Shiny new boat

Mills IRC 68 comes out of the shed in Rhode Island

Launched on Saturday Alegre, a Mills 68 foot design, hit the waters off New England Boatworks in Rhode Island.

The IRC racer is due to ship to Europe in the next couple of weeks where her propsed schedule is to include the Round Ireland Race and Cork Week after which Alegre heads to the Med for the Rolex Middle Sea and Voiles de St Tropez and the Maxi Worlds in Sardinia.

Designer Mark Mills says that the boat has been optimised for light to medium air and a bias towards inshore racing. " Alegre's owner was looking for a phased step up in his racing and so the boat's design reflects this - she is not an extreme IRC racer. She is prehaps a little slimmer than the current trend and carries a little more weight in the bulb," he commented.

Built in pre-preg carbon/Nomex/Corecell at NEB a feature of the hull is the sparkling silver metallic paint - a theme which continues below we believe.

The boat has a retractable drive/prop unit, Halls Spars mast and Harken deck hardware. The build has been project managed by Guy Salter. Next in line at NEB is a Reichel-Pugh 75 due to launch in December.

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