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Media Alert: Scuttlebutt Sailing: Max Conditions at Maxi Cup

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Max conditions at Maxi Cup

Published on September 7th, 2017

Porto Cervo, Italy (September 7, 2017) – A single windward-leeward race for the Maxi 72s and Wallys was held on what for all the other classes was a layday at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup. Two races were scheduled to make up for those lost earlier in the week, but, after the first was completed, the wind suddenly piped up to 28 knots causing PRO Peter Craig to suspend racing for the day.

Today’s one race was a trailblazer, showing off the strong wind and blazing sunshine for which the Costa Smeralda is famous.

Following her victory in yesterday’s second race, the new Wallycento Galateia blasted around the race track once again claiming both line honours and the win under IRC corrected time. She now leads the Wally class, 8 points ahead of the Wally 80 Nahita, with the Wally 77 Lyra a further point behind.

“It is surprising to us!” said David M. Leuschen, Galateia’s owner. “The boat is new. We raced half the season last year when the crew was new. We have improved because the crew co-ordination is better. We did a lot of work on the boat over the winter and we bought a new suit of North Sails, which we like a lot more.”

They have also been luckier. Last year, in their first outing at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Leuschen remembers they suffered a collision and a spinnaker forestay wrap. “We haven’t had anything like that happen this time, but we are probably due for it…”

Today’s race Leuschen said was “phenomenal”. They sailed the final downwind particularly well to add distance on the water between them and the Wally 107 Open Season of International Maxi Association President, Thomas Bscher. “We saw 23 knots a couple of times and over 20 pretty consistently.”

Second today, moving her up to third behind Nikata overall in the Wally class, was the Wally 77, Lyra. Navigator Will Best said of their race: “We have a good J3, so the boat is well balanced and we are quite confident upwind. But we are really quick downwind.” On the final downwind Lyra achieved a new top speed of 16 knots. “It was good fun. At start time the wind was 14 knots and we were nervous we were under the wrong jib. But when we finished we had 24-25.”

International Maxi Association member, Dieter Schön on Momo made it three wins in a row. The German team now leads the Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship by 4.75 points.

For the 72s, the wind was typically 17-22 knots from 270-290°. “It was much more complicated than yesterday,” advised Momo’s tactician Markus Wieser. “Out of the start suddenly there was less pressure on the left and the right began paying half way up, so the boat on the windward side could hold the whole fleet out.”

Momo pulled into the lead on the first downwind, but was rolled coming into the leeward gate by Dario Ferrari’s new Cannonball. Both boats rounded the port gate mark but Momo tacked and had pulled out a significant lead at the second top mark.

Weiser believed it was the right call to cancel today’s second race. “We had puffs of up to 28 knots – it was on the edge. It would have been fun, if you’d have survived!”

A boat to benefit from the usually unfavoured right today was Alex Schaerer’s Caol Ila R. This being her first Maxi 72 inshore event of 2017, the Swiss boat has been lagging at this year’s Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship. The crew was therefore delighted to lead at the top mark.

“It shows that if you sail well the boat is still competitive against the new ones even in strong winds, when we are more optimised for lighter wind,” said Schaerer. Sadly this was not to last. Their A2 the spinnaker promptly blew up upon hoisting.

They were not alone in blowing up sails. Hap Fauth’s normally immaculate Maxi 72 Bella Mente ripped the top off her J3 four minutes into the first beat. Her crew carried out the speediest of jib changes, bareheaded. Despite this incident, they pulled up the fleet and at one point were up to second. “Everyone on the boat did a phenomenal job after the jib breakage to get us back into the race,” observed strategist Adrian Stead.

The Wallys also had their share of damage with the Wally 94 Sensei blowing up her kite as the wind filled in on the final run into the finish.

Tomorrow will be the penultimate day of racing at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and the Mistral wind is forecast to abate to 7-12 knots.

