Copa del Rey Champs!

Day six at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (©María Muiña)

After a rigorous five days of racing at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE, Hap Fauth’s Maxi 72 Bella Mente took the win for the highly competitive Montblanc Maxi 72 Class. The 2015 Maxi 72 World Champions and 2016 Maxi 72 North American Champions finished off the marathon week taking a second and first place finish, respectively, in today’s racing.

Hap Fauth

Basically this is a family. I started sailing at seven and competing not long after. I moved out to the Mid West, built my businesses and raised a family and then got back into it. I treat this team like I treat my businesses and my family. This is a non-star program. We win as a team and lose as a team. Everybody is accountable for their part of the team.

This week was a successful one and an incredible team-building experience, especially as we prep for the Maxi 72 World Championships, which kick off next week.

Terry Hutchinson

It was a hard fought day on Bella Mente. For me, it was potentially the best team day we have had in 19 months. The first race was a nip and tuck battle and after getting the side of the start that we wanted from Proteus, we worked really hard to keep them in last. Mission accomplished and so we went into the final race with a two point lead. The only requirement to hold onto our lead was to keep Proteus out of first.

It’s funny how it seems that our sport is sometimes as we felt in complete control of the pre-start right up until the last 14 seconds. We were quite confident that we were pushing Proteus over the line, but a bit of miscommunication on my part let them off the hook. While they did not get away clean, they did start to the right. This error gave Proteus the favorable right hand side and the lead in the race and event at the first mark. In Bella Mente fashion though, we hung tough. A solid dummy gybe 70% of the way down the run got us out of synch with the fleet and allowed us to pass through to the lead. This margin was enough and yet Proteus continually asked the question and Bella Mente responded. It was a hard fought series and really great to see the competitiveness of the racing.

Looking forward to the Rolex Maxi World Championships in three weeks time. We have plenty of work to do, but for the next 24 hours we can enjoy this moment and get back to planning.

Mike Sanderson

Today’s weather forecast was tricky again. After it blew so hard yesterday it was always going to be tough for the Palma sea breeze e to be able to wrap around the corner and give us a nice steady day of yachting.

Mathematically in order to secure the overall win it was all about beating Proteus. Even with two fourths today we would still be ahead of the other two boats, so we just had to pay full attention to Proteus. In the first race, we got a nice start and did our best to not get tangled up with Momo, which was out in front and worked hard to push Proteus back to fight it out with Caol Ila R. That all worked well and we got a solid second place and Proteus took fourth.

In the next race, all we had to do was not let Proteus win or us get third or fourth place, so we engaged them in the pre-start as if it was a match race. It would be fair to say that at the last minute we let them off the hook a little and worse than that, they had the favored side. Around the top mark, Proteus held the first place position while we were stuck in third. But one of the great things about this team is that it just grinds away. The boat was going quick and we were quickly onto the guys in front and then with a dummy gybe we managed to get a split down the run to the side we wanted, allowing us to lead around the bottom mark. Proteus was far from giving up though and on the next beat and run we had a great tussle, but the mighty Bella Mente snuck through for a well deserved win.

We have had fantastic team effort this week. It hasn’t exactly all gone our way, and yet we have just stayed as steady as a rock the entire time. The newer boats are coming at us though for sure and it’s getting tougher and tougher. We are all very much looking forward to the Maxi 72 World Championships next month.