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​Maxi 72 Worlds Start Tomorrow! ​

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Bella Mente practices off Porto Cervo (Photo Credit: James Lyne)

After four days of practice off Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Bella Mente Racing, led by owner/driver Hap Fauth, readies for the main event, the Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship, which kicks off tomorrow, September 5 and runs through Saturday, September 10. The team goes into the world-class regatta holding the 2015 championship title and straight from victories at Copa del Rey MAPFRE and the inaugural Maxi 72 North American Championship earlier this summer. The competition this year is looking to be the toughest yet, with five other Maxi 72s vying for the win.
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Bella Mente practices off Porto Cervo (Photo Credit: James Lyne)

Hap Fauth

The Bella crew has been full on practicing for the Worlds, with time and distance drills, practice starts , and one lap practice races with our competitors. We are all very excited to be back in Porto Cervo with our tremendously competitive fleet. Go Bella!

Terry Hutchinson

Looking forward to the week ahead. The competition here in Porto Cervo will be the strongest of the season with all six maxi 72s competing. Onboard Bella Mente, things are chipping along and yet we know that we need to continue to focus on the detail components to have a chance.  We have the utmost respect for our competitors and personally when I look across the fleet it is a high standard so success won’t come easy.
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Bella Mente practices off Porto Cervo (Photo Credit: James Lyne)

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More Photos (Credit: James Lyne)

Maxi 72 Worlds: A Gathering of Giants

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 As ever a major feature of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is the Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship. This year six examples of the ultra competitive, owner-driven, grand prix racers will be lining up, their challenge being to dislodge Hap Fauth’s dominant Judel Vrolijk design, Bella Mente. The reigning Rolex Maxi 72 World Champion goes into this year’s Worlds straight from victories at Copa del Rey MAPFRE and the inaugural Maxi 72 North American Championship held in Newport, RI in June.

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“This is our favourite regatta,” commented Fauth, who is President of the Maxi 72 Class, which is affiliated to the IMA. “There will be six 72 footers and competition will be fierce. It is always challenging conditions both for the around the buoys and the coastal race. It is normally all you want.”

As to Bella Mente being favourite for a third World title, Fauth added: “We have the oldest boat and I am the oldest helmsman, but we have got a very good team. Our execution over the course of a regatta has been good and if there is one reason why we might have a small advantage it is because of that. But it is a very small advantage: The margin of victory in this fleet is two or three seconds – the boats are very close.”

Read the full release by the International Maxi Association below:

A record-sized fleet of the world’s largest performance yachts is readying itself in Porto Cervo, Sardinia for next week’s Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup. Organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and the International Maxi Association (IMA) with Rolex as title sponsor, this year’s event takes place September 4-10 and has 52 entries.

In terms of length, the fleet spans the giant 49.7m Ohana to entries at the shorter end of the IMA’s permitted size range – 60 footers such as Gérard Logel’s Swan 601 @robas and the Wally 60 Wallyño.

The biggest class at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup will once again be the Wallys (an associated class within the IMA), which features 13 examples of the modernist high performance luxury yachts. Leading the charge off the Costa Smeralda will be the two Wallycentos, Sir Lindsay Owen Jones’ Magic Carpet Cubed and the latest example launched last October, David Leuschen’s Galateia, plus the elongated version, (now 32.7m) Open Season of International Maxi Association President, Thomas Bscher.

The Supermaxi class has a formidable line-up including Irvine Laidlaw’s new Swan 115 Highland Fling 15, plus two Baltic Yachts-built high performance carbon fibre one-offs: the Nauta 115 Nikata and the Javier Jaudenes-designed Win Win – both making their Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup debuts. This year sees the return of Sir Peter Harrison’s Farr 115 ketch, Sojana, following a lengthy refit.

The Js are back this year. Lionheart and Velsheda will match race their way around the race track.

The Maxi class (79-100ft) will see two high profile yachts making their Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup debuts. Best known for her offshore program, Mike Slade’s Farr 100 Leopard 3 has travelled to the four corners of the earth to compete in races such as the Rolex Sydney Hobart, the RORC Caribbean 600 and the Fastnet Race, in which she has twice scored line honours victories.

