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'.