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Update: Bella Mente is back in the USA!

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Bella Mente Loading in Olbia, Sardinia

Bella Mente Loading in Olbia, Sardinia

Bella Mente was loaded and shipped from Olbia, Sardinia on September 23rd and arrived at West Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday, October 12th. The following day, the boat was offloaded then hauled at Crackerboy Boat Works. This week the Bella Mente Racing team is setting up shop at the boatyard and will be doing some cleanup and servicing of the boat, and also preparing it for deck and touch-up painting. Bella Mente will be stationed in Florida until early January when it will kick-off its 2014 campaign.

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Bella Mente, along with other mini maxis Caol Ila R and Shockwave, in West Palm Beach, Fla. before its haul out at  Crackerboy Boat Works

Bella Mente at Crackerboy Boat Works
Bella Mente at Crackerboy Boat Works

Looking Back on 2013

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Quantum Key West Race Week

Quantum Key West Race Week (Photo Credit Jesús Renedo)

Bella Mente Racing has wrapped up its 2013 campaign, and here is a photo timeline showing one of the team’s favorite photos from each of the events this year.  We are already getting excited for 2014!

RORC Caribbean 600 ( Photo Credit RORC/Tim Wright/Photoaction.com)

RORC Caribbean 600 ( Photo Credit RORC/Tim Wright/Photoaction.com)

GAASTRA PalmaVela (Photo Credit Jesús Renedo)

GAASTRA PalmaVela (Photo Credit Jesús Renedo)

Giraglia Rolex Cup (Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi)

Giraglia Rolex Cup (Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi)

Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week (Photo Credit Rick Tomlinson)

Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week (Photo Credit Rick Tomlinson)

Rolex Fastnet Race (Photo Credit Rolex / Kurt Arrigo)

Rolex Fastnet Race (Photo Credit Rolex / Kurt Arrigo)

Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship (Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi)

Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship (Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi)

 

 

 

Day 1: Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship

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The first day of racing started with a whimper, as the Wind Gods failed to live up to their blustery reputation in Porto Cervo. Bella Mente Racing wrestled with precarious conditions  in the first coastal race of the 2013 Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship, finishing in ninth place.

Day 1 of the Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship (Photo Credit Jesús Renedo)

Day 1 of the Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship (Photo Credit Jesús Renedo)

Today began with an hour and a half of postponements onshore followed by a race start in just 7-8 knots of wind. However, the Race Committee handled the marginal weather conditions with grace, taking the Mini Maxi fleet on a two mile windward beat, followed by a 25 mile coastal course, comprised of classic Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup landmarks: an eight mile run around the Island of Mortorio, a passage through Capo Ferro and roundings of Monaci and Secca di Tre Monti before a finish in Porto Cervo.

Day 1 of the Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship (Photo Credit Jesús Renedo)

Day 1 of the Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship (Photo Credit Jesús Renedo)

Bella Mente battled the Italian entry Stig on the beat up to the Monaci rounding, and the second-to-last leg of the race was a tricky run, which included a jib reach into the Gulf of Pevero.

Day 1 of the Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship (Photo Credit Jesús Renedo)

Day 1 of the Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship (Photo Credit Jesús Renedo)

The crew work onboard Bella Mente was flawless today. Hap and the team have already shaken off today’s results and look forward to tomorrow’s racing, which will include two windward leeward races. Stay tuned!

(View the event’s coastal courses by visiting, http://www.yccs.it/images/stories/regate_pdf/2013/courses_2013.pdf)

Day 1 of the Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship (Photo Credit Jesús Renedo)

Day 1 of the Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship (Photo Credit Jesús Renedo)

Bella Mente’s 2013 Grande Finale – The Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship

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Bella Mente Racing will round out its ambitious 2013 campaign in style next week (September 2-7), defending its title as the 2012 Mini Maxi Rolex World Champion during the 24th edition of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo, Italy.
Bella Mente and Stig at at mark rounding during the 2012 Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship (Photo By: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi)

Bella Mente and Stig at at mark rounding during the 2012 Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship (Photo By: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi)

Led by owner/driver Hap Fauth, the 72′ Judel/Vrolijk designed Bella Mente will race with 22 sailors, including newly added tactician, Terry Hutchinson, an America’s Cup Veteran, fresh off competing in the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds in Newport, R.I.

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Class Start at the 2012 Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship (Photo By: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi)

The team will race against a fleet of 13 highly competitive yachts, also fitting the Mini Maxi criteria, including Andres Soriano’s new Mills 72 Alegre, which bested Bella Mente in the Rolex Giraglia Cup back in June and won the 32th Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre Sailing Cup this August. Other fierce contenders include Niklas Zennstrom’s Rán 2, (2010 and 2011 Mini Maxi Rolex World Champion), Alexander Schaerer’s Caol Ila R (2013 Rolex Volcano Race winner), Alessandro Rombelli’s Stig, and George Sakellaris’ Shockwave.

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Bella Mente Racing taking home the 2012 Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship (Photo By: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi)

Bella Mente Racing will be updating Facebook and Twitter daily, but readers can get full race reports and updates at http://regattanews.com/gallery.aspx?eid=294&year=2013&clid=0&ctid=100

Follow Bella during the Rolex Fastnet Race

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(left) Bella Mente Racing heading out to the start (right) owner/driver Hap Fauth on the docks before the Rolex Fastnet

CAPTION: (left) Bella Mente Racing heading out to the start (right) owner/driver Hap Fauth on the docks before the Rolex Fastnet

Bella Mente Racing, along with 350 other vessels, is currently underway in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Track the fleet through Yellowbrick Tracker at http://fastnet.rorc.org/2013-fleet-tracking.html.

For updates on the race, visit the event page at http://fastnet.rorc.org/.

Sail Fast!

About Bella Mente

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.

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