Don Elliott’s ‘Illusion’

Sail Plan

Hull Profile

Don Elliott passed away on 2nd December, 2008. He is best remembered by small sailboat enthusiasts for his innovative and sometime controversial boat design. Many of his detailed illustrations are still available in the archives of Yahoo Groups. Perhaps he was not so well known for his general illustrations, such as those he drew for ShopBot*.


This talented artist could make ‘cutaway’ drawings that clarified the relationships of various parts of structures, such as those of the interior of a boat. Before his death, he was working on the design of a 3 metre, micro-sailboat which he named ‘Illusion’. This tiny vessel was rectilinear in the style of a Bolger ‘Brick’ dinghy and a Puddle Duck Racer.


Don’s ‘Illusion’ in no way resembled the one design miniature keelboats based on a scaled version of ‘Lionheart’, the British 12 metre yacht that contended in the 1980 Americas Cup. These one-man micro-yachts are keenly raced at Bembridge Sailing Club (Isle of Wight), West Kirby Sailing Club (Wirral) and Aldenham Sailing Club (Herts).


There are marked differences between Don’s ‘Illusion’ and Matt Layden’s boat with an almost similar sounding name, ‘Elusion’. (See my article on ‘Elusion’ here: http://bills-log.blogspot.com/2010/03/elusion-matt-laydens-micro-sailboat.html )


Sadly, it looks as though we shall never see the completed plans for building Don Elliott’s micro-sailboat, unless Don’s widow or son is able or willing to put forward a package available to the general public.



Links

Don Elliott ShopBot Illustrations
http://65.36.212.143/d_elliott_gallery1.htm

Puddle Duck Racer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puddle_Duck_Racer

Origin of the Puddle Duck Racer
http://www.pdracer.com/articles/origin/index.htm

My Bolger Brick Dinghy
http://www.shortypen.com/boats/brick/

Bolger Brick ‘Tetard’
http://sites.google.com/site/molepages/brick

Paradox Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paradoxbuilders/

National Illusion Class
http://www.illusionclass.org/index.htm

Illusion Class Sailing Part – 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFHx9uX49YM&feature=player_embedded

Illusion Yachts
http://www.amstructures.co.uk/index_files/Page1538.htm