Serenity First is an Elan Impression 434, who was built in 2006/07. We had fallen in love with the boat’s design, which perfectly balanced our needs of comfort and bluewater cruising ability at a production boat price point. Elans are very popular in Croatia, and so we were able to view around ten of them before making an offer on the one in the best condition. “Vespera” (her original name) had only had one owner before us, who was a Croatian charter company called Jadranka. She had been based in Trogir (near Split) to be rented out to visiting sailors her entire life and Jadranka’s maintenance team had kept her in remarkable condition given she was ten years old. We renamed her Serenity First upon Alec’s insistence that the bad luck associated with such an act could be mitigated by a sufficiently large offering of alcohol to the sea gods!

Our three years with Serenity First saw us add a whole host of upgrades, including but not limited to: new sails, new rig, new dodger and bimini, new liferaft, new upstream electrical systems and batteries, a watermaker, special salt water and drinking water taps, solar panels and a solar arch, a hydrovane, a spinnaker pole and associated running rigging, new ground tackle and much more! Before we sold the boat in Fiji, our broker made the below video showcasing Serenity First (and our many additions) in all her glory:

You can also read more about the bulk of Serenity First’s face lift that occurred during our time in Croatia in 2018, transforming her from coastal cruiser to ocean wander – see the Refit series (under ‘Other’ in the menu at the top of the page).

Finally, we share below a few manufacturer stats about the boat, along with some photos from the Elan 434 brochure plus one of Serenity First from when we first got her, so you can see where she started!