News Around the World
A fun machine that can also go sailing in the dark… Now into his eighth decade Kiwi master boatbuilder Dave Wade delivered Greg Elliott’s latest race-record special on time and on budget; also the first yacht that Wade had ever attempted in carbon. Elliott is best known for ‘rating-free’ speed bandits, several of which found their way to Europe where they then took giant-killing to new heights. Elliott’s new E30 weighs just 2-tons, including an 800kg lifting keel and two 500-litre water ballast tanks; we reckon that Dave Wade’s first carbon build went quite well. A European IRC 30-footer would weigh about 750-850kg more… but that’s not really the point, is it?
After the acquisition of the boat (first launched in 2006) Joyon
had made very few modifications except to lengthen the foils by 20 per cent to increase the lifting effect, but he left the elevators at home for reasons of reliability. Also, the centreboard did not have a skate wing at its end… And of course Francis took as much weight out, simplifying the boat and removing a lot of electronics he considered unnecessary. In Brest on 7 January 2024 no one was betting on beating the record set by Francis Joyon, who was not alone onboard but whose boat was 11 years old when he set the record that still stands eight years later. Patrice Carpentier
NEW ZEALAND The buzz of interest around the recent launch of an all-carbon locally built Greg Elliott 30-footer highlights what is largely lost and gone from New Zealand. The rise of imported production boats and the attendant decline of Kiwi boatbuilding have made events like this all too rare. Time was when the arrival of summer brought a flurry of waterfront excitement and intrigue as new projects emerged from pro- fessional yards and suburban backyards. Radical design ideas flowed from the drawing boards of prolific local designers fast building inter- national reputations, while their rivalries matched the intense com- petition of owners and builders to enrich Kiwi racing bloodlines. At the same time long-nurtured dreams of cruising over the blue
horizon met fulfilment in capable offshore yachts – almost always with a healthy dash of performance embedded in their lines. Dockside cognoscenti feasted on the new arrivals and debated their merits. But those excitements are long gone amid the plethora of look-
alike imports that now fill New Zealand’s marinas. Small wonder then that boatbuilder Dave Wade – a man of few words and quiet demeanour – looked somewhat bemused at the flurry of enthusiasm over the pre-Christmas launching of his distinctive new project. Wade has been building boats professionally for half a century
but this was his first foray into carbon construction. With all the hall- marks of an excitement machine, it was conceived as an antidote to Covid confinement. ‘I phoned Greg Elliott and said I was bored and needed to do something,’ says Wade, who has history with Elliott designs. In 1999 he built an 18m fast schooner to an Elliott design. Then, five years ago, he was approached by an experienced
24 SEAHORSE
client looking to build an Elliott-designed trailer-sailer that could be launched off the beach in front of his home. Elliott’s plans were for a plywood and glass glue-and-tape
22-footer, which he reckoned could be marketed as a flatpack concept suitable for amateur homebuilders – going back to the backyard origins of New Zealand sailing. Wade’s client had a change of heart but he built the boat anyway.
‘I thought it looked like a bit of fun,’ he recalls. ‘I had a bigger yacht at the time, but found we were having so much fun with the trailer- sailer the bigger one hardly got used.’ Eventually, however, the agility and hiking required to get the most
out of the trailer-sailer became too physically demanding, so Wade began thinking about something in the 10m size range. Covid ennui provided the perfect opportunity to do something about it. Originally the idea was to strip the carbon mast and Harken deck
gear off his bigger yacht and build a new, more performance-oriented hull. But an analysis of cost and practicality ruled out that idea and he and Elliott settled on a 9m plan. ‘I was actually working on a 10m design with somebody else,’ says Elliott. ‘In terms of budget there is a significant difference across the board between a 10m and 9m.’ Wade’s frustration with his larger yacht, which he bought as a
part-completed hull and finished to a high spec, was that the hull did not stand up to the carbon rig. ‘The hull flexed and it drove me nuts because you could not retain rig tension. ‘Greg reckoned the only way to overcome that was with a carbon
hull. I had never done a carbon boat before, but I agreed to go with it. My original brief was for a simple, fast, fun boat. It has ended up a little faster and more complex than I intended, but that’s Greg. As soon as I agreed to carbon his eyes lit up and he was off to beat the world.’ Indeed, Elliott’s enthusiasm for this project even extended to
helping with the carbon lay-up and continues to keep his eyes alight after the first couple of sails. ‘It is a wonderful project,’ he says. ‘I am so proud of what Dave has done. It definitely got more technical than when it first started out. That is probably my fault,’ he admits with a decidedly unrepentant chuckle. Design considerations included limited-draft access and a
requirement for shorthanded sailing. A drop fin and 800kg bulb keel – deployed with an electric winch – is locked in the down position
IVOR WILKINS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114