Held for the world’s largest racing yachts, the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is jointly organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, this year celebrating its 50th anniversary, and the International Maxi Association, the body sanctioned by World Sailing to represent the Maxi classes.

Racing at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship takes place from September 4th to the 9th. Fifty yachts are currently entered.

Class details – Event details – Results

Source: James Boyd / www.sailingintelligence.com

Media Alert: Sailing’s glamor tribe and the downsides of paradise – CNN

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Sailing’s glamor tribe and the downsides of paradise

 

By Rob Hodgetts, CNN

Updated 0913 GMT (1713 HKT) August 31, 2017

(CNN) If the lifestyle of a professional sailor seems implausibly glamorous, that’s because it is, but there are downsides to working in paradise.

Looking cool — while superyachts tower like white cathedrals and racing rocketships strain at their mooring lines — is not one of them.
The bronzed crews, with sun-bleached hair, big shades and matching kit, mill about the pontoon looking fit and confident, masters of their nautical universe.
The broad sterns of their multi-million dollar vessels boast of enticing home ports — George Town (Cayman Islands), Road Harbour (British Virgin Islands), Valletta (Malta), London.
Outsiders strolling the quay look on in awe. It is not hard to tell the two tribes apart.
Welcome to Porto Cervo, Sardinia, created by His Royal Highness the Aga Khan in the 1950s and now one of the world’s most upmarket yachting locations.
READ: ‘Mythical’ race – classics and rocketships
READ: World’s best superyacht designs
Porto Cervo hosts the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, hosted by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, one of the most prestigious events on the Mediterranean big-boat calendar. The boats will be inspected Saturday, skippers are briefed the following day, with racing starting on Monday.
A record 52 yachts from 60ft and upwards have turned up for a week of inshore racing and coastal sprints along the spectacular Costa Smeralda and its notorious stretches of water with names like “Bomb Alley.”

Sardinia's Costa Smeralda offers stunning sailing among rocky islands.

Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda offers stunning sailing among rocky islands.

Billionaire lifestyle

The sailors, globe-trotting guns for hire, exude an air of surf chic combined with preppy pro jock. The younger the sailor, the more disheveled the look. Much like life.
Hands are strong and coarse. Handshakes firm to crippling. Eyes crinkle into smiles, the effect of years sailing in sun and wind.
While the scene is glitzy, at least in the marina, the sailors’ office can be a dangerous salt-lashed bucking bronco with high stakes.
Chatting to the crews, the number one trade-off is not the risk but the time spent away from home and families.
“You’re part performance athlete and part hobo,” says Andy Green, a Newport, RI-based British sailor and America’s Cup commentator.
“You’re living out of a bag but living the life of a billionaire. When it’s all over you go back to your apartment or whatever and live a normal life.”
The big yacht circuit generally begins in the Caribbean with races such as the Caribbean 600 from Antigua in February and Les Voiles de Saint Barth in April before moving to the Mediterranean for the summer and regattas in oh-so chic spots like Majorca, Corfu, St Tropez, Porto Cervo and Palermo in Sicily.
Among the traveling tribe there is a distinct hierarchy at work.
At the top, at least on shore, are the owners. High-achieving businessmen with big bucks to lavish on their chosen sport. A new mainsail costs north of $160,000 and just the running costs for a summer campaign can be anything between about $1.5 million and $5.4 million.
“It’s highly competitive. All the owners are very friendly, we have drinks and invite each other to parties but on the water nobody gives you any quarter — on the water you want to kill them,” Sir Peter Ogden, owner of Maxi 72 Jethou, told CNN.
Britain’s Ogden, who built up UK company Computacenter and owns the Channel Island Jethou, adds: “The hardest part is signing the cheques. That, and steering the boat.
“But this is what I do to relax. Angst is when I go home and see the pile of envelopes.”
The Wally 107 Open Season in action during the 2016 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo.

The Wally 107 Open Season in action during the 2016 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo.

