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Home / Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship 2012 / Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship: Race Day 4

Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship: Race Day 4

September 7, 2012 By Bella Mente Leave a Comment

Well, we’ve had better days. Today was a coastal race in very light air. The first attempt was a glamour for us. We started by the pin with decent pace while our closest competition, Ran, were over early.  We controlled the fleet nicely and were pulling into a very nice lead. As we approached the rocks we were to round, the breeze died down to 2-3 knots and they abandoned the race.
The race committee waited for a while until the breeze built to a light 6-7 knots. We had a good start in the middle of the line, working our way to the weather mark.  We rounded behind Ran, but just ahead of Stig. The next leg was a reach which started with the jib but quickly went to the code 0. The change went well and we were slowly closing on Ran.  We got lifted as we neared the next mark and peeled to the A1.  The change went smoothly and we quickly set up for the next leg which was a beat back to the pin end of the line. We lost quite a bit of distance on this part of the race.  As we neared the mark, we again got lifted and went back to the code O.  The next leg was a run with the A1 again so as we approached the mark, we set up and hoisted the kite at the mark. From there on, it didn’t go well for us. As we tried to furl the 0, the kite wrapped itself into the furl at the top causing the bottom unit to twist. I know this all seems like gibberish so let me clear it up a bit.  It was a massive cluster !#%”. After trying several ways to untangle the mess, we were force to take both sails down and sort it out.  Once we cleared the mess, we rehoisted the kite and kept sailing. Of course, by now, it was time to gybe and our gybe sheet was out of commission having been an ingredient in the cluster. So we quickly grabbed another sheet, connected it to the kite and gybe we did.  This was a short run to the mark before a short reach to the finish.  
It was really frustrating but in actual fact, the cluster did not cost us that much.  We probably would still have finished 4th. 
So now we are tied with Ran going into tomorrow. The forecast is again light air, so it will be a real fight.

Filed Under: Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship 2012, Regattas/Racing

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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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