Despite only being two years old, George David’s Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed Rambler 88, also has notched up thousands of sea miles. This year alone she has won the IMA’s annual Volcano Race (from Gaeta, Italy, south around the volcanic Aeolian Islands off northeast Sicily) and last week claimed line honours in the Palermo-Montecarlo race, the fourth and final event of the IMA’s inaugural Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge.

The Maxi class also includes four entries from Southern Wind Shipyard, including the Farr-designed 100ft Blues and Michael Cotter’s Windfall. There are two SWS 82s: Massimilano Florio’s Grande Orazio was winner of the IMA’s Volcano Race in 2015, while Ammonite is brand new, campaigned by leading Australian skipper Marcus Blackmore.

As ever a major feature of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is the Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship. This year six examples of the ultra competitive, owner-driven, grand prix racers will be lining up, their challenge being to dislodge Hap Fauth’s dominant Judel Vrolijk design, Bella Mente. The reigning Rolex Maxi 72 World Champion goes into this year’s Worlds straight from victories at Copa del Rey MAPFRE and the inaugural Maxi 72 North American Championship held in Newport, RI in June.

“This is our favourite regatta,” commented Fauth, who is President of the Maxi 72 Class, which is affiliated to the IMA. “There will be six 72 footers and competition will be fierce. It is always challenging conditions both for the around the buoys and the coastal race. It is normally all you want.”

As to Bella Mente being favourite for a third World title, Fauth added: “We have the oldest boat and I am the oldest helmsman, but we have got a very good team. Our execution over the course of a regatta has been good and if there is one reason why we might have a small advantage it is because of that. But it is a very small advantage: The margin of victory in this fleet is two or three seconds – the boats are very close.”

The Mini Maxi class (60-79ft) also has a strong line-up. Roberto Lacorte’s Mark Mills 68 Supernikka returns to defend her title, while she will be up against another Mills 68, the more thoroughbred racer, Prospector, which as Alegre and then Caol Ila R was one of the most competitive boats in what is now the Maxi 72 class. Also to be watched will be American Bryon Ehrhart’s Reichel Pugh 63, Lucky. Winner of last year’s Transatlantic Race, Lucky in her previous life was Loki, winner of the 2011 Rolex Sydney Hobart.

In 2015 the Mini Maxi Racer-Cruiser class had one of the tightest finishes and the top four boats return this year, including winner, Riccardo de Michele’s Vallicelli 80 H2O, which finished on equal points with Giuseppe Puttini’s Swan 65 Shirlaf (which this year will face stiff competition from new IMA member Marietta Strasoldo’s Swan 651 Lunz Am Meer.)

Andrew McIrvine, Secretary General of the IMA commented: “It will be an exciting year with a number of new boats competing, especially in the SuperMaxi division where a new generation of more race-oriented boats are appearing. The challenge of manoeuvring these huge craft around the tight courses around the islands of the Maddalena makes for a great spectacle and keeps so many sailors coming back year after year.”

Racing will take place over a mixture of windward-leeward and coastal courses.

Practicing in Porto Cervo

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The Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship kicks off next week and Hap Fauth and his team aboard Bella Mente are in Sardinia practicing for the world-class event. The team’s training sessions are taking place through the weekend, with the main event starting up Monday, September 5 and wrapping up Saturday, September 10.

Stay tuned for nightly race reports during racing!

The team prepares for another day of practice

Copa del Rey Photo Gallery

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Click here to see a full photo gallery from 2016

Copa del Rey Champs!

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Day six at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (©María Muiña)

Day six at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (©María Muiña)

After a rigorous five days of racing at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE, Hap Fauth’s Maxi 72 Bella Mente took the win for the highly competitive Montblanc Maxi 72 Class. The 2015 Maxi 72 World Champions and 2016 Maxi 72 North American Champions finished off the marathon week taking a second and first place finish, respectively, in today’s racing.

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Hap Fauth

Basically this is a family. I started sailing at seven and competing not long after. I moved out to the Mid West, built my businesses and raised a family and then got back into it. I treat this team like I treat my businesses and my family. This is a non-star program. We win as a team and lose as a team. Everybody is accountable for their part of the team.

