In the fall of 2024, Hound will be preparing for the Transatlantic Race 2025, which will depart Newport on June 18th, 2025. To get her ready for the race, Moore Brothers will help upgrade some of the rigging parts. “It's been almost two years, with two Caribbean seasons without being hauled out and put in a shed with the rig out.” Said Project Manager, Jason Black.

The boat will first be put into a shed and painted at Safe Harbor Jamestown Boatyard and later moved to another shed for the work to be done.

“We're discussing installing a jib halyard lock so that we can transition from a hurricane foil and furler setup that the boat was launched with to a single track g foil or Gorilla foil.” Said Black about the plans for the winter. The idea is to have a single locking halyard, which will help with operations onboard.

“We don't have to worry about halyard stretching or slipping and clutches anymore and it reduces the compression in the rig itself because instead of the load of the sail being on a shiv, which creates a two-to-one loading, you have a single point. So from an engineering standpoint, it should effectively make the rig stronger without adding anything to the rig itself other than hardware.” Black explained.

Most new boats have this setup, so it will make Hound more competitive when racing against them. “Dan, the owner, really is trying hard to get the last 5% of performance out of the boat.” He said. “We have a halyard lock on the main right now and all the downwind sails, but still are operating with a regular shivet halyard for the jibs. So that will allow us to get on common ground with all the halyards”

If all goes well, Hound will launch in the spring, which will give her crew plenty of time for training and setup. Black said that the relationship with Moore Brothers is key in this process of pushing a vessel to perform better. “Hound specifically is such an iterative process.” He said. “Just having that team approach from them, having the resources that they have to be able to take the concepts and the ideas and the desires that we have and put them actually into the parts is fantastic.”