Bella Mente sitting in Plama, being prepped for Copa del Rey

Here she sits in Palma….  BELLA MENTE is being prepped and ready for her second Mediterranean season being kicked off in just a week with the Copa del Rey Regatta in Palma. Captains Pete Henderson, Rob Ouellette and Dave Jurkowski have been over with full-time crew Jon Von Schwartz, and Tomas Allin churning through the post-Bermuda race worklist ever since she arrived in Spain a few weeks ago.

The team arrives Tuesday, July 26 to warm up in these familiar waters and run Bella through her paces building up to start on August 2nd with 6 straight days of racing.  This is a tiring event usually int he hottest conditions, but BELLA MENTE, Hap and the boys are ready to go.

You may have noticed the new format for our website.  We have upgraded to allow for more of the team to post pictures, reports and videos straight from where the action is, so follow along daily.

Hap with Romolo Ranieri and Jon Von Schwartz

Hap and the Bella boys have all been celebrating a very successful spring season with some fun, food and drink in Bermuda this week.  From the Yacht Club to crew dinners each night, there are lots of smiles all around.  Some of the crew even took Wednesday off on a chartered fishing boat to get out on the water in a different way.
As much as they have been enjoying the time in Bermuda, they have one more day of racing to finish off the 3 part series of the Onion Patch.  There will be a round-the-bouys race tomorrow and joining the crew will be local favorite Adam Barboza to give some insider tips on these waters, and more importantly, the rocks and shallow spots to avoid.  Sean Clarkson from last years crew has come in just for the race as well, as he will be on for the rest of the season.

The crew at dinner in Hamilton

I also want to keep you posted about some of the guys on the crew who have their own blogs and have written about the race.  Bowman Doogie has posted a funny piece about some onboard logisitcs and coming in #2.  New crew member Sam Rogers keeps a blog as well and wrote a detailed wrap up.

BELLA MENTE has just finished the 635 mile light air race the Bermuda this morning.  The predictions were for about a 60 hour race and it was a few more than that, but not too many.  The Gibbs Hill 10 Division was a fleet of 5 boats, all with slightly different tactics.  As alwyas with light air, you want to sail as close to the true course between points within reason and making bets on the final hours of breeze closer to Bermuda.  While BELLA MENTE sailed the most true and direct course from Newport to Bermuda, two boats took a track further to the west after crossing the gulf stream.  That paid off for RAMBLER and BEAU GESTE as they were able to come in hotter in the end and take the line first and second.  Splitting the difference was RAN and TITAN XV, which stayed closer to the true course and ended up extremely close at the finish.
RAMBLER took line honors for the class coming in around 7am, followed by BEAU GESTE.  RAN and TITAN XV were in a heated battle, extremely close to each other and BELLA, with her lowest IRC rating was a few miles behind.  It was a close pack, and the racing finishes will definitely come down to corrected time calculations over the 62+ hour race.

For now, I know the guys will be happy to arrive at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and hit the dock for some food, rest and of course, Dark n Stormy refreshment.  I’ll post the final results here as well as comments I get from the crew as soon as I have them.