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Hap’s Bella Mente Wins 2015 RORC Caribbean 600
The team at the docks after racing (Photo Credit: RORC/Ted Martin)
Hap Fauth’s Maxi 72, Bella Mente has been declared the overall winner of the 2015 RORC Caribbean 600. Although several yachts are still racing as of this morning (Friday, February 27), none of the remaining teams have the ability to better Bella Mente’s corrected time under IRC. Third time proved to be the charm for Bella Mente as the Maxi 72 has finished second overall for the past two years. Bella Mente was also the winner of the highly competitive IRC Zero Class and retained the Bella Mente Trophy as the first IRC Yacht to finish that is wholly manually powered, without either variable or moveable ballast.
A delighted Hap Fauth spoke about the achievement and was full of praise for both the race team and shore crew:
Friday, before the race start, we had a structural problem with the boat and limped home from practice to assess the problem. We took the boat apart and for two days the shore team set up a temporary boat building workshop and did a great job just to get us to the start line. Throughout the race we had no problems at all and my hat goes off to our ground crew.
This is the third go at winning this race and three is the beauty! This is the third Bella Mente since 2006 and the majority of this team have been with me for at least five years – it is an outstanding group of guys. They like each other, we have a good time together – they are all mates. Everybody puts safety first, that’s the way it should be offshore but after that we push to the limit.
This race is a series of sprints and every leg is different, you are trying to get out of the blocks at the start of each segment and as soon as you get going, you are looking to get to top speed without increasing the distance sailed in that quest for boat speed. We try to make a couple of minutes up at every corner – with 12 corners if you save three minutes a corner then that makes a real difference to your finish time. Everybody works together, it is our big strength; the crew did a phenomenal job.
We knew that the wind direction would flick to the south east just as we were arriving at Guadeloupe and, although we were looking at the current situation, we had pretty much made the decision to take our chances by going inshore. In the past, we have had some bad experiences going offshore, if you run out of wind you can get trapped for a very long time. I would give Bella Mente’s performance in the wind shadow a solid nine out of ten, we did really well but we had to fight for it and use all our skill to keep the boat going. Moose (Mike Sanderson) was driving, Terry (Hutchinson) and Ado (Adrian Stead) had their eyes out of the boat and I was just giving them the numbers and I believe that combined tactical sailing knowledge got us through.
Bella Mente during the 2015 RORC Caribbean 600 (Photo Credit: RORC/Tim Wright/Photoaction.com)
Nicknamed the ‘Guadeloupe Casino’, the wind shadow of Guadeloupe can make or break a performance as the largest and tallest island on the course can be an unforgiving trap. Bella Mente’s British navigator, Ian Moore, spoke about a crucial part of the course:
We knew that the wind direction would flick to the south east just as we were arriving at Guadeloupe and, although we were looking at the current situation, we had pretty much made the decision to take our chances by going inshore. In the past, we have had some bad experiences going offshore, if you run out of wind you can get trapped for a very long time. I would give Bella Mente’s performance in the wind shadow a solid nine out of ten, we did really well but we had to fight for it and use all our skill to keep the boat going. Moose (Mike Sanderson) was driving, Terry (Hutchinson) and Ado (Adrian Stead) had their eyes out of the boat and I was just giving them the numbers and I believe that combined tactical sailing knowledge got us through.
Hap Fauth had left nothing to chance in his quest to win the RORC Caribbean 600 and brought a team of world class sailors to run the afterguard which included Volvo Ocean race winning skipper, New Zealand’s Mike “Moose” Sanderson, current Rolex US Sailor of the Year, American Terry Hutchinson and British America’s Cup tactician, Adrian Stead, who has been on the winning team for the RORC Caribbean 600 on three occasions. Mike Sanderson spoke about Bella Mente’s victory:
It was a great race at the end of the day and we had Maserati to race with some of the time. To be boat-on-boat with a Volvo 70 was a nice surprise. We have worked on the boat very hard since we were here last year. Hap loves this race and it was very pleasing for us sitting on the dock feeling that we didn’t leave anything on the table. This was one of our best overall performances. We have two big races this year; the RORC Caribbean 600 and the Rolex Fastnet and we have produced a sail programme that covers the range well for those races. At one point we went through the lee of Leopard, reaching with a jib-top. Leopard is a fast 100 ft canting keel boat, so we are really excited at how well Bella is going with its new mast and new sails. We have done a lot of work on the aero-package and the boat feels great and she is going quick but we are really ringing its neck. To be honest the boat is pretty cranky and very physical. It is some of the most physical keel boat sailing that we do because you are muscling a windward leeward orientated boat around a reaching course, so it is tough on the wheel and there is a lot of grinding for the big boys.
