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Inside Look at the Hard-Core Maxi72 Yacht-Racing Series
Competing in the maxi72 racing series is anything but a breeze for the yachts' owners and crews., michael verdon, michael verdon's most recent stories.
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Before the starting gun sounded, Bella Mente and Proteus circled each other like boxers in a ring, each waiting for the other to make a mistake. As the first day of Maxi72 racing was about to begin, these archrivals in the top tier of the Les Voiles de Saint-Barth regatta —which took place over four days in April—were the favorites to win. Bella Mente, the winner of the last two Rolex Maxi72 World Championships, was coming off a triumph 2 months earlier in the Royal Ocean Racing Club Caribbean 600. But the crew of Proteus, last year’s victor here, was determined to defend its title.
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The two boats, virtually identical designs distinguished from each other by their hull graphics and the different bands of color on their black sails, had engaged in a knock-down, drag-out battle in the RORC Caribbean 600. They exchanged the lead seven times during the 600-mile race, the first in the Maxi72’s seven-regatta season.
The crew of Bella Mente made 85 sail changes, and at one point both yachts were in full sail, racing at more than 30 knots through a squall. Bella Mente ended up finishing 14 minutes ahead of Proteus . It was a sweet victory for the Bella Mente crew, especially after having had to retire from the race in 2016 with keel problems.
Photo: Courtesy Christophe Jouany
John “Hap” Fauth, 72, is the owner and helmsman of Bella Mente . In the Les Voiles event, he was focused on jockeying his boat into position at the start and never surrendering the lead during the 3.5-hour race. The founder and chairman of the Churchill Companies investment firm in Minneapolis, he has been sailing since he was 7 years old and has owned a succession of raceboats over the years. This is his third one named Bella Mente , which is Italian for “beautiful mind.”
As the crews awaited the firing of the starting gun, Bella Mente circled around the bow of Proteus , which was skippered by its owner, George Sakellaris (the chairman of Ameresco, an energy-services company headquartered in Massachusetts). Another yacht, Prospector , hovered nearby. When the gun sounded, Bella Mente was first over the line. Three hours later, Fauth and his crew of 19 had sailed a near-flawless race through the shifting winds and currents along the coast of the island to defeat Proteus by 1 minute, 14 seconds—or so it seemed.
Photo: Courtesy
When Fauth returned to base, he learned that Bella Mente had jumped the starting line by a half-second. The infraction called for a 10 percent time penalty that cost the yacht 24 minutes and dropped it back to sixth place. “In 10 years of Maxi racing, I’ve been over the line early just twice,” said Fauth, clearly dejected.
“We absolutely had that race,” said Bella Mente ’s tactician, Terry Hutchinson. “But we made a human error and have to be accountable. We’re not going to let it shake us for the rest of the week.”
At week’s end, Proteus was the overall winner. Prospector finished second, and Bella Mente was fourth. In May, the series moved to the Mediterranean for the Palma Vela regatta and then the final four races, including the Maxi72 Rolex World Championship, which will be held in September off the coast of Sardinia.
The Maxi72 class evolved 3 years ago from a previous generation of smaller yachts called Mini Maxis. The worldwide fleet of Maxi72s now comprises eight large, fast, and highly technical yachts designed to sail like much smaller racing vessels. “ Bella Mente has the most advanced materials in today’s racing sailboats,” says Don Watson, the lead boatbuilder at New England Boatworks in Rhode Island, where Bella Mente was constructed. “[Its] Kevlar honeycomb-cored hull and Nomex honeycomb deck, with carbon-fiber skin and inner structure, make [it] incredibly light and strong.” Proteus shares the same build quality. Both yachts were designed by Judel/Vrolijk & Co., a naval-architecture firm in Germany.
“They’re very nimble and weight sensitive,” says Fauth of the Maxi72s. And they’re fast. The yachts regularly race at 30 knots and have been known to reach 38 knots.
The Maxi 72s have attracted owners, such as Fauth and Sakellaris, who love to sail and are good at it. They’re also willing to invest heavily each year in professional crews and technical enhancements to their boats.
The rules governing the racing class allow for structural modifications each season, so owners spend millions for new sails, keels, and various design changes to make their boats lighter and faster. (The allowed modifications exclude changes to the yachts’ length or draft.) Weight is critical; any extra pound above the waterline is considered the enemy. “We don’t carry a cushion on the boat, and for our offshore races, we have a small gas burner belowdecks to make hot soup,” says Fauth, who has won three Rolex World Championships, the first in 2012 in a Mini Maxi that also was called Bella Mente . “Other than that, it’s only the sails and crew.”
“We’ve chosen our crew very carefully,” says Fauth. “When we’ve replaced people, we’ve made sure to improve that position. These boats are very well sailed, so you need a professional crew. It’s all about execution on the racecourse. Amateurs just can’t compete at this level.”
