Story
In 1910 Morton Plant commissioned Elena to be designed by American naval architect Nathanael Herreshoff, the “Wizard of Bristol”, who was famed for designing sailing yachts for America’s elite.
Plant gave a wonderful design brief: build me a schooner that can win! Herreshoff gave Elena a slightly deeper keel than preceding designs of that time, lowering her centre of ballast, which improved her windward ability.
Fresh out of the shed, Elena won most of her early races against the cream of the American schooner fleet. Seventeen years later came her crowning glory – victory in the 1928 Trans-Atlantic Race.
Elena and Zaoli: an exciting story
We made several sails for Elena, including mainsails, jibs, gaff-topsails etc., and two asymmetric spinnakers, one of which bearing a big red logo, for a total of nearly 2,000 square meters made in 10 days specifically for the 2016 edition of the “Regates royales de Cannes”.


“The S/V Elena sails all year long: she spends her summers in the Mediterranean and on winters she moves to the Caribbean.
Steve McLaren
She sails a huge amount of miles, so one of our main concerns is to collaborate with a sailmaker who can give us both good sails and a reliable sail care service.
During our six-years-old collaboration with Zaoli Sailmakers, we always enjoyed in-time deliveries and excellent sails, both for racing and for our countless ocean passages.”


Type | A class racing schooner |
Designer | Nathanael G. Herreshoff |
Builder | Factoria Naval De Marin Galicia, Spain |
Year | 2009 |
Length over spars | 55.00 |
Hull length | 41.60 |
Waterline length | 29.60 |
Beam | 8.14 |
Draft | 5.20 |
Sail area | 1.800 |
Displacement | 215.00 |


Contact Zaoli
Phone: +39 0184 481115
info: info@zaoliclassic.com
Opening hours
from Tuesday to Friday,
from 9.30 to 13.00, and from 14.00 to 18.00.
Saturday: 9:30 to 14.00.
Visit our loft at “Marina degli Aregai”,
Santo Stefano Mare, (IM) Italy
ZM DESIGN Srl,
via Gianni Cozzi 1 – 18010
Santo Stefano al Mare
VAT: 01449850088