| How Bella Mente Did It |
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| Media and News - Features |
| Written by Kimball Livingston |
| Friday, 15 July 2011 19:39 |
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A beaming-through-the-fatigue Hap Fauth hit the beach today in Honolulu, Transpac Barn Door win in the bank, mission-accomplished on the Left Coast tour of his 74 foot sloop, Bella Mente. The "Barn Door" is awarded to the first finisher of the Transpacific Yacht Race, 2,225 miles, Los Angeles to Honolulu, "and that was our objective," Fauth said. To finish first. Bella Mente made Diamond Head just before dawn, as pink streaks began to color the high clouds off to the east. Official finish time: 05:44:28.
Doug Baker's Magnitude 80 followed 2 hours, 51 minutes later , making steam. They had made a race of it. Bella Mente had shown the way all the way from their July 8 start, but the outcome was never a done deal. These were boats with different strengths, each playing for the right point of leverage. Both crews worked through the night without sleep. Now it was time for the reward. It got a bit brighter for Magnitude . . .
"For four days before the start, we ran models of the race," Fauth said. "No matter how the different models came out, they all had one thing in common. They all told us that, 400 miles from the finish, we'd better be 150 miles north of Honolulu. The routing kept coming back to that, but, intuitively, you don't want to go north in this race, especially in the mushy stuff we sailed into in the middle of it, when everybody slowed down." So true. Going in, there were mixed signals . A heavy, persistent winter had bled into an alleged "spring" that in the country of only-two-seasons (California) looked a lot like still-winter on the Pacific Ocean, persisting through June. For 53 starters, the 46th Transpacific Yacht Race could be: An excruciatingly-slow repeat of the Turtle Transpac of '79. A perfect opening for a very fast race. In fact it was something of both. Depending upon where you were. When. A first wave of starters, the smallest raceboats and an "Aloha" division for cruisers, went off on July 4 with an excruciating shortage of breeze. July 8 starters fared much better, making quick work of leaving the coastal waters and at first enjoying a very strong ride in the tradewinds blowing toward the islands. Then the race slowed down in that "mushy stuff" Fauth mentioned. Bella Mente navigator Ian Moore said, "By the middle of the race it came clear that our opponent was better downwind than we were. They could match our speed and sail 5-6 degrees lower [closer to the finish] so we had to change our tactics. The favored route was north, but there were risks attached because north puts you closer to the High Pressure Zone. You could lose the breeze. But we had to do something different, and that made it simple. We had to take full advantage of the shift. We had a meeting of both watch captains, Mike Sanderson and Tom "TomMac" McLaughlin, and Hap, and me. We all agreed. Hap understood the risks, but he was supportive, and maybe, just maybe, we could have gone half of those 150 miles north and still made a gain. But we went the whole way for maximum leverage." With a perspective from the opposite deck, here is Magnitude 80 navigator Ernie Richau: "They controlled the side of the course we wanted. Wanted, but couldn't have. We could never get across them without paying a price we couldn't afford." And know now, couldn't afford not to. The international set will recognize the name Dee Smith, who has sailed on Bella Mente but missed this race. He was on the scene for the welcoming party at Waikiki Yacht Club - every finisher gets an aloha welcome - and recalled a time when, "I asked Fauth, why don't you do a Transpac with that boat. I think you could steal the Barn Door and maybe set a record." So it worked, and was Fauth happy? Here he is with a couple of his closest friends.
Bella Mente, even though a replacement boat is nearing launch in Rhode Island, entered the 46th Transpac with a new rig, new sails, an added sprit, and five feet of added length. For his part, Doug Baker had reconfigured Magnitude from canting-keel to fixed keel (only fixed-keel qualifies for the Barn Door) with new sails of its own. "It was an interesting process to get to the start line," Fauth said. "The race was 60 percent planning and 40 percent execution. Dougie Couvreux and Matt Smith from our crew have both sailed on Magnitude, and we knew this was no slam dunk. But they're a running boat, and we're a power-reaching boat. We stack every sail on the weather quarter and put the crew on top of that." Top speed in this race: 25 knots, not a personal best. With five boats out and already returned to the mainland, there are 48 boats still on the course, with only the Open 60, O Canada, likely to finish before tomorrow. All division leaders held their corrected-time positions overnight, except the July 4 starters of Division 6, where Simon Garland's Hobie 33, Peregrine, snatched back the lead from Charles-Etienne Devanneaux's Beneteau First 40, Naos Two. The following is catch-as-catch-can. We don't play favorites, We run what we find without driving ourselves to distraction. That said . . . AROUND THE FLEET From Alpha Puppy, 1D35, 5th in Division 6: "The mood aboard AP was decidedly upbeat this morning as the catspaws morphed into dogspaws. The "Puppy" began to find her legs as the wind built to a steady 15 knots." [Too bad about that mahi mahi they couldn't keep on the line.] From Peligroso, Kernan 70, 2nd in Division 1 (and I can't be sure, but this sounds like navigator Ben Mitchell): "This morning we got the gift of a really nice squall. With tropical squalls come wind, and if played right, they can give you an extra 10 knots of wind speed. The wind is all in front of the squall, and the tricky part is that behind the squall there is very little wind. If the squall overtakes you or you sail through the back of one, you could possibly be stuck in very light wind for hours. Today we were able to play the squall very well. We went from the normal 14 knots of wind to 26. We did six gybes to stay in front of the squall and we managed to sail in that increased breeze for two and a half hours. That was a gain of over 10 miles, which we hope will help us in the standings. Of course with the good comes the bad...we got something stuck on the keel and had to back down twice today. Very slow but we're getting better at it. "As of now we have gybed onto port gybe towards Hawaii. We're one of the boats farthest-right [right = north: Ed.] and we're working the angles of the wind to take us all the way into Honolulu. We're just starting to see the angle that we have been waiting for and we're ripping along at 15+ knots straight toward the finish." From the TP52 Patches, leading Division 2: "The drag race has begun. The plan was to get out to the West of the fleet and leverage the easterly shift. We have succeeded in getting to the West of the fleet and have gotten a good header this morning with more coming tomorrow morning. The next three places in our fleet have spread out on the course. Katana, in 4th, is directly behind us at 177 miles. Vincitore, in 3rd, is in front of our port beam, about 82 miles to the southeast of us.Criminal Mischief, in 2nd, is between the two extremes and dead upwind of us and 140 miles away. We are comfortable with our position as we are protecting the right side of the course from Vincitore's leverage to the southeast. Criminal is dead upwind, and will need to sail further distance (and longer time) to cover the 140 miles. We will be keeping an eye on them and possibly step down to the west one more time to take full advantage of the heading breeze as we get a little closer to the mark. Yep, breeze all the way in, and here's another piece of good news. A full moon makes for a great nighttime driving experience. If it looks this good from downtown Honolulu, just imagine how good it is at sea, with a tradewind over your shoulder.
By Sunday, there'll be stinky sailors all over this place. Praise be for the flowered lei. Kimball Livingston |
