BELLA MENTE on Wednesdays coastal race. Photo credit: Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi

Todays very breezy coastal distance race proved just what the BELLA team needed to really sail the right angles and use their sail inventory to their advantage.  The superstar of the day seemed to be the fractional Code Zero which was the perfect powerhouse that they needed to seal the win on corrected time.

Perhaps the guys also wanted the win today since tonight activity is a multi-team dinner with the Ran crew and their owners.  These two teams have now matched up in the US, Bermuda, Spain and now here – and have formed a nice camaraderie between teams.  I’m sure there will be much celebrating with today’s success, knowing tomorrow is a no-racing lay day.  Back on Friday for the second coastal race and hopefully a repeat performance.

Hap Fauth, standing on deck. Photo credit: Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi

The first two days of windward-leeward racing for the Mini Maxi World Champion fleet have provided good conditions of steady 15-18 kt breezes for the 6 boat fleet.  Top finishers ALEGRE and RAN are battling out to stay on top, with ALEGRE holding onto that position currently.  BELLA MENTE had a good second day, posting a 3rd for the second race.

Tomorrow brings a coastal race in more big breeze followed by a lay day on Thursday.

Inshore racing began today in Porto Cervo.  The word is over the next week there will be 9 total races, 7 windward-leeward and 2 coastal days.  Monday and Tuesday bring W/L courses followed by a coastal race on Wednesday and a layday on Thursday.  There will be another coastal race on Friday and a final inshore day on Saturday.

Return here to bellamenteracing.com to hear reports on all of the activity.

Regatta News writes:

Yet, when all is said and done, it is likely that the story of the week will be amongst the smallest participants. The Mini Maxis may be the poor relations of the maxi world in terms of size, but for competitive racing they are exceptional. With an inaugural world championship at stake, the prize for success this week is massive, explaining why such large fleet has gathered. Niklas Zennstrom’s Ran (GBR), overall winner of the 2009 Rolex Fastnet, Andres Soriano’s Alegre (GBR), winner at Rolex Capri Sailing Week 2010 and Neville Crichton’s Shockwave (NZL), overall winner of Giraglia Rolex Cup offshore race, are without question the three favourites amongst the racing Mini Maxis. That said, America’s Cup winner Bill Koch has not come out of competitive big-boat retirement just to make up the numbers with the chartered, Titan 15 (USA). Wild Joe (HUN) is a former Admiral’s Cup winning yacht; Peter Ogden’s Jethou (GBR) has had her share of success, and, Hap Fauth will expect much of his Bella Mente (USA) crew that finished a close second here in division last year and won this year at Key West.

BELLA MENTE is in Sardinia with Hap and her full crew for the last few days of practice before starting the 6 day event on Sept 5th.  Defending 2009 Maxi World champion, RAN is back after their win in Palma at the Copa del Rey last month.  It has been a quieter month with no events for the mini maxis until this week, but many of the sailors have been off competing in other events like the Audi MedCup and the C-Class Catamaran ‘Little Americas Cup’.

Our BELLA MENTE team is back together and focused on the tough and hot days of racing again, with their sights set on bringing home a win.

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Saturday, the final day of racing finally brought some numbers that Bella Mente is used to posting on the scoreboard.  Their week of sailing together in the tough fleet paid off with a second in the mornings race and a bullet for the twelfth and final race.  The vibe on the boat was they were consistently sailing welland working as a team, they just weren’t posting top positions.

Bella Mente finished the regatta in 4th place to RAN, ALEGRE and CONTAINER.  We will meet up with these teams and more in one month for the Mini Maxi Worlds in Sardinia.  For now, permanent boat crew will remain in Palma with the boat and get her ready.

After two more days of racing, feelow competitor RAN has taken 4 bullets in a row in Thursday and Fridays races advancing her to the #1 spot overall for IRC A.  BELLA MENTE continues to face challenges and has only been able to maintain her 4th place position to ALEGRE and CONTAINER respectively.  Although the team knows they won’t be adding any more bling tot he trophy case from this year’s Copa del Rey, they are focused on using every day on the water to prepare for the next event in Sardinia in just a few weeks.

There is one more day of racing tomorrow for the fleet and then we can post the final standings.