Copa del Rey: Day 4

Day four at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Day four of Copa del Rey MAPFRE brought Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente and the rest of the Maxi 72 Fleet some of the best conditions yet on the Bay of Palma, with sea breeze clocking in between 14 and 17 knots. The team started off the day, winning the first race but dropped down to third in the second and final race of the day. Bella Mente still holds the class lead, one point ahead of Proteus.

Day four at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Adrian Stead

Race 6 and Bella got a great start at the boat and controlled the fleet at the first cross to lead round the top mark. There were great waves for the downwind leg, and we found the rhythm first and put four boat lengths between us and Momo to lead around the gate. A solid second lap saw us take the win with Proteus slipping through to second place.

Race 7 and an inch perfect start one down from the boat. Again we rounded the top first, but at the gate an error on the spinnaker drop allowed Momo through. After an exchange of tacks, Momo gifted the lead to Proteus while Bella slipped back to third, where we stayed through to the finish.

We missed out on the opportunity to put a stranglehold on the regatta, and with four races to go we need to keep battling hard to finish with a win.

Mike Sanderson

Today we have come ashore kicking ourselves. We sailed an excellent first race and had a nice win, and again in the second race Hap and the guys got a great start and we sailed a great first beat to lead around the top mark. We then extended down the run with Hap fully locked in, catching waves and extracting every last ounce of pace out of the Mighty Bella. Then at the bottom mark, it all turned to custard. It was just a case of just one small thing getting us behind the eight ball, and it snowballed from there with the end result being a torn spinnaker stuck in the rigging. By the time we freed it, Momo was past us and Proteus was right in the hunt. Momo then decided to pay us a little too much attention and let Proteus off the hook, which without doing anything clever just sailed past us both.

It’s a tough one for us, but a great wake up call. We have to be able to do the stuff we can control perfectly. We have no crystal ball, so we can’t always get the wind shifts right, that’s a percentage game, but we can control getting sails up and down and that is the whole team’s doing. So yes we are grumpy with ourselves, but we will make sure that we learn from it. One thing I love about this team is that I have no doubt that we will never let it happen again…. Tomorrow is another day and it would be fair to say that we are fully pumped up about getting back amongst it already.