BELLA MENTE out of the water at Cracker Boy Boatworks

Hello all,

Its been pretty quiet here on the website in terms of the BELLA MENTE racing teams actions, but I guarantee the team has been hard at work getting BELLA ready for her returning to racing in the US.  We are just a little over 40 days to go until racing begins for the 2011 season in Florida.  Hap and the boys have a heavy practice schedule starting Dec 12, 2010 leading up to the start of the Key West Feeder Race on January 12, 2011 from Ft Lauderdale.

Premiere-Racing, the organizing entity for KWRW has just announced a special trophy for the IRC fleet this year.

Key West 2011 has been designated the IRC Midwinter Championship. There will be a special Midwinter trophy awarded to the overall IRC winner on Friday at the final awards presentation.

(http://www.premiere-racing.com/keywest11/pages/KW11_IRC.htm#NEWS)

Hap Fauth and his team practically swept the 2010 KWRW event cleanly taking home the trophy.  They definitely have a big stake in repeating that performance and holding onto the title.

I stopped by the Cracker Boy yard in Riviera Beach FL to check in on the guy and their pre-season preparations.  They will be back in the water and the rig re-stepped soon for everyone’s arrival to get back to top racing form. Stay tuned to the site for more announcements in the next few weeks about the team taking it to the Pacific coast next, the modifications planned for the TransPac and plans for a new boat.  Meanwhile, enjoy these action shots of the “Bella Wolfpack” hard at work.

Boat Captain 'Pirate' Pete Henderson, looking on in charge

Thomas Allin smiles, despite working through the heat in a Tyvek suit on a leaking hatch cover.

Sam Loughborough stops for a smile while cruising across the yard on the guys preferred mode of transportation.

Jon Von Schwartz, captured sneaking off a few weeks before when Bella was still in the water.

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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