Big Pimpin'
Looking for Elvis

The King is allegedly gone, but maybe lives on. Meet Bruce and Nora Slayden, owners of the just launched Gunboat 48 ‘Looking for Elvis’. These two retired grandparents love good fun and world cruising adventure. To learn to sail, they purchased an old school heavy keelboat, and cruised to Alaska for a season, then cruised across the Pacific. After a few passages, Bruce and Nora yearned for a little more pace, and a lot less motoring. Never up for half measures, they ordered a new Gunboat 48.

Humor plays a major role in their lives. Struggling with names, they decided on ‘Looking for Elvis’ to keep fellow sailors smiling with every radio call. “Looking for Elvis, Looking for Elvis”. The joke has developed into a cult following during sea trials. Nora brought along a faux Elvis costume for Bruce to wear whenever departing or returning to the harbor. The local Cape Town waterfront tour boats became a major hazard as they’d turn directly towards the new all carbon cat, and shout for ‘Elvis’ over their loudspeakers. The tourist boat rails would dangerously kiss the water as their payload rushed to one side to see the attraction. If you’ve been looking for Elvis, you might find him on a shiny new silver cat somewhere between Cape Town and Maine this summer.

Launch day came a week earlier than planned, something to celebrate in the world of high-end custom projects. A bit of bubbly, and noon time hangovers. Sea trials commenced a day later, putting the all carbon Marstrom spar package and 3DL sail package through its paces. The zulu weather gods were not cooperating, and hull flying weather did not occur, a big Gunboat IOU to the owners. Instead, four days of perfect 10-20 knot breezes provided perfect conditions for the owners to learn the boat. Within a day, they double-handed without assistance.

Significant developments on this Gunboat 48 include custom Facnor high tech furlers with integral Aramid forestays, and development of a Spinoa to replace the screecher and asymmetric that has been typical of a Gunboat sail inventory. The girths of the Spinoa  approach those of an asymmetric, yet it has a firm luff and furls around its own forestay like a code zero. For ease of handling, the sail is always hoisted. The numbers underway compared favorably to the polars for the asym. Gunboat, Marstrom, Facnor and North Sails in Cape Town and Sweden pioneered this development over the last several months. Despite three languages, and communication across three continents, all the bits and pieces worked on the first day.

Her honeycomb interior is a nice evolution of Cream, with more galley counter area and storage, an added nav desk, and finishes comparable to the absolute best in the world. Gunboat’s yard is doing an incredible job.

Bruce and Nora are already well known within the cruising community, but their enthusiasm for life, fun, and adventure will make them legends as the stories build over time.

05/08/06