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2015 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup
Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship : Bella Mente’s Hap Fauth reclaimed the title last held in 2012
dimanche 13 septembre 2015 –
Bella Mente : In fine spirit
In the Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship, owner Hap Fauth steered Bella Mente to victory, reclaiming the title he last held in 2012.
Bella Mente’s crew boss, the round-the-world-race winner Mike Sanderson, had felt good about his team’s chances this morning.
“We can’t worry too much about what the others are doing,” said the New Zealander. “We’ve got plenty to think about on our own boat, never mind anyone else !”
In the first race of the day, Dieter Schön’s Momo broke the start line too early, and while the German executed a precision manoeuvre to return to restart with minimal loss of time, it was a critical error in such a closely-matched fleet. So focused is he on driving the boat, Fauth wasn’t even aware of Momo’s mistake.
“I’m sailing the boat as fast as I can, that’s all I do ! I don’t know where anyone else is. I just listen to my tactician. If he says ‘get ready to tack, 3-2-1,’ well, I’m tacking !”
Bella Mente’s victory in that race strengthened the Americans’ grasp on the title, but it would still go down to the final race.
This time Momo didn’t put a foot wrong, taking the race by just 19 seconds from Robertissima III. Two second places for Roberto Tomasini’s Italian crew was an excellent performance, and agonisingly close to toppling Bella Mente for the overall honours. That 19-second margin was all that stood between Tomasini and overall victory. But Bella Mente’s 3rd place in the last race was good enough for Fauth to secure the world title by a single point from his Italian rival.
Asked which was the sweeter victory, 2012 or 2015, Fauth replied :
“This one, because we spent a lot of time on the design of the boat. We made some big changes to the mast, sails, keel and crew. We had great expectations. We had excellent tactics, but this was a team victory. For me it was sweet, because I’m running out of runway !”
Voir en ligne : Press info internationalmaxiassociation.com
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