‘Testosterone-fueled’

To deliver the boat to these sun-drenched corners of the world and get it to the start line in one piece, the owners employ a full-time boat captain and a handful of permanent crew.
“We’re partly sailors, partly worker bees,” laughs England’s Mike Atkinson, boat captain on the Wally 107 Open Season, owned by former Bugatti boss Thomas Bscher of Germany.
His role involves logistics, crew transfers, accommodation, food, safety, maintenance and budgeting. Running costs “virtually doubled” from the previous 94ft Open Season to the current 107ft version — a “big learning curve”, says Atkinson.
“It’s a good lifestyle, you have to work hard and it’s definitely not 9-5 but it beats working in an office. I couldn’t work in an office,” adds Atkinson, who is based in Palma, Majorca, with his Spanish wife and two young kids.
He is backed up by first mate Tom Bayliss, who is responsible for all the rigging and fittings, and engineer Sally Weatherstone, an exception not just for being a woman but for being a female engineer.
“I started just crewing on boats, then I got a mate’s job, and we needed an engineer,” says Weatherstone.  “I learned on the job, and when I did my exams they said I was the third girl that had been through in 10 years.
“It is a bit blokesy, it’s a testosterone-fueled week.”

Hap Fauth's Bella Mente won the 2016 Maxi 72 world championship in Sardinia.

Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente won the 2016 Maxi 72 world championship in Sardinia.

‘Stressful’

On the Maxi 72 Bella Mente, owned by Minneapolis businessman John “Hap” Fauth, the permanent crew of four swells to 20 for racing.

Skipper Peter Henderson leads a full-time team comprising a boatbuilder, a hydraulics and winches expert, and a junior. With a bigger budget, the role of travel organizer and logistics is separate.
“We’re on the road non-stop, you ask my wife. In 2013 I was on the road 300 days,” said Henderson, who grew up sailing in Michigan.
Unlike the more cruising oriented Wally class, Bella Mente is a stripped-out racer, a black carbon shell with no frills down below.
The toilet is of the “bucket and chuck it” variety. There is no galley in day-race mode, and sleeping facilities, should they be needed for longer offshore races, are pull down canvas shelves, operated on a “hot-bunk” basis for sailors on different watches.
Last year a storm in Porto Cervo meant Henderson and another had to sleep on board and take turns to keep watch as a big sea surged into the harbor, threatening to ram her onto the dock — Bella Mente’s keel is too deep to retreat further inside the marina.
“That was stressful. More so than the racing,” said Henderson.

‘Dangerous’

While the permanent crew are the workhorses, the stardust comes from the tacticians and other members of the “brains trust,” the big-money signings making the racing decisions.
Among those calling the shots this week are Open Season’s Jochen Shuemann, a multiple Olympic champion and former sporting director for America’s Cup outfit Alinghi, and former America’s Cup-winning tactician and skipper Brad Butterworth on Jethou.
The tactician can also have an input on the rest of the crew, often beginning with the top pros in their specializations.
Kiwi Warwick Fleury, who has competed in eight America’s Cups with Team New Zealand and Switzerland’s Alinghi, is the mainsail trimmer on Jethou.
“It sounds glamorous and probably looks glamorous, but the downside is time traveling and away from home,” said Fleury, who will join 30 or so other sailors for a charter flight to Mahon, Menorca for the TP52 Worlds as soon as this is over.  “But even then, a bay day is not all that bad.”

Crew work is vital, everyone has their role onboard.

Crew work is vital, everyone has their role onboard.
Like all freelancers, the next gig comes through contacts, word of mouth and old-fashioned cold calling. Some have to work harder than others.
“There’s not huge job security. And it can be dangerous,” adds Green, who was once skippering a yacht in Sardinia when a crewman broke six ribs and later lost his spleen when he was thrown against the rigging.
“You have to be enthusiastic, you’ve got to keep current, and keep winning.
“It can be challenging. It’s all about building relationships. You sometimes have to have difficult and frank conversations about how to make a boat go fast. Some people have very strong opinions, so you have to be a diplomat and a racer, it’s a difficult balance.
“But you go to some amazing venues and meet some really interesting people.  It can be incredibly rewarding.”

