Bruce Elliott stands with one of the mammoth-sized hulls of his catamaran-in-progress, The Snow Leopard.

In its third year of construction, the boat will, if all goes according to plan, be on water by the end of next year. Elliott, who heads Fibreglass North, has three full-time staff working hard to complete it.

To be dubbed The Snow Leopard, the boat will travel the Mackenzie River, then Alaska, finishing its first run at Nanaimo, B.C. There it will be outfitted with a 100-foot mast -- a process too extensive to complete in Yellowknife. Until then, the catamaran will be motor-powered.

Sharon Elliott, Bruce's wife of over 20 years, said the couple's plan is to retire together on it. The couple will spend their land time at their new home at Vancouver Island, selling time shares for The Snow Leopard while not at sea, and then sail the world in their sea home.

Bruce, born in Auckland, has always loved boats, she said, and inherited the affection from his father -- his mother hated boats. Of taking the eventual plunge, so to speak, into building the giant, Sharon said: "I said to him you better get going, we're not getting any younger. So that's why we started."

Elliott devised the plan for the catamaran, which is a type of boat where the frame is supported by two hulls, with Derek Kelsall, an innovator in multi-hulled boats based in New Zealand. The plan is completely modern, said Elliott, adding that ultra-lightweight materials were used to complete the frame.

Both Elliotts are looking forward to getting the boat put together and the frame out of the huge shed it's sheltered in. After all, said Sharon, "It's more fun to see the world than to sit in a house and clean it."