We’ve been blessed over the years with the good fortune to work with many great owners and marine professionals, and with the FPB 78 design and build cycle this has continued in a unique manner.

Designing and building yachts is one of the most complex endeavors on the planet. Doing it well is difficult in the extreme. There are so many aspects to be integrated, coordinated, rationalized, that there are bound to be “issues”. The only question is what form they take. For owners, builders, and designers, there is a constant flow of questions and decisions. Once made, execution depends on careful record keeping.

Over the past two years as the FPB 78 has evolved, we have had the pleasure of daily dialogue with two experienced owners, both engineering oriented, with many thousands of FPB miles under their respective keels. Pete Rossin (left above) and Peter Watson (right), have provided a valuable sounding board, while at the same time challenging us with their own ideas. They have assisted us in refining the FPB 78 to take advantage of its full potential, from their perspective of prior FPB ownership. 

Circa has a most excellent cadre of craftspeople – we know of none better – assembled by Circa Managing Director Bruce Farrand (second from left back row). Bruce has an easygoing management style that some might consider soft. His approach belies a finely tuned sense of the correct way of doing things and a razor sharp intellect. Working more closely than ever before with Bruce and his people on the FPB 78, in particular during the past six months, has given us a new appreciation of the Circa Team.

Maryann Sanchez Calustre (front left) is the FPB 78 project manager at Circa. She has the unbelievably complex job of tracking the build of three of these yachts, coordinating between vendors, the shop floor, and owners. Over the past week she has had her hands full with three owners at once, furiously writing in her notebooks, making sure that the plethora of meetings took place on schedule, always with a smile.

Pam Wall, middle, is new to the team, and putting a unique skill set to work on behalf of the FPB 78 project. She has hit the ground running, and right now is helping to rationalize parts acquisition and vendor coordination, a previous area of weakness on our side of the equation.

There are of course many others who have helped the FPB 78 evolve. As time permits over the next few months we will bring them to your attention. For now, homeward bound at 39,000’ over the South Pacific, we just want to shout a big thank you to the folks who have made this project enjoyable and helped us smooth a few edges here and there.