Kiwi boats helping Aussie kids learn to sail

by Isla McKechnie on 20 Sep 2014 A fleet of eight Elliot Marine boats prove the perfect partner for NSW yacht club Royal Prince Alfred.

Kiwi company Elliott Marine recently delivered and commissioned a fleet of eight Elliott 7’s to the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in Pittwater, New South Wales, and Club Coach Tom Spithall says they’ve fit the bill perfectly.

'The boats have proven a hit since their arrival at the club in May with the fleet already notching up 502hrs or 62hrs per boat to date.'

The yachts, designed by Elliott Marine’s Greg Elliott, were built in China by McConaghy Boats and then delivered to the RPAYC by container, with mast and spars built by Southern Spars. On delivery they were personally commissioned and sea trialled by Elliott Marine. Greg always works closely with the clubs and coaches to ensure that a quality product and performance is achieved with all Elliott-designed yachts and that backup and support is always available.

'The boats have proven up to the task as training boats for our Youth Development Program, and have been extremely popular with the program participants. The boats have also been used in the club’s popular Keelboat Learn to Sail Program, and have proved to be a great training tool,' said Spithill.

The Elliott 7 is a direct development of the Elliott 6-metre design and is a one design fibreglass production yacht built to a very high specification. While it is light weight and easily-handled, it is also extremely tough and durable - a necessity to withstand the rigours of daily use and still deliver the exhilarating sailing required by sailors today.

The yacht features a number of innovative design and build techniques and customised quality fittings and equipment. All components are engineered to exacting standards to ensure strict control of weight and provide a strong, stiff, durable and light yacht. The Elliott 7’s are more geared towards a real keelboat experience and the design of the boat provides high stability allowing for a wide crew weight range of 270kg-350kg.

'I think that is the great thing about the Elliott 7’s; they have the capability to get up and go and reward you for pushing them hard, but they also can be toned down as to not scare the life out of people trying to learn how to sail. It’s really hard to try and strike a balance between the two, but I believe Greg has gotten pretty close,' an enthused Spithall said.

'The boats had their first official regatta outing in July, participating in the RPAYC mid- winter OD regatta alongside other classes. Both members and the Youth Development Squad filled up the boats as they battled it out over the weekend. A big surprise over the weekend, was how competitive the E7’s were against some of the other classes, especially given that these boats are a training craft'

The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia also have fleets of the Elliott 7. Elliott Marine designs’ consistently dominate, from the small trailer sailer, to state of the art racing or cruising yachts.

Elliott 7 Specifications

LOA - 7m
Beam - 2.3m
Draft - 1.65m
Displ - 850kg
Main - 20.3m2