Barn Door Trophy under threat from refitted Bakewell-White supermaxi

by Richard Gladwell Sail-World.com/nz on 5 Sep 2014 The extensively refitted Bakewell-White supermaxi, Rio, has emerged from the Cookson yard taking her first steps in a serious tilt at the prestigious Barn Door Trophy in the Transpac Race, sailed from Los Angeles to Hawaii.

After being based in Australia since 2008, Bakewell-White Yacht Design's 30m Supermaxi 'Lahana' (nee Konica Minolta, nee Zana) returned to New Zealand for what the designer called 'a major refit'.

The rebuild is took place at the highly regarded Cookson Boats yard in Auckland's North Shore. She has been taken to Gulf Harbour marina at the northern end of the inner Hauraki Gulf, for final fit-out including being keel attachment and stepping her mast.

Renamed 'Rio', her new US owners wanted a boat that would be able to have a serious crack at the Barn Door Trophy in the Transpac Race, which runs from Los Angeles to Hawaii.

The Barn Door Trophy is a slab of carved koa wood traditionally awarded to the monohull with the fastest elapsed time, but can't be won by a yacht that uses stored power to operate a canting keel or power winches.

Rio features a fixed keel strut and bulb.

Under the upgraded design, Rio has been lengthened from 98 to 100ft overall, and had beam added along with more draft, and her overall weight has been reduced. She will retain the same mast, but has been fitted with a new boom and will carry sails from Doyle Sails with a full set of the latest generation Carbon\ICE technology.