The ultimate sailing holiday

by Helen Hopcroft on 23 Aug 2007 One of the great things about sailing is the friendships that the sport generates. You end up becoming friends with people that you probably wouldn’t ordinarily have met. In yesterday’s racing in the Cruiser/Racer Division at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week an Elan 340 called G-Whizz had eight people on board who all met because of a common interest in sailing. They were different ages, nationalities and work in unrelated occupations, yet the common goal of racing a beautiful little yacht had drawn them all together for Audi Hamilrton Island Race Week.

The owners of G-Whizz are Gael Moldan and Rod Parry and their Sydney based company Navsail is the Australian distributor for Elan Yachts. It was Rod’s birthday and the weather couldn’t have been better: although the conditions were light and windless in parts of the course, the sky was a brilliant blue and the Whitsunday Islands were at their most lovely. Rod was on the helm and another Sydney-sider, Donald Swanson was calling tactics.

Donald and his wife Sue met Rod two years ago when they came to Navsail to buy an Elan 37. Since then Donald has raced his blue hulled Elan ‘Just Quietly’ as part of the Drummoyne Club series, winning the twilight series last year and coming in second behind a Mumm 30 this year. And if you’re going to get beaten by anything, at least being beaten by a Mumm 30 allows you to continue to carry your head high: they’ve got a reputation as scorchingly fast racing boats.

Englishman Nigel Pyemont works in IT and met Donald and Sue through friends of friends. He regularly crews onboard Just Quietly and said that there’s nothing better than leaving work early to do a Twilight race. A former rugby player, Nigel was invaluable in yesterday’s race as both a human version of an electric winch and as intelligent ballast: he always knew where to position his weight to keep the boat in proper trim.

Donald’s pretty wife Sue hails from the UK and she is originally from Norfolk. Nigel grew up in Suffolk, in a decaying mansion that was built in the Dutch colonial style by the man who invented the first mechanical seed sower during the Industrial Revolution, but that’s another story.

Fellow Elan 37 owner John Ellis races his boat out of Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club and he brought his boat from Navsail just over a year ago. The running joke on board was that John went out to buy a kayak and came home with a brand new yacht. Apparently next door to Navsail’s office is a kayak shop and John must have just been distracted by the glossy Elan brochures. However the decision wasn’t entirely spontaneous.

‘They saw us at the boat shows’ explained Rod ‘and they’d always looked at the boat. John always said ‘if I could sell my boat I’d buy one of these….’

At the time John owned a Northshore 38 and he was in the market for another cruiser/racer.

As luck would have it a Tasmanian buyer was on the look out for a new boat and walked into Elan’s Victorian office with a CD of images of boats that he was interested in. The CD included a picture of a Northshore 38 with very similar specifications to John’s boat. The Victorian dealer called Rod who then made a phone call to John.

Rod introduced John to the Tasmanian buyer and left them to work out a deal. In less than a week John had sold his Northshore to the Tasmanian man and brought an Elan from Rod.

The sale of the Northshore to the Tasmanian buyer sparked another friendly relationship. It was a well loved boat that had been in John’s family for many years, so it wasn’t ‘just another boat.’ The buyer respected this and the two men were able to trade stories and information about the boat: it’s a dialogue that continues to this day.

John’s new Elan has proved to be a winner on the race track bringing home four club trophies this year. It was manifestly obvious during yesterday’s race that John knew that he was doing on a boat and it is a talent that runs in the family: his son is a member of Alinghi’s design team and the whole family was recently in Valencia together.

Greg Dudman regularly crews on board John’s Elan 37 when it races at RPAYC and yesterday he was G-Whizz’s bowman. He said he got into sailing quite by chance just over a year ago when some friends invited him to crew. Yesterday he was enjoying his job on the bow, with light breezes rarely pushing wind speeds over 10 knots.

Rod and Gael brought G-Whizz up to Hamilton Island shortly after showing the boat at the Sydney International Boat Show. When he proposed racing at Hamilton all of the crew members ‘leapt at the chance’ to participate. Rod explained that although he was keen to build the profile of Elan in Australia, the Whitsunday’s trip mainly about having a good time with friends.

‘It’s not a professional thing, it’s not a semi-professional thing; we came up here for a good time.’

He said that his European built yacht had proved something of a conversation starter with complete strangers approaching him to tell him how much they liked his boat.

‘Everyone thinks it’s a pretty boat in the water. It looks sharp and it looks smart. People keep on coming over to have a look at it.’

Rod, Gael and the crew are all renting a luxurious apartment that overlooks Dent Passage. It’s one of those beautiful places that only get built in Queensland: a large outdoor living space, plantation shutters and a large sheltered veranda, natural stone and timber construction, white furniture and a driftwood timber coffee table. After a day’s racing everyone sits around and admires the spectacular view.

It’s a great way for a group of friends with a common interest in sailing to spend a holiday together. And all the connections between these very different people started with a boat.

To discover more about Elans go to www.navsail.com.au