Born as a result of perfect coincidence in 1983, the Elan 31 (the very first boat from J&J Design, a fledgling design company) took all the enthusiasm, hard work, patience—and luck—at their disposal. 

No other project would take as many late hours at the drawing board and in the yard, or require as much hard—though fun—work sailing and racing, nor take so much mental, physical, and emotional effort as creating the Elan 31 did in the first twenty-four months of their new career. 

In the process, the Jakopins learned—the hard way—what industrial design in boating was all about: a balanced blend of naval architecture, exterior and interior design, engineering, tooling, optimized build process, and creating the marketing and sales aura needed for success. 

Their ambition was set as high as possible: to create a boat that was as family-friendly and comfortable as the world market leader (the 10 m class Jeanneau Attalia) and was as fast and seaworthy as the IOR world champion X-102 (despite knowing that a fast and comfortable IOR-based boat could be an oxymoron at its finest...). 

It was a triumph.

Under the skilled hand of Slovenian sailing legend Dušan Puh (with Japec providing the necessary crew stability), Elan 31 R won every race she participated in during 1984, as well as  the 1985 production class World Championship (3/4 ton IOR) in Marstrand, Sweden. With the extended spoiler version of the later Elan 33—an open spoiler feature which gave easy access to the sea and became used on all new boats that came to market for the next twenty years—more than 940 units were delivered, making it the most popular sailing cruiser in the Adriatic as well as one of bestselling sailboats in the Mediterranean. Elan 31 launched Elan’s new yacht production program (which grew to include the Elan 19, 43 and 38), and yearly sales volume increased from one million Euro in 1984 to sixteen million Euro in 1987.

As Peter Harken would joke: The start was hell—and then it got worse...