I have always been around boats under construction. My earliest childhood memory is the taste of sucking on a Resorcinal lollipop. The discarded bright red glue from a cup tossed into a heap of wood shavings with an ice cream stick set in place was way too tempting for a toddler, and the father way too involved in what he was doing to notice – a narrow-minded focus on one goal that I inherited from him.
I built a Starling sailing dinghy while still at school and could have had a boat building apprenticeship, but I realised, as much as I enjoyed building boats, it was not what I wanted to do for a living.
When still in my early twenties, the first boat to consume all my cash was the Elliott 5.9 Mod T1313. I had been sailing with Greg Elliot and his brother Bruce, along with Brett Reid, on Greg’s first design, the 26ft Outsider – a yacht introducing the sport boat concept and the first keel boat on the local scene to defy the handicap formulations around waterline length. Outsider would regularly beat much larger boats in all conditions.
I was young and full of energy – I wanted fun and to be part of a scene. I wanted my own boat. Greg came armed with a basic design, and I supplied the crate of Steinlager blue stubbies. Brett helped Greg position battens on my father’s lofting floor in full length, giving shape to what would be frames for a 20ft trailer-sailer. In the weeks following these would be stood up and the first hull was underway.
Five plywood hulls came off those frames, with many more from the set of moulds (Brett’s boat was used for the plug). Mod did the original sea trials.
I had some time off from boats while I raised a family and built a business, but I did find time to put together the occasional dinghy for my kids. I sold a successful business in 2004, and that provided the funds to build another boat. I signed up with four others to take the first Elliott 1350 hull and decks, giving Elliott Marine the scale to tool up for the female moulding.
Selling sailing holidays fitted with my personal interests, so I purchased Sail Connections in 2010. I enjoyed sailing on many different yachts in the world’s best sailing destinations, but Covid hit, borders closed, and along with them my business.
So, I sold my Elliott 1350 in a buoyant market. My partner Sharon was totally cut up and there were many tears, but I had promised her we would get another boat. A better boat for me to own – shorter with an easy to manage sail plan, but with no less room, in fact more room in the aft spaces. And while there was a time when I would sail off the anchor – and I wanted that back – when I choose to motor, I want the boat to perform.
So, to deliver my dream with the money I had, I was going to have to build the boat myself to keep overheads low.
My good friend Neil is the son of Tom McCaul. Tom put the money up to commercialise the Elliott 5.9, as well as being an early supporter of Bruce Farr, and later, Greg Elliott in their careers. When I pitched what I wanted to do, Neil had no hesitation in offering his farm shed in the back blocks of Kaingaroa in the Far North. He even helped me with the fibreglass sheathing as this was not a job I could do alone.
Neil understood my passion for the culture of New Zealand yachting and what it takes to keep that alive. He was keen to see the evolution of New Zealand yachts take the next step
Construction process
I set up the shed in early February 2021, at a time when the country was still in and out of lockdown and the downtime had all but driven me crazy.
I say now that if someone starts a project like this solely because they want to go sailing, they will not get there. The gap between the empty space on the workshop floor and the boat in the water is just too vast. What you take on is a series of tasks you enjoy doing and at the end of them all is a boat. I have enjoyed every stage of the process.
The loaned shed was more than three times the footprint of the boat, but I used all of it. The frames, floors, structure, keel, rudder and decks were built off the boat, the bench saws and other machinery required space to use, and materials needed to stay dry. Neil also had a fork-hoist that came in very handy building a boat short-handed.
By mid-March 2021 I was setting up the hull. The cloth was laid over the boat and the rebates for the laps marked and cut in with a power plane. The first real problem presented itself when I started fibre-glassing.
The plywood was gassing badly when the resin went on, forming air bubbles that could not be worked out through the heavy cloth. To stabilise the ply, I rolled on resin and applied Peel Ply to remove the amine blush, a chemical byproduct on the surface of cured epoxy that I had to be mindful of throughout the build.