This week was a successful one and an incredible team-building experience, especially as we prep for the Maxi 72 World Championships, which kick off next week.

Terry Hutchinson

It was a hard fought day on Bella Mente. For me, it was potentially the best team day we have had in 19 months. The first race was a nip and tuck battle and after getting the side of the start that we wanted from Proteus, we worked really hard to keep them in last. Mission accomplished and so we went into the final race with a two point lead. The only requirement to hold onto our lead was to keep Proteus out of first.

It’s funny how it seems that our sport is sometimes as we felt in complete control of the pre-start right up until the last 14 seconds. We were quite confident that we were pushing Proteus over the line, but a bit of miscommunication on my part let them off the hook. While they did not get away clean, they did start to the right. This error gave Proteus the favorable right hand side and the lead in the race and event at the first mark. In Bella Mente fashion though, we hung tough. A solid dummy gybe 70% of the way down the run got us out of synch with the fleet and allowed us to pass through to the lead. This margin was enough and yet Proteus continually asked the question and Bella Mente responded. It was a hard fought series and really great to see the competitiveness of the racing.

Looking forward to the Rolex Maxi World Championships in three weeks time. We have plenty of work to do, but for the next 24 hours we can enjoy this moment and get back to planning.

Mike Sanderson

Today’s weather forecast was tricky again. After it blew so hard yesterday it was always going to be tough for the Palma sea breeze e to be able to wrap around the corner and give us a nice steady day of yachting.

Mathematically in order to secure the overall win it was all about beating Proteus. Even with two fourths today we would still be ahead of the other two boats, so we just had to pay full attention to Proteus. In the first race, we got a nice start and did our best to not get tangled up with Momo, which was out in front and worked hard to push Proteus back to fight it out with Caol Ila R. That all worked well and we got a solid second place and Proteus took fourth.

In the next race, all we had to do was not let Proteus win or us get third or fourth place, so we engaged them in the pre-start as if it was a match race. It would be fair to say that at the last minute we let them off the hook a little and worse than that, they had the favored side. Around the top mark, Proteus held the first place position while we were stuck in third. But one of the great things about this team is that it just grinds away. The boat was going quick and we were quickly onto the guys in front and then with a dummy gybe we managed to get a split down the run to the side we wanted, allowing us to lead around the bottom mark. Proteus was far from giving up though and on the next beat and run we had a great tussle, but the mighty Bella Mente snuck through for a well deserved win.

We have had fantastic team effort this week. It hasn’t exactly all gone our way, and yet we have just stayed as steady as a rock the entire time. The newer boats are coming at us though for sure and it’s getting tougher and tougher. We are all very much looking forward to the Maxi 72 World Championships next month.

Day Six Photo Gallery:

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It’s a Bella Palma

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Bella Mente Owner/Driver Hap Fauth at the helm of his Maxi 72 (© Tomas Moya)

Bella Mente Owner/Driver Hap Fauth at the helm of his Maxi 72 (© Tomas Moya)

Hap Fauth’s “Bella Mente”, the 2015 Maxi 72 World Champions and overall leaders of the Maxi72 circuit have taken the win at the 35 Copa del Rey MAPFRE in the Montblanc Maxi 72 class. “Bella Mente” has one of the strongest crews in the fleet, lead by crew boss Mike ‘Moose’ Sanderson and tactician Terry Hutchinson, supported by strategist Adrian Stead and navigator Ian Moore.

Fauth has grand prix racing in his DNA, he sets the highest standards for his team and together they have reaped successes around the world, offshore and inshore. The irrepressible owner-driver is loving the Copa del Rey and the host city, Palma.

The Bella Mente Racing Team dockside before the final day of racing at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

The Bella Mente Racing Team dockside before the final day of racing at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Fauth opens:

It is a wonderful event, one of the best regattas we attend all year. We have had wonderful conditions except of course for yesterday when racing was blown off the water. I think that was a wise thing to do in terms of protecting people and equipment. The courses have been good we had a 3.2 nautical miles windward leg on Thursday and that was great, it is seems like not often there are times when we can stretch our legs on windward-leeward races.

