ELAN

After nearly five years of building our girl we made a decision that she needed to be moved

out of the shed and off our property at Childers before the big rains set in. If we didn't we

would be stuck there until at least March when the ground might be dry enough for the

removal truck. So on the 2nd of December 2013' ELAN' emerged from our shed. We still

had the electronics to finish and ceiling panels to go up but these we could do while on the

slipway at Bundaberg. We chose to put her on the hard to have the mast raised there and be

launched as well. From there we chose to go into the Bundaberg Port Marina to give

ourselves a break and to do more completion of the boat and the opportunity to clean up and

close down our property.

'Elan' is to be our home as well as our cruiser. We have lived in a farm shed with minimal

comforts of the normal residential home so we could build our dream. During these five

years we had endured floods, health issues and family issues which took us away from our

project for longer periods than we had planned for. Life never goes the way you plan it so

you just have to flow with it. We never lost sight of the dream and when things settled done

we were always able to get back to the nitty gritty and work on our girl.

We followed the plans to the letter except we did choose to use a heavier glass on the boat, a

490gm double bias, we were aware that this could make her a tad heavier but we want to

venture into places where there might be unexpected hazards and we just felt that this was the

right thing to do for ourselves. John was no carpenter by any means. He used to be a roofer

in the UK where he dealt with felt and bitumen and when he immigrated to Australia he

studied and became a youth worker. So for over 20 years of his life it was dealing with

troubled teens and children with disabilities. So taking on this project was a whole new kettle

of fish.

He took each step of the plans in his stride and did stand back on many occasions scratching

his head as he worked things out. I personally thought he did brilliantly. There was a lot of

measuring, cutting, screwing, gluing, sanding and shaping. Cordless screwdrivers and

cordless drills became his best offsiders. When challenges reared their heads we both took a

step back and sussed it all out and then got back into it. We asked questions and got answers

which kept us moving forward.

Every piece of ply and every piece of pine were painted with a timber epoxy preserver which

penetrated into the grains and then we painted the sheets with resin which would be facing

the internal side of the boat. Glassing was a breeze really. We had all our resin measured out

in ice-cream containers and as we used one batch all we had to do was add the hardener to the

next and we were both in there rollering and consolidating the glass. The first hull was the

slowest as we didn't really have a technique, it took us two days doing one side at a time. But

by the time we got to the second hull and organizing ourselves we managed to have it done in

one day. What a great sense of achievement that was.

By the time we got to the deck stage we saw a picture of Pam and Barry Langdon's 'MINX'

and were so impressed with the looks that we arranged a personal viewing. We were

gobsmacked by the vision and the feeling of space that we decided to do the same. We

widened frame 7 by approximately 150mm each side and stood our windows up at the

15degree angle. We didn't lose all that much deck space as the 'Sarah' design has a very wide

friendly user decks. By doing this it also took the front of the turret forward of the central

bulk head. This meant that we would need a compression post for the mast step. We

followed the plans of the 'Sarah' for the roof doing all the stringers and reinforcing as

instructed. We also took the roof line out 200 mm giving that eyebrow. We took our targa

bar up by 150mm and took the width of our roof back to this giving us more headroom for

entering the cockpit and more protection from the sun and rain. We have a brilliant water

catchment area now with outlets on the eyebrow for filling jerry cans and even the water tank

itself. These innovations have come from Minx.

Passer bys in the marina have stopped and mentioned how much they like the boat and are

impressed with our cockpit area and the room of the saloon. They ask us what design the

boat is and we tell them it is a Peter Snell Easy but with the modification of the roof but

everything else is to the plans. When we have finished with the little projects we need to do

we will be heading up this beautiful coastline of Queensland and explore places we have

never been.

The year 2014 will be the true beginning for 'ELAN'.