Here is an update from the boat captain, Pete “Pirate” Henderson.

After Key West Race Week, the Bella boys pushed hard to delivery the boat back to Palm Beach, get the scoop installed, and then move everything to San Diego. The Wednesday after Key West, the scoop part arrived from NEB (New England Boatworks) in the back of a U-haul box truck. That afternoon we loaded the 20ft container on a flat bed with the bulb and keel. The sail container went on another flat bed and the rig and cradle on yet another flat bed.

These 3 trucks left for San Diego. Sammy “Snowflake” Loughbrah followed them out to California with the Bella truck. Pirate and Sammy met the rig, keel, bulb, cradle and containers in SD and set up Bella’s base at Driscoll’s Mission Bay Boatyard. Driscoll’s will be the base for the next few months as the team preps for the Cabo, Coastal Cup and Transpac Races.

Meanwhile, Thomas and Ryan stayed with the yacht to help Al Fresco Composites install the scoop at Cracker Boy Boat Works. We need to thank these guys for the hot days they spent stuck in a tyvek suit, laminating and fairing inside a very warm shrinkwrap tent.

This past Friday the boat was moved out of the Eagle Eye paint shed at Cracker Boy. The Eagle Eye team did a nice job getting the new part painted and blended in a short time frame. Ryan, John Von and Pirate loaded the boat on a low rider flat bed trailer with some specially built trucking bunks on Saturday. These bunks hold the yacht at a 15 deg angle of heel to allow the width to get inside the trucking maximum width and under the trucking maximum height.

Bob the trucker had to wait until Monday morning because of oversized load restrictions for travel in Florida on the weekends. He left this morning before dawn, and is currently headed across the Florida panhandle. ETA in San Diego is next weekend, for an offload on Monday February 28.

JV is headed to San Diego to help Fitzgerald Racing finish up installing the kelp cutter and putting the bulb and keel back together. The rest of the team will meet this week to get the cradle sorted, the work container offloaded, and prep to offload the yacht from the truck. Early next week we will put Bella back on the keel and into the cradle.

Some of the Team is in Newport for the first part of the week to finalize the deck layout of Bella 72.

Thanks to all those who helped us accomplish so much in so little time.

See everyone in California.

Pirate