Media Alert: No Favorite at Maxi 72 World Championship – IMA

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No Favorite at Maxi 72 World Championship

Published on August 30th, 2017

Competition is set to be the tightest ever at next week’s Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship, taking place once again as part of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo, Sardinia. This annual event is jointly organised by the event’s hosts, the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, this year celebrating its 50th anniversary, and the International Maxi Association, the body sanctioned by World Sailing to represent the Maxi classes.

Five custom-built Maxi 72 racers are taking part ranging from the older, but heavily revised and optimised, to the newer, potentially faster, but less refined boats.

So far this season, Italian Dario Ferrari’s brand new Botin Partners-designed Cannonball claimed Sail Racing PalmaVela in May, while George Sakellaris’ Proteus took honours in the brand new Corfu Challenge on his home waters in early July. The 36 Copa del Rey MAPFRE, in Palma in August, was won by German Dieter Schön’s MOMO.

With three different winners already this year, competition in the Maxi 72 class is currently wide open.

As Proteus’ George Sakellaris explains: “All the boats now are evenly matched so anyone can win and there is very good competition. We all fine-tune our boats so well that the game for everyone has come up.”

Defending World Champion is Bella Mente of International Maxi Association Vice President Hap Fauth (also President of the Maxi 72 Class). He agrees that the game in the Maxi 72 class has changed. While possibly his US-based team was favourite the last two times they won the Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship, this is distinctly not the case this year, maintains Fauth: “Everybody has made improvements and is either equal to, or faster, than us at the moment, which will make this really interesting. Our boat is six years old now.

“This year we have not been as quick as either MOMO or Proteus and, in a lot of cases, Cannonball – they are still figuring out the buttons on that boat, which takes about a year, but they have great flashes of speed. This season we have been at the bottom of the fleet – we get great starts, but if you don’t have legs on that first windward leg you are at the back of the pack.”

Fauth confides that since Copa del Rey they have made some modifications to their keel foil and are hoping that this will provide the boat speed boost they sorely need. “We’ll see if that works. I love sailing in Sardinia, even if we have had a not-so-good season.”

Maxi 72 Class Manager Rob Weiland says the Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship will see a continuation of the close competition they have enjoyed at their three regattas so far this season in the Mediterranean. “It is open who is going to win. Cannonball is slowly getting stronger and stronger and MOMO is better than ever and Bella Mente isn’t bad and Proteus is always near the top. The only unknown quantity right now is Caol Ila as this will be her first encounter with the others this year.”

As to why they repeatedly return to Porto Cervo, Weiland says that the Maxi 72s are particularly appropriate for racing along the magnificent Costa Smeralda: “The Maxi 72 is one of the few classes set up for both windward-leewards and offshore/coastals. They have all the specialist reaching sails, which makes them a more complete package and quite honestly more interesting to race in Porto Cervo than boats and classes primarily set up for windward-leewards.”

The Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship takes place as part of the annual Maxi Yacht Rolex Club. The Maxi 72 class is one of two classes affiliated to the International Maxi Association along with the J Class. The Wally class is also associated to the International Maxi Association.

Racing at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship takes place from September 4th to the 9th with a layday scheduled for Thursday September 7. Fifty yachts are currently entered.

Class details – Event details – Entry list

Source: IMA

Bella Mente departs for Maxi72 Worlds

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Bella Mente is wrapping up our spring and summer season in Palma De Mallorca, Spain! The cradle and containers are all packed and have departed for Porto Cervo. Bella Mente goes back in the water this morning and depending on weather the shore crew will depart for Sardinia this Saturday! The 2017 Maxi 72 Worlds start on September 3rd, 2017 in Porto Cervo, Italy. (Photo Credit: Captain Peter C Henderson)

