TRAVELLING ELLIOTTS

Nearly 40 years after the launch of the first highperformance Elliott 5.9 trailer-sailer, a fleet of these responsive little dinghies is now on the road – once again making its way to a series of regattas around the country. The 5.9 Traveller Series is a well-established New Zealand event, and this year’s programme began in April at Lake Rotoiti, hosted by the Bay of Plenty Trailer Yacht Squadron. Four more regattas are scheduled.

Penned in the early 80s by Kiwi designer Greg Elliott, the 5.9 was conceived to meet the requirements of the NZ Trailer Yacht Association’s rules at the time for boats under 6m.

“The trailer yacht scene was extremely active then, and so many back yards had a boat being built. Trailer yachting was big right around New Zealand – you’d sleep aboard the boats at regattas. They were real fun family events.”

Initially, the 5.9 was a timber build and Elliott won the 1983 Trailer Yacht National Championships in one. “Once we started to make fibreglass 5.9s, the fleet expanded quite quickly.” The fibreglass boats are still made from the mould of an original wooden boat.

It became a natural progression: as the fleet grew a one-design regatta series was formed – the Elliott 5.9 Traveller Series.

The 5.9 is sailed by a crew of three, and the one-design fleet is regarded as one of the most fiercely competitive in New Zealand, though friendly and very social.

Elliott went on to design the Elliott 6 as an evolution of the 5.9. It became the Olympic-class keelboat for women’s match racing at the London 2012 Olympics. 2021 TRAVELLER SERIES SCHEDULE MAY 20-22 – Whitianga’s Mercury Bay Boating Club (incl National Championships) JULY 3-4 – Napier Sailing Club AUGUST 14-15 – Auckland’s Bucklands Beach Yacht Club SEPTEMBER 25-26 – Warkworth’s Sandspit Yacht Club