We began this journey with Alex's Hallberg Rassy 352, a very faithful cruiser. But as time and life aboard a sailboat unfolded, we decided we would be even happier with additional space and more length of hull for a faster ride. This 43' Halsey Herreshoff raceboat was built in 1972 for ocean racing and she's as rapid and well performing as she's beautiful. Because of the age of this old lady, and the fact that she wasn't used for the same purpose as we're aiming for in a long time - there are many things to rebuild on her. We're currently busy with parts of that refit here in Cartagena where we'll stay until the boat's ready for the next leg of this voyage.
Click here to see what Alex has done on the boat since we took ownership in December 2011.
Duende has a fiberglass hull. Deck and interior is made of wood which is a mix of mahogany and plywood. You might see that there's neither doors nor cabins in the above drawing, only pipe births, and that's because the boat wasn't originally made for live-aboards but merely for racing. Many alterations has been done on the interior since she was built.
She has a masthead rig with one set of spreaders and two forestays. A deep fin keel, hanging skeg rudder and a Perkins 4108 45 hp inboard engine with a Seahawk two blade folding prop..
And a damn fine tumblehome...
Here's a video showing how well she sails.
