Elliott 6s, unique boats, great opportunity

by Tracey Johnstone on 20 Jun 2013 This is not your usual ‘boat for sale’ story. This is a story about two boats that are unique in Australia and present the perfect opportunity for a small club to get a keel-boat program up and going quickly and inexpensively.

There are two Elliott 6s for sale. These boats were part of the Australian Sailing Team’s pre-2012 Olympic Games training program. They were used by Australian Silver Medal team for training and competition.

Commissioned by ISAF, hulls 29 and 30 were the two hulls purchased by Australia out of the 80 boats built in 2009 by McConaghy and distributed by ISAF.

In January this year the boats were purchased and moved to Mooloolaba. They have been used by Mooloolaba Yacht Club for training and competition. With the club having direct access to Mooloolah River and the central part of Mooloolaba Harbour, all club members have had the chance to enjoy access to the boats.

The simplicity of the deck layout has made it easy for the local sailors to hop on board and quickly come to grips with how to make the boats work. Their speed and responsiveness has been a highlight as the boats are manoeuvred around the river course.

The Women club members have had a super time in the boats working with the coach Rob Lea. They participated in a four-month race training program culminating in the two-day coached Women’s Series where the women took on racing the Elliott 6s competently in the close quarter racing.

The open age Rum Runner Series was a huge success. Held on a Friday afternoon in late summer and then again with navigation lights into early Autumn, the members from aged 11 to 81 raced the two boats on short courses around laid buoys. The races took about eight to 12 minutes. There were guidelines not rules, and the sound of laughter and shouts of outside assistance from the spectators was reassurance that this was a very successful social program. And, many of the older sailors admitted they learnt quite a bit from sailing the Elliott 6s in such close, short, sharp racing format.

The Youth Program members have struggled to have access to the Elliott 6s mainly due to the high demand from the older club members to get as much time on the water on these boats. The Elliotts have even been used on the river by the Wednesday Fun Sail sailors when the open-water conditions have been too crook to take the big boats on Mooloolaba Bay.

But now it is sadly time for the club to farewell to these Elliott 6s.

Later this month Mooloolaba Yacht Club will welcome four 2002-model Elliott 6s, purchased from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Youth Academy.

These two very special Elliott 6s are being sold anti-fouled with two cradles, one lifting strop, two full boat covers, deck gear and sheets, mast, boom & spinnaker poles, rudders and rudder covers and an extensive sail inventory of three sets of sails per boat - Norths – 2009 – one full set (main, jib, kite) x 2; Norths – 2012 - one full set (main, jib, kite) x 2; North – 2012 – jibs x 2; and Ullman – one full set (main, jib, kite) x 2. The price for both boats is $40,000, as is, where is. Enquiries should be directed to Tracey Johnstone on 0438 644557.