The Maxi72 delivers every facet of what Fauth enjoys about grand prix racing, team spirit and cohesion, technical development, pressing forwards with technical advances plus the simple pleasures of going fast inshore and offshore, but the watchword to it all is Improvement.

Click here to read the full article by the organizers

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Copa del Rey: Day 5 Cancelled

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Day three cancelled at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Day five cancelled at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Racing for day five of the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE was cancelled today due to strong winds on Palma Bay, which to 30 knots and averaged about 25 knots for most of the afternoon. Stay tuned for an update tomorrow, the fleet’s final day of racing in Mallorca, Spain.

Day three cancelled at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Day five cancelled at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Click here for the event’s most recent press release

Nightly race reports will be posted to the Bella Mente Racing website

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Copa del Rey: Day 4

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Day four at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Day four at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Day four of Copa del Rey MAPFRE brought Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente and the rest of the Maxi 72 Fleet some of the best conditions yet on the Bay of Palma, with sea breeze clocking in between 14 and 17 knots. The team started off the day, winning the first race but dropped down to third in the second and final race of the day. Bella Mente still holds the class lead, one point ahead of Proteus.

Day four at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Day four at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Adrian Stead

Race 6 and Bella got a great start at the boat and controlled the fleet at the first cross to lead round the top mark. There were great waves for the downwind leg, and we found the rhythm first and put four boat lengths between us and Momo to lead around the gate. A solid second lap saw us take the win with Proteus slipping through to second place.

Race 7 and an inch perfect start one down from the boat. Again we rounded the top first, but at the gate an error on the spinnaker drop allowed Momo through. After an exchange of tacks, Momo gifted the lead to Proteus while Bella slipped back to third, where we stayed through to the finish.

We missed out on the opportunity to put a stranglehold on the regatta, and with four races to go we need to keep battling hard to finish with a win.

Mike Sanderson

Today we have come ashore kicking ourselves. We sailed an excellent first race and had a nice win, and again in the second race Hap and the guys got a great start and we sailed a great first beat to lead around the top mark. We then extended down the run with Hap fully locked in, catching waves and extracting every last ounce of pace out of the Mighty Bella. Then at the bottom mark, it all turned to custard. It was just a case of just one small thing getting us behind the eight ball, and it snowballed from there with the end result being a torn spinnaker stuck in the rigging. By the time we freed it, Momo was past us and Proteus was right in the hunt. Momo then decided to pay us a little too much attention and let Proteus off the hook, which without doing anything clever just sailed past us both.

It’s a tough one for us, but a great wake up call. We have to be able to do the stuff we can control perfectly. We have no crystal ball, so we can’t always get the wind shifts right, that’s a percentage game, but we can control getting sails up and down and that is the whole team’s doing. So yes we are grumpy with ourselves, but we will make sure that we learn from it. One thing I love about this team is that I have no doubt that we will never let it happen again…. Tomorrow is another day and it would be fair to say that we are fully pumped up about getting back amongst it already.

Day Four Photo Gallery:

Click here for the event’s most recent press release

Nightly race reports will be posted to the Bella Mente Racing website

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Copa del Rey: Day 3 Coastal Race

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Day three's coastal race at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Day three’s coastal race at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Racing took a new tack for day three of Copa del Rey MAPFRE, with the event’s fleet embarking on a longer coastal race instead of the windward leewards it competed in on Monday and Tuesday. Hap Fauth’s Maxi 72 Bella Mente finished the 30-mile race in second place, behind Dieter Schon’s Momo but won today’s protest and ended up taking the first place position. The team holds the overall lead in the class and took home the event’s “Midweek First Place Trophy”. For the final three days of the event, the fleet will return to shorter buoy-to-buoy racing.

Day three's coastal race at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Day three’s coastal race at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Hap Fauth

We had some extremely close racing today, and positions changed frequently. We are delighted with our overall finish and the entire crew gets ‘high fives’ for their diligent work on such a hot and shifty day. Team effort was at a full 100 percent.

