66 Boating New Zealand
PROVEN HULL
It’s obvious this boat is meant for fun. She features large,
colourful graphics which will be familiar to anyone who knows
the Elliotts’ yachts, complete with cocktail glass and minty-
green antifouling. Te boat has a typical Given look, with high
topsides at the bow and curving down towards the stern, and a
fat cabin top which holds an array of solar panels. Tere’s good
clearance under the wing deck for a comfortable ride.
Te hull shape, which Given’s used for several years, was
designed for fuel efciency. Construction methods are geared
to weight saving – hulls are moulded foam and glass, with the
wing deck and cabin top made of vacuum-bagged ply-foam-
ply sandwich.
She is powered by a pair of 87hp Lombardini diesels with
sail-drives. High speed was not a priority: as sailors the Elliotts
have no desire to race around burning up fossil fuels.
“We’ve got a lot of friends with fast planing boats and they are
always flling them up. I’m not interested in hurrying – getting
there is half the fun,” says Garry. “We can cruise up north at 13ABOVE Good space utilisation
makes for comfortable cabins.
RIGHT What’s not to love about
this area? Colour, atmosphere,
space. All that’s missing is a
bottle and a few glasses.
BOTTOM Fall asleep in here,
you might be reluctant to get
out of bed and face the day.