Bella Mente wins Transpacific Yacht Race
PHOTO BY JAMM AQUINO/JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hap Fauth, left, skipper/owner of the Bella Mente, holds the Waikiki Yacht Club flag as he celebrates with Edson Lott III, right, this morning at Waikiki Yacht Club in Honolulu. The Bella Mente crossed the finish line at 5:44am.
Hap Fauth, left, skipper/owner of the Bella Mente, holds the Waikiki Yacht Club flag as he celebrates with Edson Lott III, right, this morning at Waikiki Yacht Club in Honolulu. The Bella Mente crossed the finish line at 5:44am.
A re-jiggered Bella Mente captured the 46th Transpacific Yacht Race, crossing the finish line at Diamond Head Light today at 5:34 a.m.
Skipper Hap Fauth and navigator Ian Moore left Los Angeles on July 8 at 1 p.m. and successfully navigated the Bella Mente on her 2,225-mile journey across the Pacific. Fauth’s Reichel-Pugh designed sloop was lengthened by 5 feet to 74 feet and it helped.
Fauth held off Doug Baker’s Magnitude 80, which was also reconfigured for this historic race from canting-keel to fixed keel to meet racing regulations. With the help of navigator Ernie Richau, the Magnitude 80 crossed the line second at about 8 a.m. today.