Bella Mente has become the third Maxi 72 to win the race overall and the fifth American owner to win the RORC Caribbean 600 Trophy. The RORC Caribbean 600 Prizegiving will take place on Friday 27th February at the Antigua Yacht Club.
Bella Mente Crew: (Owner) Hap Fauth, Thomas Allin, James Baxter, Michele Cannoni, Carlo Castellano, Sean Clarkson, Sean Couvreux, James Dagg, Federico Giovanelli, Peter Henderson, Terry Hutchinson, Keats Keeley, Brian Macinnes, Craig Monk, Ian Moore, Michael Sanderson, Matt Smith, Adrian Stead, Morgan Trubovich and Jim Turner.
More photos from the docks after racing (Photo Credit: RORC/Ted Martin)
Les Voiles de St. Barth Update
After competing in the RORC Caribbean 600 later this month, Bella Mente Racing will shift gears for Les Voiles de St. Barth, the third event in its 2015 campaign. The team, led by owner/driver Hap Fauth, will go up against a number of famously talented sailors and highly skilled teams at the six-day regatta, scheduled from April 13-18 off St. Barth.
2014 Les Voiles de St Barth (Photo Credit: Amory Ross)
Les Voiles de St. Barth’s Maxi Division boasts seven teams to-date, including two of the world’s newest racing yachts, Comanche and Rambler 88.
Bella Mente Racing’s Terry Hutchinson, US Sailing’s most recently named Rolex Yachtsman of the Year added that he looks forward to meeting up with his old friend Loïck Peyron, who has been named “Ambassador” of the regatta this year. Peyron, too, has just won his country’s highest sailing honor, having been named the French Sailing Federation’s 2014 Sailor of the Year for winning the 10th edition of the Route du Rhum with his 130-foot trimaran Banque Populaire (designed by the same French contingent behind Comanche).
2014 Les Voiles de St Barth (Photo Credit: Jouany Christophe)
“I know Loïck well,” said Hutchinson, explaining that the two overlapped during the last America’s Cup at Artemis Racing, when Hutchinson was the skipper and Peyron was a consultant (before transitioning into helmsman) due to his vast multihull experience. “He took me sailing on Banque Populaire when I was in Lorient, and it was just awesome. To consider some of the stuff he has done…all that goes into it…all the planning…that stuff doesn’t just happen.” (Peyron is also athree-time winner of the Observer Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race, two-time winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre, and current holder of the Jules Verne Trophy (for the fastest circumnavigation around the world.)
Terry Hutchinson at the 2014 Les Voiles de St Barth (Photo Credit: Jouany Christophe)
“I always came to Saint Barth at the end of a transatlantic race and was so tired I never had time to enjoy myself,” said Peyron, who remedied the situation by competing aboard the maxi yacht Sojana in the inaugural Les Voiles de St. Barth (2010). “By participating in Les Voiles de St. Barth, I was finally able to appreciate the island, as picture-perfect as a post card. The trade winds, the turquoise waters, and these magnificent boats…. We are really lucky to be able to sail in such an extraordinary place!”
Hutchinson, who sailed on Bella Mente during last year’s event only to have all hopes of winning dashed when the boat broke its mast, concurred: “Les Voiles de St. Barth and the RORC Caribbean 600 – those are the go-to regattas in the Caribbean,” he said. “The island (of St. Barth) is beautiful, and the sailing is really great: coastal racing with some good windward/leeward elements to it. And shoreside…you’ve got to work pretty hard to complain about St. Barth.”
