Copa del Rey: Day 3 Coastal Race

Day three’s coastal race at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Racing took a new tack for day three of Copa del Rey MAPFRE, with the event’s fleet embarking on a longer coastal race instead of the windward leewards it competed in on Monday and Tuesday. Hap Fauth’s Maxi 72 Bella Mente finished the 30-mile race in second place, behind Dieter Schon’s Momo but won today’s protest and ended up taking the first place position. The team holds the overall lead in the class and took home the event’s “Midweek First Place Trophy”. For the final three days of the event, the fleet will return to shorter buoy-to-buoy racing.

Day three’s coastal race at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Hap Fauth

We had some extremely close racing today, and positions changed frequently. We are delighted with our overall finish and the entire crew gets ‘high fives’ for their diligent work on such a hot and shifty day. Team effort was at a full 100 percent.

Midweek Award Ceremony (© Tomas Moya)

Terry Hutchinson

A solid effort on Bella Mente today. The race was roughly 30 miles and primarily windward-leeward orientation.

Hap, Soapy (Ian Moore), and Doogie (Sean Couvreux) nailed the start to windward of Momo on the pin, but we could not hang onto Momo all the way to layline and had to tack three minutes shy. From there it was nip and tuck, and we managed to round the top mark second and proceeded to tussle with Momo down the run. A disagreement on overlap or no overlap at the bottom with Momo found Bella rounding the left gate in third place. For the next 25 miles, we scrapped and clawed our way to Proteus’ transom, with the goal to always stay close and wait for an opportunity.

Fortunately the plan worked. Trailing by a boat length we simultaneously gybed and were able to roll over Proteus. It was a rewarding moment for Bella, as we displayed mental toughness all day.

We had solid results today, however the regatta is only halfway over.