Moore Brothers’ capacity for design innovation, skill in production engineering and attention to detail are among the keys to their success
Published June 2025
Written by Carol Cronin for Seahorse Magazine
Now in their 10th year, Moore Brothers have grown to 45 employees as they completed the build of a ground-breaking prototype flying boat – while simultaneously taking on the marine industry innovations that originally earned them such a dependable reputation. In the past year alone, Moore Bros has delivered multiple successful orders for masts, rudders, and foils, as well as building tooling and mandrels.
They’ve also continued to build custom components, which is why the mini-maxi Bella Mente keeps coming back. After adding twin rudders and the former 72-footer’s (extended to 74ft) first fully integrated water ballast system two years ago, Moore Bros helped the team continue their improvement by adding additional ballast tanks. ‘I work directly with the boat captain Peter “Pirate” Henderson,’ engineer and project manager Simon Day says, ‘to take their projects from conception through to reality.’
Concept brainstorming
This year, Day and Henderson have mapped out yet another upgrade, reducing fill and transfer rates in the ballast tanks. Instead of trying to describe the intricate inner design ballet of modifying custom plumbing in a six-yearold boat, Day zooms in on a 3D Rhino drawing until his latest concept fills the computer screen. As he rotates the model to show different perspectives, he points out that a straight pipe across the boat would be a serious head-banger – just ahead of the companionway.
Bella Mente under sail
Design and Build
Once they finalise the details, Day forwards the drawings to Moore Bros’ hands-on fabrication expert, Mark Raymond; he’ll also run it by the structural engineering expertise of Gunnar Salkind. ‘We have some pretty serious design horsepower,’ says Day. Thanks to their incredible growth over the past three years, they also have equally impressive capacity in sales, management, and production engineering.
‘After the design is finalised,’ Day continues, ‘Mark and I will detail all of the components, design the required tooling, and make construction drawings.’ While Moore Bros’ engineering team is capable of doing all the design work in-house, they sometimes lean on outside contractors when a client or project requires it.
Day’s work doesn’t end when the drawings are completed; the next step is to help the build team prioritise what to make first. ‘The components get built as drawings and tooling become available and then installed when they arrive to the yacht,’ he says. ‘I provide ongoing design support: installation drawings, templates, or jigs as required.’ But he doesn’t micromanage; ‘the final detailing is up to the team on the floor.’ For Bella Mente’s additional ballast tanks, he estimates that the entire process from concept to completed installation took about five months in total.
Continuous improvement
Bella Mente is always making upgrades, Henderson says; ‘Our team is constantly having discussions about what's next.’ For twin rudders, the idea had been batted around for quite a while before they committed to the change. ‘Once we decided to do the ballast project, it made sense to do it all at once because the aft tanks are built around the new rudders.’
That first pair of rudders were what Henderson describes as “Volvo 70” sized; subsequent designs have seen an area reduction. ‘We’ve built two sets of rudders plus a spare, all part of the ongoing development,’ says Day – before clarifying that Moore Bros had to subcontract out one of those sets, because ‘we just didn’t have the time.’
‘The pure sailing performance improvement has been huge,’ the boat captain says.
Shortly after the rudders and ballast were installed, Bella Mente showed off those performance improvements with a win at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup. Owner Hap Fauth quipped at the prize-giving, ‘Our boat had great speed – which compensated for my age!’ Less than a year later, the team posted another significant victory at the IMA Maxi European Championship. ‘She has legs is all I can say,’ her proud owner said. Hap Fauth is constantly challenging his team to make improvements, Henderson explains. ‘He says, “If you’re not making the boat better, you're falling behind.”’
Along with improving the ballast system’s transfer rate, the boat captain and designer are also playing with rudder rake. In recent months Moore Brothers has modified all of the rudders to adjust their rake. ‘At certain angles, the single rudder could get quite loaded. Particularly reaching, the twin rudders are really nice. As we continue to develop the twin rudder setup, we are finetuning the rake to find a happy medium with the helm load,’ Henderson adds.
Turning ideas into working parts
Once the Bella Mente team commits to another upgrade, Henderson says that Moore Bros’ attention to detail is absolutely key to its success. ‘We have a performance group that discusses concepts and the development path,’ he explains. ‘Once the performance group makes the decision on the path forward, I become the conduit between our boatbuilding team and Moore Bros, and I jokingly give them a hard time; “guys, concepts are one thing, executing is another”. We coordinate all that together, then get it to work, and then go and test it.’
A new design of custom stanchions with integrated water balast vents
Moore Bros’ execution has been flawless, he adds. ‘When we did the ballast and the twin rudders, that was an insanely big change to the boat. And we only had one day of testing before the next regatta.’
On their practice day, ‘the first time the rudder loaded, we had a small interference where it passes through the hull; that had to come out and get trimmed up. That was it – and then we went out and raced the next day! That just doesn't normally happen.’
Bella Mente’s new custom stanchions fabricated with precision in carbon fibre
‘The other 72 teams keep a close eye on Bella Mente ’s modifications, as we do on theirs,’ he continues, ‘It's all the little details; there's just so much little stuff to get correct. The better you can execute on the front end, the less time you need to get the systems working correctly on the water and the faster you can develop the performance side.’
Now, after a final tweak to the new ballast tank piping on that computer screen, Day and Henderson are both nodding again; let’s try that. After other members of Moore Bros’ design team add any input, the pieces will be built in their 21,000-square-foot workshop and finally – with Day’s ongoing support and detailed problem-solving – installed by Bella Mente’s crew. Not long after that, it will likely be adopted by many of the trend-setting boat’s competitors.
After years of working on the Regent prototype, Day is enjoying this return to sailing projects. ‘Hopefully there will be other things coming for Regent down the road,’ he predicts, ‘but for now it’s nice to refocus on the marine industry.’