Preparing to Defend Maxi 72 World Championship Title

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Media Pro Int’l, Kirsten Ferguson, kirsten.ferguson@mediapronewport.com, 401-330-7889

PRESS RELEASE: Porto Cervo, Sardinia (August 23, 2017) — The Maxi 72 World Championships are quickly approaching and Hap Fauth and his Bella Mente Racing team are going hard at it, working to improve boat speed with the goal of defending their title of World Champion for the third consecutive year. The regatta – scheduled September 4-9 in Porto Cervo, Sardinia (Italy) – is the final and most important event on Bella Mente Racing’s calendar. It will host the most competitive Maxi 72 teams from around the world, and this year, the playing field is more stacked than ever.

Owner/Driver Hap Fauth steering Bella Mente to a win in the 2016 Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship. (Photo Credit: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi)

“Our 2017 campaign has been challenging and mercurial from the get-go, and we have yet to find our rhythm,” said Tactician Terry Hutchinson, adding that Bella Mente Racing kicked off this year’s six-event campaign program on a high note with the overall win at the RORC Caribbean 600 in Antigua.  The team fell short, however, just last month when it took fourth place behind rival Maxi 72s at Copa del Rey in Mallorca. “A lot of factors contribute to this, and yet in its simplest form, our competitors have mirrored Bella Mente’s winning approach over the 2015 and 2016 season,” said Hutchinson alluding to the performance of Momo, which took the Maxi 72 Class win at Copa del Rey. “That boat looks great and the team sailed very well.  To win in Porto Cervo will require perfection and a bit of luck.  Our crew is up to the task; it’s a matter of execution on the race course, boat speed, and confidence in the team.”

Launched in 2012, the 72-foot Bella Mente is a Judel/Vrolijk design and the oldest boat in the Maxi 72 fleet. Since it sports a hull shape much different than its newer counterparts, the team is constantly working on enhancements and modifications to keep the Maxi 72 in the game and competitive.

“The Maxi 72 fleet as a whole is just much faster this year,” said Owner/Driver Hap Fauth. “Our team is outstanding, but our performance this year is proof that there are things we can do to improve boat speed. Many of the Maxi 72 teams we’ll be going up against next month have made substantial improvements to their set-up, including jumping ahead of us in terms of their fitted keel bulb package, which has given them some advantage upwind, especially in winds above ten knots. “We’re in the process of making some major modifications to the boat to better prepare for the Worlds and hopefully that will be the game changer.”

Bella Mente in 2015 in Porto Cervo for the Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship.
(Photo Credit: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi)

For Fauth, attention to detail and extreme preparedness are keys to success in a program that has so many moving parts. “We travel with about 30 people and three 40-foot containers. In addition to the sailors, we have a shore crew to repair the boat when we aren’t on the water, a chef, and professional point people onsite to manage the hydraulics, sails, winches, carbon fiber…the list goes on.

“If the boat is broken, we can’t race, so the idea is that you have people there that can fix the boat almost irrespective of what the problem is. We also come fully prepared with quite an inventory of additional equipment, including sails, parts for all the hydraulics and winch systems. Pretty much anything else that moves on the boat, we have a duplicate for.”

In less than two weeks it is “all systems go” for the Maxi 72 Class, and Bella Mente Racing’s hard work will be put to the test.

“I think we’re ready to rock and roll and give them the best we have,” added Fauth. “Bring it on!”

Click here for full archive of team press releases

Bella Mente arrives back in Palma de Mallorca for Copa del Rey 2017

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Bella Mente has arrived back in our summer base of Palma de Mallorca, Spain this morning.  We had a great first experience in Corfu at the Corfu Challenge, but we are thrilled to be back in Palma today to get ready for Copa del Rey!

Racing for Copa del Rey starts on July 29th, 2017.  Follow action at: http://www.regatacopadelrey.com

Bella Mente loaded on the Ship in Corfu, Greece.

Bella Mente arrives in Palma de Mallorca Spain today!

(Photo Credit: Captain Peter Henderson)

 

 

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!”