After laying all the cloth over the boat, marking where the sheets lay and rebating the laps into the plywood, each section of cloth was numbered and rolled onto a pool noodle and stacked away under plastic. I mixed the resin while Neil frantically applied it with a roller and the glass cloth was spread over the wet resin and more resin was applied on top. This would give 99% saturation and air removal, and was further fixed with a rubber squeegee that also distributed any excess resin. Finally, a wide steel roller bedded it down for good. I would then clean up and, as the resin was starting to tack off, a layer of micro balloons filler was generously applied. We did just one strip over the boat per day.
Next, we had to turn the hull over. I built a full frame over the boat to take four tiedown strops; the boat was raised with one pair of strops and flipped over to the other pair to be lowered. It was a scary day for me, but thankfully my brother- in-law John Murphy had it under control and it all went well.
Upright and sitting on a cradle, the boat was starting to take shape. After applying resin to the inside of the hull and removing the blush, it was ready for the keel floors and more structure.
Around that time, I notified Greg and Maritime NZ that I wanted the boat approved for charter work, which involved building it to survey. Surveyor Phil Bish was excellent. Greg is also a boat builder by trade and was always available to discuss my next stage, and travelled north to make sure I was building a boat he could put his name to!
After glassing the inside of the hull, it was time for keel floors. These are a series of solid wood beams with an engineered layer of fibreglass covering them. I spent over two months just building this structure. The keel floors and associated structure were built off the boat, glued in place, and then glassed to the hull. This area was painted and then the engine (a 57hp Yanmar) was installed. The saloon floor (also built off the boat) was then glued down and from there I worked from the front back, firstly forming the anchor well.
The foredeck frames were lofted on the floor in the same way the hull had been, but in foam. When finished, the foredeck structure was lowered into the boat with the fork-hoist and glued down to the hull, with Neil assisting.
Methods of construction for the rest of the superstructure varied. The side-decks were framed up and built in place – once the outside was glassed, they were lifted off and the underside was finished. It was important to fill and fair the inside of the deck components when they were upside down on the floor since the interior would be painted and had to be well finished.
The mullions were timber with double-ply cabin sides, heavily glassed to support the windows. The foam cabin top was framed and glassed in place once the cabin sides were built, then removed to a cradle to allow the underside to be glassed and faired.
The cockpit was built in rebated flat panels made on a table, then joined on the boat before removal for fairing.
Before the side-decks went down, the carbon fibre chainplates needed to be laminated in place and the hull doubled around the windows. The decks would later be glassed to the hull and the toe-kick added.
The vessel’s two-metre-wide duckboard was fitted into place and then the transom deck panel glued in place, to be cut out again once faired. The process of building bunks, cabinets and doors, plus provision to fit all the equipment, took a few more months but by August 2023 it was time for the boat to leave its remote home and head to where marine services and trades were available to finish it. I remained in Kaingaroa to build the cockpit and saloon table, rudder and keel.
The keel is a metal fin and bulb with 1.5 tonnes of molten lead poured into the bottom section. I was able to use scrap lead and didn’t have to pay a foundry for a bulb, but it was a lot of work! For one thing I had to build a 3.5-metre-tall shed and get a lifting tripod to be able to work on it (both now located in a paddock in Mangonui).
The smelting process was scarier than turning the hull over – another job for John, who turned an old water cylinder, extensively modified with funnels and valves, into a smelting pot. Once again, it all worked out on the day. The two-tonne keel then had to be glassed, faired and painted – a complex challenge near the end of what had been a massive project.
Summary
The boat went in the water in September 2024, named Denim, with still a lot to do. We have enjoyed using Denim this summer under motor in the Bay of Islands and I can’t speak highly enough of the design’s practicality.
When building a one-off boat, so many components are fabricated that don’t end up part of the boat, and as with any prototype, I could have saved a lot of time and money knowing what I know now.
Building three identical boats would be a great way to enjoy the economies of scale I have identified along the way. On that basis there might be a boat builder who would take it on for under $1M, but as a one-off it would cost more.
I have built this boat, and yes, I am very proud of the achievement. I’m excited to be part of something new on the yachting scene.
Words and Photography by Robert Cross
