Bella Mente Racing bids farewell to its homeport of Newport today to embark on the 635-mile Newport Bermuda Race. In 2012, the 72-foot mini maxi won the biennial ocean classic’s Harvey Conover Memorial Trophy for being the second yacht to finish in the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division (IRC).
Bella Mente during the 2012 Newport Bermuda Race (Photo Credit: Daniel Forster/PPL)
“We have done a lot of preparation and worked as hard as possible to get where we are right now, and Bella Mente has a good opportunity to win the race,” said owner/driver Hap Fauth who has been competing in the Newport Bermuda Race on different boats since he was 16-years-old. “Distance racing is a lot different than around-the-buoys, and there are a lot of adjustments that need to be made to the boat and crew to be ready for it. It is all about slowing down and executing. Doing things safely but getting it done.”
2012 Newport Bermuda Race Fleet (Photo Credit: Daniel Forster/PPL)
Also in the 164-boat fleet is fellow mini maxi Shockwave which won the IRC class back in 2012. Bella Mente will race with 18 sailors onboard, and Fauth will be joined in the afterguard by John Cutler, Ian Moore and Mike Sanderson.
“Our strategic decisions for the first twelve hours of the race are still being decided this morning,” said Sanderson adding that the team aims to complete Newport Bermuda in less than three days. “For a boat of Bella Mente’s speed the racecourse is split into three quite distinct phases. We will sail in light air for the first 250 miles before hitting the Gulf Stream. At this point we will experience the strongest amount of water flow and could be sailing upwind in quite a lot of wind, which has the potential of being a little bit heinous. After that, we should get into some pretty nice southwesterly reaching conditions that will helpblast us to Bermuda.
The most important part of the race is when we are playing the Gulf Stream, because it is the most risky from a safety standpoint; also, if we get the currents wrong it could drastically change our speed and our outcome in the race.”
Bella Mente is racing in the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division and will start off Castle Hill in Newport, R.I. today at 2:30 p.m. (EST). Follow the team live during the event through Pantaenius Race Tracking at www.pantaenius.com/NBRtracking.
Dawn says
Good luck crew!