Greg started his career with a boat building apprenticeship in Auckland. He then started building boats to his own designs and due to their success in races around New Zealand started receiving commissions for other designs.
Youth Scheme
In 1987 the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron recognised they didn't have enough crew to compete in the America's Cup. They commissioned a fleet of Elliott 5.9's for their Youth Keelboat Programme. Many of New Zealand's successful America's Cup sailors learned their craft on these boats and their successors the Elliott 6. The success of the Elliott 5.9 for youth sailing schemes lead to their adoption around New Zealand.
The Elliott 6m is an Olympic-class keelboat, designed by New Zealander, Greg Elliott. It was selected for the women's match racing event for the 2012 Olympics. The Elliott 6m carries a spinnaker pole and symmetric spinnaker which is considered more suitable for match racing.
Mari-Cha IV is a sailing superyacht built as a two-masted schooner. The boat was ordered by Robert Miller with the particular goal of winning sailing records. The yacht has waterline length of 40.2 m, a width of 9.6 m, and a displacement of 50 t. It was equipped with a canting keel with a 10 t keel bulb, which is able to exert a much larger righting moment then a conventional keel. On October 9, 2003, Mari-Cha IV improved the previous record for fastest west-east transatlantic passage by a sailing monohull by more than two days, with total time of 6 days, 17h, 15m and 39s. During the run, she also won the record for longest 24h distance sailed, with 525.5 nautical miles. This record was only broken 13 years later, in 2016, by Comanche. Mari-Cha IV gained particular distinction in 2005, when she broke the 100-year-old record for fastest monohull Atlantic crossing under regatta conditions, previously established by Atlantic under Charlie Barr during the 1905 Kaiser's Cup. During the 2005 Rolex Transatlantic Challenge she beat out another Greg Elliott design Maximus for line honours and set the new record of 9 days, 15 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds.
Maximus is a 100 ft maxi yacht built by TP Cookson for Charles St. Clair Brown; The boat was designed by Greg Elliott and Clay Oliver and launched in Auckland in February 2005. For the 2005 summer sailing season in the UK, Maximus was sponsored by ICAP. She won line honours in the Fastnet Race with a time of 68 hours 2 minutes 7 seconds, though Iromiguy won on corrected time. Despite the very calm conditions, her tall rotating rigging allowed higher wind speeds some distance above the water's surface to be accessible, giving her an advantage over rivals. ICAP sponsored Maximus again for the 2006 season. Maximus was acquired by accountant Anthony Bell and renamed Investec LOYAL. She underwent modifications by Greg Elliott, came second to Wild Oats XI in 2010 and won line honours in the 2011 Sydney to Hobart in a very close race.
