated - now it's the jobs list, mast down tomorrow and work on the bottom at the w/e. Antifoul and prep in mid summer - must be mad!

 

[swisstony1974]

Hi Racecruiser,

I'm looking at an Elan 295 for a first boat to own after many years of racing on other peoples boats and cruising around Europe. I take it from your generally positive comments about the 295, that your generally happy with her - but any points to look at when viewing a prospective 295. Thanks

 

[Racecruiser]

Hi Racecruiser,

I'm looking at an Elan 295 for a first boat to own after many years of racing on other peoples boats and cruising around Europe. I take it from your generally positive comments about the 295, that your generally happy with her - but any points to look at when viewing a prospective 295. Thanks

Hi Swisstony, my post goes back to 2010 so I was quite surprised to see it pop up and I'm not a regular visitor here these days. Anyway yes there are some things I would mention after 9 years of ownership (we sold her last March and I believe she is in Eastbourne now).
We did quite a lot of mileage racing (some decent trophies to show for it) and cruising sometimes in quite testing conditions and she has quite a powerful rig with quite a skinny keel so was twitchy and needed to be kept on her feet. That said she was fast particularly offwind but could labour upwind in fresh conditions. We saw 13.4 kts boatspeed under spinnaker south of the IoW so in the right conditions she can surprise bigger boats.
We lengthened the rudder which reduced the twitchiness but it could still surprise. Also had to have the mast step rebuilt and have the keel off for internal repair/strengthening under the floor. Do look at rudder and keel closely and get a surveyor.
Quite sad when she sold but we had 9 great years with her - happy to discuss so PM me if you want to know a bit more.

 

[swisstony1974]

Thanks very much for your reply - very useful. I'm keen to PM you but for some reason it doesn't seem to work.

We're planning to use her as a family cruising yacht with some JOG races next year. The boat we're looking at has had an extended rudder fitted and apparently the keel issue has been attended to following a keel incident that kept her on the hard for a number of years. But yes a PM conversation would be useful if you don't mind. Many thanks.

 

[Racecruiser]

Hmmm, I just tried to PM you but it didn't work! I've looked at my settings and I seem to be ok for sending and receiving PMs, are you enabled for PMs?
Peter