Ten years after Ocean Goose was launched in the United Kingdom, and after she had made a handful of transatlantic crossings, Australian Peter Hawker commissioned the design which he and his wife Elisbet were to build in his back yard in Burra Creek, New South Wales.

Five years later she was to leave Darwin to embark on a global circumnavigation which took in Christmas Islands, Cocos Keeling, Chagos, Mayotte each hop taking about six to twelve days. Then having crossed the Indian Ocean passing the top of Madagascar to Dzaoudzi. Then to Durban and Cape Town for Christmas. Then to the Azores, England, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Scotland, and back to England for Christmas 2003, Ireland, Spain and Portugal, Madeira, the Canaries and Panama.

Pelikan is built in wood using strip planks over plywood frames and hull stiffeners. She also has a system of laminated floors to support keel and rig loads. The construction arrangements have been kept simple and without heavy sections – this enabled Peter and Elisbet to build the hull with relative ease and without specialist tools and machinery.