Female Sailor Buys First Elan 310 for Australia

The dynamic Elan 310 twin rudder design due to arrive in December in Melbourne has been purchased by a very enthusiastic female sailor who now looks forward with tremendous excitement to helm her very own boat. The sailor has crewed in many club races and women’s regatta events over the years.

Firstly, the decision alone to buy her own 31ft sailing boat was certainly a Big One. This naturally moved quickly along to the next Big decision ….what to buy?

The requirement was to have a boat that has a leg in both camps – a boat for real racing but not stripped bare but cruising also. The boat needed the ability to cope well shorthanded in changing conditions offshore and in Port Phillip Bay.

Researching the market, there was in fact only a small handful of real performance boats in this size class from which to choose. Initially, models from various marques were in line for consideration – and as you could well imagine – there was no shortage of fellow club sailing diehards strongly advocating their choice.

Apart from the 310’s immediate cheeky good looks and exciting design concept, the more the buyer investigated the qualities of Elan’s versatile new model running out the boutique boat manufacturer’s door with great success since its mid 2009 launch and enthusiastically reviewed by UK’s prestigious Yachting Monthly, where they hailed the 310 as Elan’s new ‘Pocket Rocket’, the final choice was becoming clearer to the buyer.

Still, the voices from the sidelines continued trying hard to make their suggestions heard. However, when the Elan 310’s attributes were rolled out – the Rob Humphreys twin rudder design simply had the goods.

Steadfastly, the buyer made her final decision on the boat of her choice as it stood. As keen club racer who wants to enjoy sophisticated sailing qualities with a competitive edge and enjoy the comforts of a pleasurable cruise as well, the 310 gave her a boat that had it all. It had the numbers as well as the looks, the build quality with top performance and delightful cruising versatility along with the shorthanded features that would be competitive without a works team – and all on the water at an affordable price.

The boat offers real value for money with lots of exhilarating and rewarding fun days sailing ahead. And what sailor does not want to spend time on the water “grinning from ear to ear”….as Yachting Monthly’s Toby Hodges wrote of his experience in the 310 boat test.

Not to mention the significant savings to be had with the current best ever Exchange Rates make that grin broader still.