Thanks G..
Another thought, xuraax.. This boat looks very similar to the Bene 36.7 we sail on a bit. Often you can do well in heavier air by not fighting the roundup quite so hard, let the boat feather up into "pinch" mode (a bit - you don't want to backwind the
jib).
You may find some heel coming off, and the helm easing at that point. In puffy conditions on our former 24' frac rigged racer we went into what we called "survival pinching" in puffs and often gained a length to weather each time.
The Elan may be too heavy for this to work, but it may be worth a try.