RICHARD BRANSON SAILING ABOARD NECKER BELLE WITH KATE WINSLET

NECKER BELLE RICHARD BRANSON LUXURY CATAMARAN SLIDESHOW

Here is a slideshow of Necker Belle and her new interior. All the pictures belong to Virgin Limited Edition.



Virgin Limite Edition - Copyright - Necker Belle

RICHARD BRANSON "NECKER BELLE" ENTERS THE BVI SPRING REGATTA

I like Richard Branson. He has good taste and seems to really enjoy life. Check how he has redesigned "Necker Belle". He enjoys racing and I am happy to see that luxury catamaran can also take part to regattas. Good luck to Richard and "Necker Belle" crew.

Copyright Andrea Francolini/ Virgin Limited

Word by Charlotte Tidball for Virgin Limited Edition

BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival - Virgin Limited Edition is delighted to announce that Necker Belle, its 105 foot luxury catamaran, will be racing in the 2011 edition of the event which takes place in the British Virgin Islands between the 28th March and 3rd April 2011 to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the BVI Spring Regatta.

Necker Belle will also be setting a new record as ‘the largest catamaran to ever enter’ the race as no other sail boat that has competed in the race in previous years has been over one hundred feet.

Richard Kellett, Necker Belle’s Captain, commented: 'The entire crew of Necker Belle are thrilled to be racing in the regatta for the first time. Not only will it be incredible fun for all involved, it is a great local event but is known worldwide and a fantastic way to promote the British Virgin Islands as what is undoubtedly the best sailing ground in the world.'

Necker Belle will also be participating in the 40th anniversary celebrations taking place that week which will include live music and fireworks. Sir Richard Branson will be sponsoring the live music band – Elvis White, on Friday 1st April.

Today the BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival is one of the Caribbean’s premier annual racing events and one of the largest in the world. Held annually, the BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival is now a seven-day event with two events back-to-back attracting an average of 150 yachts per year with eighty percent of the competitors from overseas.

2010 WORLD SUPERYACHT AWARD

The awards were held last saturday at London's Guildhall. Richard Branson's Necker Belle, the Swath Silver Cloud and the designer Adam Voorhees were awarded.

The 33 meter, luxurious and fast sailing catamaran, Necker Belle was awarded under the best refit category with the judge's special commendation. She was refitted by the Azzura shipyard in Australia. The refit included strengthening the structure, up-grading the hydraulic steering system, repositioning the helm stations, and re-rigging with a carbon mast and a new mast food structure. The interior was also taken care of with a new electric system and wiring. The interior was entirely redesigned. To make it short Necker Belle is brand new.

The 133 feet, SWATH "Silver Cloud", was awarded the voyager's award. This amazing catamaran built by Abeking and Rasmussen was already awarded last year with the technology award. It has since then been launched and is sailing around the world. Check his website and the picture galleries, they are amazing.

Finally, the Young Designer Award was given to California based, Adam Voorhees, not for a multihull but for his RA project. I visited his website and I found this very innovative catamaran project Riparian designed to optimize living space on-board.

LUXURY CATAMARAN WEBSITE - THE WINNER IS LADY BARBARETTA

The winner of the pool "your favorite catamaran website" is LADY BARBARETA (CMN), followed by CHE (SUNREEF) and WONDERDFUL (YAPLUKA). Thanks to the 31 readers who have participated to the pool. The results seems logical to me and it would be a shame for LADY BARBARETTA not to finish first since she is or was (if you know if she has been sold yet let me know) the property of Richard Branson, the communication gourou. Richard Branson bought this yacht at the end of year 2005 at a time it was listed by the marketing agressive Edminston company at 9.2 Million $. (via Luxist). The main advantage of LADY B website is the quality of the pictures and really of the three video displayed : lifestyle, onboard and water. Watching the movies really makes you want to charter this catamaran which offers great leaving space inside and performance under sail. You can find more information about LADY B in this previous post I wrote in April. This pool has generated quite a few connection to the catamarans website. Maybe I will launch another pool soon, if there is a subject you would be interested in let me know.

RW 100 - LEVI DESIGNS

I discovered this amazing project in the latest issue of Boat International, one of my favorite magazine. Like most magazines at the end of the year they publish design trends for the year to come. Martin Levi, from design studio levi, has designed this amazing yacht which starts as a catamaran and ends as a monohull !!!! Quote from Boat International on page 137 "This unique vessel's highly original hull geomtery is called a reverse tri-cycle".

This shape in fact is very logical: when the boat goes fast the air it generates enters the space between the two hulls and since there is an obstacle at the end, the air lifts the boat thus reducing wetted area resistance and increasing the speed. This yachts is supposed to achieve a range of 2000 nautical miles at 90 knots !!!! and 2 800 at 50 knots her cruising speed !!! What is the gaz tank capacity ?

An under cover deck will host twin helipad, swimming pool and relaxing areas. The RW 100 will also welcome a tender dock, a submarine and a motorcycle and car garage.

Levi is not knew to designing fast boats he has designed the Virgin Atlantic Challenger II for Richard Branson. Is this yacht for Brason too?

If you like boat design I recommend you to buy the January 2008 issue of Boat International. Most of the time I am not a real fan of motoryacht but there is a great article on SILVER a 73.3 m with a very narrow 10 m beam designed by Espen Oeino International and built at the Hanseatic Marine shipyard in Australia. Check their website the pictures of SILVER are really beautiful.