The Bella Mente team comes together a week before each regatta and trains daily for 9 hours. In the evenings, a coach who has filmed the day’s practice goes over the footage with the crew. “We also have a data dump for all wind, current, and other measurements, which we review the night before a race,” says Fauth. “You have to be serious about it at this level.”
In addition to the sailors, the Bella Mente team includes support crews for carbon-fiber work and for the yacht’s hydraulics and sails. A chef and a chef’s assistant are also part of the team.
Fauth steers the boat for all inshore buoy races and longer coastal races. Sanderson relieves him at the helm for offshore races. “It’d be easy for [Fauth] to say, ‘Been there, done that,’ but he just keeps driving the sport forward,” says Sanderson. “He keeps the boat current. He knows he has to do that if he expects to do well.” The boat has changed keels and masts, and it regularly receives new carbon-fiber sails, which Hutchinson and Sanderson constantly tweak and upgrade to improve performance.
In their day jobs, Hutchinson and Sanderson work for competing businesses in the sail-making industry. “I’m not aware of any other situation like this in the racing world,” says Sanderson, the CEO of Doyle Stratis Sails in New Zealand. “It’s like getting two engine companies to share secrets for the benefit of a Formula 1 team. It just doesn’t happen. But we’ve learned to play to our strengths in the partnership and have developed some highly technical sails as a result.”
“People often ask me how Bella Mente performs so well,” says Hutchinson, the vice president of Quantum Sails in Michigan. “It’s simple. Hap wants to win.”
Proteus ’s crew members are all successful professional sailors, and the boat is 2 years younger than Bella Mente . Its keel, rudders, masts, and sails have been constantly fine-tuned. “The boat goes through comprehensive performance analyses,” says Sakellaris. “We’re seeing improved performance with each race.”
The goal is to have the boat in peak condition in September for the season’s grand finale in Sardinia, the Maxi72 Rolex World Championship. “That’s the big race for everyone,” says Stuart Bannatyne, Proteus ’s tactician. “That’s where all the new sails come out and the boats get into their top form.”
Fauth says that win or lose, he plans to retire Bella Mente at the end of this year. Will he have another Maxi72 built? “We’ve spent a long time building this crew, and it’s a really good one,” he says. “I’m not planning to retire anytime soon. I’d say there is probably going to be a new boat in my life.”
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Caribbean Sailing Association
Proteus Sets the Bar
Proteus, George Sakellaris’ Maxi 72 finished the RORC Caribbean 600 in 2 days 0 hours 22 minutes 16 seconds © RORC/Emma Louise Wyn Jones
A thrilling race between four Maxi72s came to a conclusion on the third day of the RORC Caribbean 600. With the lead changing hands on numerous occasions, George Sakellaris’ Proteus was the first Maxi72 to finish the race, just over 20 minutes ahead of Dieter Schön’s Momo with Sir Peter Ogden’s Jethou third. Last year’s overall winner, Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente retired with keel problems.
“We have beaten some great boats and the sailing was great and we had a beautiful venue,” smiled George Sakellaris, Proteus’ owner. “During the race we had boat-on-boat action with all of the Maxi72s; Bella Mente, Jethou and Momo, and their teams are all great sailors. Proteus is a powerful boat which helps, but it is all down to the team.”
Proteus afterguard, Stu Bannatyne commented after the finish: “Our game plan for this race was to try and not get beaten by ourselves. We were a bit late arriving here and our preparation was not ideal, so our plan going into the race was to do things smartly, but try not to be too clever with fancy stuff as we had not practiced a lot, we wanted to keep things simple. We have a great team on board so we focused on sailing the boat well and tried to minimize the mistakes we made. For this race, we had the boat configured as the highest stability boat and that really showed on the race course; whenever the conditions were pressed up, we felt we had a little edge in speed.
“The race between the four Maxi72s was always going to be intense and it certainly proved to be the case. All four of us were battling it out at times during the race. At the end of the day, we managed to slip past Bella Mente at Guadeloupe and you have to get a bit of luck, and we did there.
“These boats are not designed for a 600 mile race, they have very little concessions for sailing offshore. The inside of the boat was full of water and with all the manoeuvres and corners it was hard work for the crew. The watch system was six hours on and then three off, but if anyone got three off, they were very lucky.”
Proteus now leads the RORC Caribbean 600 overall after IRC time correction; 63 yachts are still racing but the time set by Proteus will be hard to better for the overall win. Class honour is still very much in the balance in several IRC classes.
IRC Canting Keel Jim Clark and Kirsty Hinze-Clark’s Comanche tops the class having taken line honours early his morning. Bouwe Bekking’s Volvo Ocean 65, Team Brunel finished the race this afternoon to claim second place after IRC time correction. 2009 race winner, Adrian Lee’s Cookson 50, Lee Overlay Partners was 76 miles from the finish, heading for Redonda and is provisionally in third place.