Midweek Award Ceremony (© Tomas Moya)

Midweek Award Ceremony (© Tomas Moya)

Terry Hutchinson

A solid effort on Bella Mente today. The race was roughly 30 miles and primarily windward-leeward orientation.

Hap, Soapy (Ian Moore), and Doogie (Sean Couvreux) nailed the start to windward of Momo on the pin, but we could not hang onto Momo all the way to layline and had to tack three minutes shy. From there it was nip and tuck, and we managed to round the top mark second and proceeded to tussle with Momo down the run. A disagreement on overlap or no overlap at the bottom with Momo found Bella rounding the left gate in third place. For the next 25 miles, we scrapped and clawed our way to Proteus’ transom, with the goal to always stay close and wait for an opportunity.

Fortunately the plan worked. Trailing by a boat length we simultaneously gybed and were able to roll over Proteus. It was a rewarding moment for Bella, as we displayed mental toughness all day.

We had solid results today, however the regatta is only halfway over.

Coastal Race Photo Gallery:

Click here for the event’s most recent press release

Nightly race reports will be posted to the Bella Mente Racing website

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Copa del Rey: Day 2

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Day two at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Day two at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

The Maxi 72s wrapped up two races today on the Bay of Palma for the second day of racing at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE in Mallorca, Spain. The racing was exceptionally tight today, with each team scoring a total of five points between the two races. Bella Mente, led by owner/driver Hap Fauth, took second and third places finishes and still holds the class lead, one point ahead of George Sakellaris’ Proteus. Tomorrow the fleet will take on the event’s annual coastal race.

Day two at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Day two at the 35th Copa del Rey MAPFRE (© Tomas Moya)

Terry Hutchinson

Pretty impressive when the entire fleet scores the same number: cinco! It really shows you the closeness of the fleet and how even the boats are with one another. The only change was in race one when Bella Mente was able to slip around Caol Ila R to take the second place finish. We are looking forward to the coastal race tomorrow.

Adrian Stead

Day two of Copa del Rey brought about a softer sea breeze in Palma.

The first race of the day saw us in third place at the first mark, just having to go behind Caol Ila R on the layline. We kept it close with a good gate rounding, and were able to pass them on the second beat for a good second place finish.

The second race of the day had Momo leading from start to finish, with us battling away with Caol Ila R again. This time, there was no way of passing them. All four boats ended up collecting five points at the end of the day, leaving us still in front.

We sailed well again today and did great work keeping the boat going fast and options open. The coastal race is scheduled for tomorrow and more sea breeze is forecasted.

Mike Sanderson

The forecast for today was for light patchy sea breeze, and so we were expecting it to be a very tricky day with the possibility of bad results, which would have made it tougher for the rest of the week. In the first race of the day, Proteus came off the weather-end of the start line and came in first place, while Momo came off the leeward-end of the start line and came in fourth. In the second race of the day, Proteus again came off the windward-end of the start line and this time came in fourth, and Momo again came off the leeward-end of the line and won. Those guys owned the ends all day and each got a first- and fourth-place finish. Bella Mente and Caol Ila R swapped positions in each race, right in the middle of the line and both got a second and a third. I have now been racing Maxi 72s for five years, and I am certain that this is the first day that we have ever had, that the whole fleet scored the same amount points for the day.

For Bella Mente, there are many positives to take away from today. We are getting close to our goal of sailing the boat consistently, whether we have a two-minute lead or are battling for every place at the back of the pack. Hap and the speed team did a really nice job holding the boat in our lane, which helped Terry tactically. We know that all of this will be beneficial for the rest of this week and for the Maxi Worlds next month.

Day Two Photo Gallery:

Click here for the event’s most recent press release

Nightly race reports will be posted to the Bella Mente Racing website

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Follow the Maxi 72 Class on the Class Website and Facebook
Follow Copa del Rey MAPFRE on the Official Website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Race Results
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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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Bella Mente has been crowned IMA’s Maxi European Champion. Owner and helmsman Hap Fauth reflected on the journey, stating: “Today marked the culmination of some insightful changes in Bella Mente's internal design. She’s finally starting to reach her potential after five years. It’s truly rewarding for the crew and her owner. We’re looking forward to our next adventure in the SORC regatta!”