Last month, Bella Mente Racing Tactician Terry Hutchinson was named US Sailing’s 2014 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year and today (Thursday, February 26) he will be honored during a luncheon at the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan and presented with a specially-engraved Rolex timepiece.
Hap and Terry celebrating after finishing the RORC Caribbean 600 (Photo Credit: RORC/Ted Martin)
Hutchinson finished the RORC Caribbean 600 with the Bella Mente Racing yesterday in Antigua. The team, led by owner/driver Hap Fauth, currently holds the best time in IRC but there are several yachts still racing that are contending to better that.
Here, Hutchinson weighs in on the race:
This was a great race for Bella Mente as a team. The entire crew’s dedication and hard work has been on display around the clock for the past four days. Without question, we wouldn’t have made it to the start without the great work down by boat captain Pete Henderson and shore crew Kyle Fitzgerald, Kyle Hintze, Ollie Dickens and Ryan Brown; all of who spent 50 hours straight making a substantial repair to Bella’s deck. From there, it was up to the sailing team to not let that effort go to waste.
Our lack of time preparing had the squad a bit off kilter, but the race itself was solid, with great maneuvers, communication and boat speed throughout. Over the fall and winter we have been working hard on our offshore boat inventory and sail sizing. It was good to see our hard work come to fruition in our first distance race of the year. I’m looking forward to seeing the performance data as Bella Mente went well off the breeze.
From a team side we continue to develop. We have a great group with a lot of talent, so allowing everybody to flourish is critical. I can’t say enough about the effort put forward by our team on the bow and in the middle of the boat. Their execution of sail changes was immaculate. Between Moose (Mike Sanderson), Soapy (Ian Moore) and Ado (Adrian Stead) we got more right than wrong in this race, but we still have a lot to refine. All in all, I think I can speak for the entire team when I say we are very optimistic about the future.
Luiz Kahl says
Congratulation to Terry for Yachtsman of the Year and to Hap and the entire crew on winning overall in this year’s Caribbean 600!
Well done, guys!
Best,
Luiz (Louie)
Jay Rettaliata says
Congratulations to Team Bella Mente for a great race – and to Hap Fauth who has come a long way from sailing Blue Jays on the Great South Bay. It was a lot of fun tracking Bella in this year’s Caribbean 600.