For more information on Les Voiles de St. Barth, visit http://www.lesvoilesdesaintbarth.com/
Bella Mente Wins Class at Key West Race Week
It was a nose-to-the-grindstone week for Bella Mente Racing, but that hard work paid off with the team winning IRC 1 at Quantum Key West Race Week (Jan. 18-23). The regatta marks the first of seven high-profile events that owner/driver Hap Fauth and his team of international sailors will be competing in this year.
Bella Mente Racing after claiming class victory at Quantum Key West Race Week (Photo Credit: Rob Ouellette)
“This was a great start to what we anticipate to be our most competitive campaign to-date,” said Fauth adding the year culminates with the Maxi 72 Rolex World Championship in Sardinia this September. “Joining me in the afterguard are Terry [Hutchinson], Moose [Mike Sanderson] and Ian Moore, and they really hit it out of the park for this event. The entire crew performed impeccably.”
Bella Mente Racing had its share of ups and downs throughout the week, including colliding with a submerged object during Wednesday’s racing, but the team rose to the challenge.
“We rebounded from adversity and it showed Bella’s performance after the mid-week grounding. The last two days resulted in three victories in the four races,” said Fauth.
Tactician and Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Terry Hutchinson added, “We experienced the full gamut this week, but you need to go through those highs and lows collectively as a team in order to grow. Boat Captain Peter Henderson and the shore team were extremely prepared when the collision occurred and Bella Mente was back in the water, ready to race the next day.”
Today was the windiest day of event, coming in between 18 and 21 knots, and Bella Mente along with fellow mini maxis Numbers and Shockwave raced two short windward-leeward courses.
“There are a lot of subtleties to sailing these boats well,” added Hutchinson. “For starting and boat handling I give us really high marks. Our goal is to continue to turn our weaknesses into strengths as we move forward.”
“We have a lot of incredible sailors onboard and our goal this year is to streamline that talent so we race as a unit. That, combined with discipline and structure will help us develop the ability to consistently win.”
Key West Race Week: Day 4
Bella Mente Racing wrapped up day four of Quantum Key West Race Week with a first and second in the two races of the day. The IRC 1 class and the rest of the regatta fleet experienced shifty, challenging conditions on the racecourse.
Bella Mente during day four of Quantum Key West Race Week (Photo Credit: Ultimate Sailing/Sharon Green)
“It was a good bounce back day for Bella Mente,” said Terry Hutchinson, Rolex Yachtsman of the Year and Bella Mente Racing Tactician. “The day started with the jury reversing the redress after our competitors brought new information that rightfully pointed out flaws in the decision. But from there nothing changed. We went out on the water and got down to business. Hap [Fauth], Doogie [Sean Couvreux], and Soapy [Ian Moore] executed two consistent starts and consistent boat handling throughout. Numbers won the first race of the day by one second and we won race two, leaving us tied for first going into the final day of racing tomorrow. The forecast for today is slightly more breeze. It will be good to see how Bella does with the new rig and sails in slightly up range conditions.”
Bella Mente during day four of Quantum Key West Race Week (Photo Credit: Ultimate Sailing/Sharon Green)
Key West Race Week: Day 1
Bella Mente Racing wrapped up day one of Quantum Key West Race Week with a second and first, respectively, in today’s two races. The team, led by owner/driver Hap Fauth, goes into tomorrow holding first place, one point ahead of fellow mini maxi Numbers.
“Today was a solid start to our event,” said Bella Mente Racing Tactician Terry Hutchinson. “Our goal as a team is to continue to focus on improving all aspects of our game. The boat handling was solid in and out of both top and bottom marks, yet we did not win the first cross with our competitor at either start. There is plenty to focus on with tactics and starting position. I would give a big nod to Hap and the team for getting every inch on the first beat in both races. We still have lots of work to do, so we’ll keep pushing forward.”
The team’s Crew Boss Mike Sanderson added, “It’s great to be back on Bella Mente, and what better place to kick off the 2015 program than Key West. The boat felt great today. We have new guys, a new mast and a new sail program. It was very exciting to see our girl [Bella Mente] with new wheels. It’s going to be a great week with great racing. We have two very strong teams to race against so it’ll be a lot of fun.”
Stay tuned for race reports throughout the week at https://bellamenteracing.com/. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
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