The team has been plenty busy over the last couple of weeks. We all met up in Palm Beach, FL for a couple of days of sailing and idea exchanges for the new boat. Hap has chartered a TP 52 for Key West. We will be sailing Origin’s old boat. We trained on the boat for 3 days and were supposed to race over the weekend in Palm Beach. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and we were not able to race over the weekend.
The 3 days of practice took place in some good breeze and waves and were able to work through quite a few things. It was nice to get the team back together and sailing again. We are all looking forward to racing in Key West. There will be a fleet of 8 52s so it will be some good racing.
The new boat is coming along nicely. Pirate and Rob O have been working hard to nail down lots of the details. The rig is also being constructed at the same time so Pirate is carrying double duty.

Doogie

check out this video of us sailing downwind today off Palm Beach, FL.
We are getting to know the boat and look forward to the racing that starts on Saturday. bella 52

The Hull came off the mold at the beginning of Nov. All went well and looks great. The Hull is back in the oven, leveled, scanned and the internal patching has been installed and cooked. Bulkheads will begin to go in next week, with just the Mast bulkhead left on the table. The drive unit will go in next week as well. The Hull will remain upside down for all this work, so fairing can occur simultaneously.

Work on the deck continues. Structure has begun to be installed. The forward and companion way hatches have been installed. Thomas has been helping Jon Williams align and install the winch system structure, bases and Pedestals.

The engine arrived last week. We will mock it up on the bench and strip it of any excess weight and learn all we can.

Ryan and JV have been busy reconfiguring container world and helping with the build when possible.

The mold for the keel structure has been CNC cut, built and post cured. A significant amount of lamination begins next week.

You can see from the attached photos that the boat will have a bit more volume than the previous boat.

We continue to work on refining the yacht’s systems. The global rig geometry and laminate design is finished. Hall, Alex and I continue to work refining the fittings.

Rob has done a great job keeping this complicated project moving fwd and on schedule.

Congrats to Hap. Last week the NYYC awarded Hap the Mosbacher Trophy. This award is given to the NYYC Yachtsman of the Year. Well deserved Hap!

Talk to you soon,

Pirate

Bella Mente

The new hull getting overturned.

The Bella Mente team has charted the TP52, Origin, for Key West Race Week. The team will meet up in Palm Beach in December for a few days of practice and regatta in order to get aquatinted with the boat. The team will arrive on Nov. 29 and start sailing on the 30th.
Stay Tuned.

Hap really is giving it his all!

The hull is coming along nicely. The bulkheads are getting built and the bits are starting to get laminated inside.

Here’s a few more photos and info on a very pleasant evening at the NYYC.
http://www.nyyc.org/home/article_1118/

Please go take a look at some of the footage from the Transpac on Bella Mente.