One lovely summer’s evening last year (and lets be honest, we didn’t have many of those) we were making our way down the Helford River.
After six days of living and cooking aboard our chartered 25-footer, my crew and I were planning to drop anchor and row ashore for a decent meal.
As we went, we noticed a small fleet of yachts gathering near the mouth of the river. They were clearly getting ready to start a race of some kind and, as we were away from home and missing our regular club racing, we idly wondered if any of them might have needed extra crew. It turned out that we might indeed have made ourselves useful. A few hours later, we were at the bar in the Helford River Sailing Club when I noticed someone standing next to me. It was Chris Olsen, who I had last seen a good 10 years earlier in Dartmouth when testing the Elan 210. Chris had owned and run Yachts of Dartmouth, and Elan had been one of his new-boat dealerships.
Since then Chris had moved to Cornwall and concentrated on the surveying side of his business. His current boat, which he had been racing that evening, was a
