Today was a big day for the team. A little before 4 pm, with all the yard, Hap and his boys watching, the boat hit the water. It was been quite a bit of work to get to this point and everyone is very happy to see her floating nicely at the dock. Tomorrow we will keep working on the boat and rig. The rig is scheduled to go in the boat early Wednesday morning. A very large thanks goes to Pirate, Rob O, Thomas, Ryan, JV, and Kyle who have been putting in some very long hours over the last several months in order to get to this point. The rest of the team will arrive thursday and we have lots of projects to complete before we can go sailing. Wednesday will be a stressful day with the rig going in. This will be the first time the boat sees any serious loads. All ears will be listening to all the little creaks and groans.

The boys are working overtime to get her ready. All is going well. As you can see, the boat now has its bowsprit.

Hello all,

Time is flying by here in RI. Hard to believe how fast the days go by. The NEB build crew, Hall’s build crew, Jon Williams and the Bella Boys have been extremely busy. As you know the boat was post cured last weekend. This weekend the topsides were painted “Bella Blue”. The stripes get painted this evening.

Prior to the post cure, all the structure had been installed, apart from the Prod. The Keel fin and bulb showed up last week. We will put the fin up on the bulb this week. Then the wetsanding begins.

We are fully into the details and systems install. Sheave boxes, ram foundations, toe rails, stanchions, Winch system, hydro system, steering system, electronics, etc. It seems as soon as we cross something off the worklist, we add 2 more.

On the rig, the internal structure and fittings are underway. The offshore boom came off the mold last week.

Pirate

Hap is up for the sailor of the month at Seahorse magazine. Give him your vote!
http://www.seahorsemagazine.com/sailor-of-the-month