La Vita e’ Bella was named by her previous owner who was of proud Italian heritage and a skilled model boat builder. Her name means “This Life is Beautiful!” and I thought that was so perfect, I simply couldn’t change it!
Her hull is glued lap construction in mahogany ply, with 3/4 steam bent oak frames, with no visible fastenings. The outside of her hull was glassed over, from the waterline down, when built, and she still does not leak a drop, despite 26 years on her trailer! Her deck is ply as well and her cockpit coaming, fore hatch, and other trim are mahogany. Barto also built her a very light, but solid glued, ply cockpit cover, which I think has also kept her very clean, dry, and nearly new condition all these years!
Bella has “Shawn and Tenney” spoon-bladed oars, and she rows very quickly and comfortably, for as long as you care to do so. When I purchased her in the Fall of 2019, her original gaff-rigged sail, cut to Barto’s design, proved to be poorly cut! As a result, she sailed very poorly and healed excessively. Fortunately, however, the previous Crawford Melonseed that I still owned and had not yet sold came with an extremely well cut, beautiful cream-colored, and 10 square foot larger (and 15 in. taller), sprit rigged sail. I had much preferred this sail on the Crawford, So I chose to sell the Crawford with it’s stock sail, lengthened Bella’s mast, and use this custom sail on her instead!
The new sail and rig was a game-changer indeed! Not only was Bella instantly faster, especially in light air! She also surprisingly, healed much less even in much stronger winds and before needing a reef. She seems to only need that reef, only once the winds reach 18-20 mph. And in true ghosting conditions, she repeatedly out-sails larger boats or even the high school kids in their Lasers!
She’s very relaxed and predictable, solo, and with two aboard she’s even more stable, and comfortable. Two can sit sideways but facing each other, leaning back comfortably and confidently against her rounded mahogany coaming and easily chat while simply turning her though, from one tack to another, without having to trade positions or hike out at all! The wonders of a catboat rig!
I’m totally in love with this little gem now and next want to design her a small bowed tent for some dinghy cruising adventures with my PT Pocketyachter buddies, ASAP!