Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Refit Begins

An enormous shipbuilding crane hauled our ECO 60 out of the water at Detyens Shipyard in North Charleston yesterday, where hardworking shipbuilders and technicians supervised the gentle placement of the racing yacht in a custom-built cradle nearby.Yes, it made us all a bit nervous seeing the light, thin skinned carbon baby swinging from water to land, but thankfully we had experts on hand! We will conduct a comprehensive refit over the next three months in a building on the old Charleston Navy Base in preparation for the VELUX 5 OCEANS 2010-11 race.

The complete refit will include extensive work disassembling the rig, rudders, keel and daggerboards, while the entire deck layout and sail handling systems will be modified to suit my sailing style and the intricacies of sailing a 60-foot boat competitively alone. The electronics package is one of the most important performance tools on a modern racing yacht, and we will replace the entire system currently aboard the boat. The new system of radar, chart plotters, autopilots, and communications gear will be from B&G, with the latest high-performance chipsets and software.

A special thanks to Charleston Rigging, Pierside Boatworks, Seabreeze Marina, and Urban Electric for their support offered to the project.

Thanks for keeping up with our progress,
Brad

Photos by Meredith Block, blocksail.com

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