2017 Here we go! Bella Mente is off and running to the Carribean! The Bella Mente Shore Team loaded Bella today and the ship has departed from Cracker Boy Boat Works in Riviera Beach, Florida to Antigua for the start of our 2017 Season! We kick off racing in February in the RORC Carribean 600! #bellamenteracing #rorc #
(Photo Credit: Peter Henderson & Whitney Curtin)
We are very proud to announce the newest and smallest member of the Bella Mente Family! Captain Peter ‘Pirate’ Henderson and wife Taylor Henderson welcomed baby Jack Abner Henderson (named after their paternal Grandfathers) on Wednesday, November 30th, 2016! This is the first little crew member for the Henderson family! Jack and Taylor are both doing great!
We are so proud to welcome baby Jack into the World! We can’t wait to get him on Bella Mente!
(Photo Credit: Peter Henderson)
Cheers to the New Year. May it be a memorable year. Happy New Year from the entire Bella Mente Racing Family!
Photo Credit: Carlo Borlenghi
Friday, December 30, 2016
West Palm Beach, Florida – As we wrap up a very successful and competitive 2016 season, the shore crew, now based in West Palm Beach, Florida till late January 2017 is hard at work preparing for our first campaign of the season. The crew is working to get Bella ready for our offshore racing campaign at the 2017 RORC Caribbean 600 Race.
Hap Fauth and his crew will launch Bella for the first time in 2017 in English Harbour, Antigua in late January 2017 with a start date of the Caribbean 600 on Monday, February 22nd, 2017. #gobellago #bellamenteracing #westpalmbeach #offshoreracingprep #RORCCaribbean600 #peterhenderson #oliverdickens #shorecrew
Photo Credits: Oliver Dickens
Monday, December 12th, 2016
Bella Mente Training Session: Fort Lauderdale
Bella Mente, led by owner/driver Hap Fauth (Naples, Fla.) wrapped up a productive week of training in Fort Lauderdale, Florida this past week. The training season completes the successful 2016 campaign by Fauth and his Maxi72 Crew with wins at the Quantum Key West Race Week, Maxi72 North American Championship in Newport, RI, Copa del Rey MAPFRE in Mallorca, Spain and the Rolex Maxi 72 World Championships in Porto Cervo, Italy.
This past week in Fort Lauderdale kicked off the start to a rigorous 2017 campaign where Fauth and Crew will spend the winter in the Caribbean and Summer in Europe. The team reviewed the 2016 campaign challenges and successes and most importantly trained and planned for 2017. The team sailed 4 days off the coast of Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Bella Mente now will be at home in West Palm Beach till early 2017 when the Maxi72 will move to the Caribbean. Fauth will kick off at the helm at the Caribbean 600 in Antigua on February 22nd, 2017.
Terry Hutchinson
“Bella Mente just wrapped up a 5-day training session in Fort Lauderdale. This time in isolation affords Bella the opportunity to work through lessons learnt form the season and map out our development in 2017. In retrospect I could argue that this was one of our best sessions yet. Great discussion with a lot of smart minds. We know that the competition is not resting and with the new Botin 72 Cannonball Bella Mente has her work cut out in 2017. As always applying a continual improvement approach in all areas of the program will allow us to develop.”
Mike Sanderson
“Our December session has now become part of the Bella Mente program for the past few seasons and I am a huge believer in it, whenever we are in full regatta mode there really isn’t enough time to try anything too “out of the box” … so the December session gives us an opportunity to be more adventurous with concepts and set-ups that we want to try. Next season will be our sixth season in this hull, so we do have too keep pushing. Having now been back to back world Champions the target on our back will be even bigger next year and I have no doubt we are going to have our hands seriously full to stay ahead of the other guys…. But the Bella only knows one way and that is to be brave and fight for every inch.
I doubt any of the stuff that we tested this week we will end up running 100% with, that’s mainly due to the fact that during the December session our aim is to find “the edge” of the concept with the knowledge that we can then work back from there.
A Huge thank you from all your guys must go to our wonderful Skipper Hap Fauth, Hap is “the Man” and we all love being a part of Team Bella. Merry Christmas to everyone and Bring on 2017!”
Adrian Stead
“A great training session in Ft Lauderdale. 2 days of a solid 20 knots and good waves followed up with some light and medium air training.
Rob Ouellette
“This is the third year that we have had a training session in south Florida in an effort to get a jump on the season ahead. Although sometimes tedious, every day we can spend on the water with Hap and the entire team is a gain for us and an advance on what we can learn about the boat, the sails and the setup. This year we spent most of our time developing the sail inventory, with lots of time in the evenings spent at the sail loft making changes that will help us through all the 2017 campaign. We are all looking forward to getting back on the race course in Antigua in February.”
(Photo Credits: James Lyne)
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Saturday, December 10th, 2016
Bella Mente Racing celebrated Christmas early this week in Fort Lauderdale. Hap Fauth and his Maxi72 Team enjoyed a great week of sailing off the coast of sunny south Florida and a fun holiday party to celebrate a fantastic 2016 season and toast to 2017!
Cheers to 2017!
The original Bella Mente Racing campaign kicked off in 2006 with Key West Race Week, and since then owner and skipper Hap Fauth has had three additional racing yachts in the program.
Launched in September of 2018, the current Bella Mente is a Maxi 72 designed by Botin Partners in Spain and built by New England Boatworks in Rhode Island.