IRC Zero Maxi72s Proteus and Momo occupy the top two places in the class. Steve Benjamin’s TP52, Spookie was 7 miles ahead of Piet Vroon’s Tonnerre 4 at the Barbuda mark when their tracker stopped transmitting. Spookie has a slim shot at the overall win and class title and is being pushed hard by the Dutch team.
IRC One Eric De Turkheim’s A13, Teasing Machine is the provisional class leader. The French team have 146 miles to go and is blast reaching up to Barbuda; they will be hoping for big breeze to propel them to the finish. Andrew Weiss’ Sydney 43, Christopher Dragon has rounded La Desirade for the sleigh ride to Barbuda. Provisionally second in class, Christopher Dragon was four hours behind Teasing Machine after IRC time correction. Adix, the impressive three-masted schooner, was 135 miles from the finish and lying third after IRC time correction.
IRC Two All 10 yachts racing in IRC Two were south of Guadeloupe at 1600 on Day 3. Ross Applebey’s Scarlet Oyster leads the class by a healthy margin after time correction but his close friend and regular rival Andy Middleton, racing First 47.7, EH01 is just two miles astern of Scarlet Oyster. No doubt Andy and Ross will be putting the hammer down on the fast reach to Barbuda. First 40, Arthur Logic and Swan 53, Ballytrim are having a real ding-dong for third place, just three minutes apart after IRC time correction. Two Handed team, Chris Frost & Elin Haf Davies, racing J/120 Nunatak reported in the competitors blog: “Devastated to have to report that most of my chocolate supply has melted,” commented Elin. “Frosty will be a hero if he is to survive another 48 hours with me without chocolate! If he survives the fury that is Elin without chocolate, he should be made a Saint of Sailing!”
IRC Three Four yachts are in a tense battle for the class win, currently negotiating the wind shadow of Guadeloupe. Irish Sunfast 36, Bam skippered by Conor Fogerty is level on the water with German Swan 44, Best Buddies, skippered by Susann Wrede. Peter Hopps, skipper of British Sigma 38, Sam who has competed in every edition of the race, is negotiating the tricky passage west of Guadeloupe very well and may have got the jump on American Swan 48, Isbjorn, co-skippered by Andy Schell and Paul Exner.
Figaro sailors from Guadeloupe have been racing in the RORC Caribbean 600 for many years and are young talented sailors aspiring to join the professional ranks. Benjamin Augereau & Keni Piperol racing Bandit Mancho and Arthur Bouwyn & Alienor Fleury racing Sor are having a tremendous battle. The two teams have hardly been out of sight of each other for 400 miles. The two Figaro teams are battling it out south of Guadeloupe two hundred miles from the finish.
For more information visit the RORC Caribbean 600 mini-site: www.caribbean600.rorc.org
Dieter Schoen’s Maxi72, Momo at Redonda earlier today © RORC/Tim Wright
Sir Peter Ogden’s Maxi 72, Jethou at Redonda © RORC/Tim Wright
Bouwe Bekking’s VO65, Team Brunel at Redonda © RORC/Tim Wright
Piet Vroon’s Ker 51, Tonnerre 4 © RORC/Emma Louise Wyn Jones
Christopher Dragon, Andrew Weiss’ Sydney 43 at the start of the race has now rounded La Desirade earlier today and is provisionally second in IRC One © RORC/Tim Wright
Ross Applebey’s Scarlet Oyster leads IRC Two © RORC/Tim Wright
RACE MINISITE : Follow the race on the minisite: http://caribbean600.rorc.org Keep up to date with all the news. There will be blogs from the boats themselves on the race course, images, video and daily race reports. Follow the action as it unfolds on the RORC Caribbean 600 website.
SOCIAL MEDIA : Facebook. Follow the race on: https://www.facebook.com/RoyalOceanRacingClub Twitter: #rorcrc600 – Follow @rorcracing
TRACK THE FLEET : Every yacht is fitted with a race tracker and their progress can be followed on the race website: http://caribbean600.rorc.org/Tracking/2016-fleet-tracking.html
Join the Virtual Regatta HERE: http://click.virtualregatta.com/?li=4559
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George Sakellaris’ Shockwave crew celebrate dockside in Antigua after their victorious race Credit: Kevin Johnson/kevinjohnsonphotography.com
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This image is featured as part of the article This year’s RORC Caribbean 600 attended by record number of 60 yachts .
Please contact CharterWorld - the luxury yacht charter specialist - for more on superyacht news item "George Sakellaris' Shockwave crew celebrate dockside in Antigua after their victorious race Credit: Kevin Johnson/kevinjohnsonphotography.com ".
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