Update
Originally launched as a one-design class the MOD 70 tris steadily dispersed around the world, some staying in class configuration, others being more or less heavily modified, including Giovanni Soldini’s Maserati which is today a full foiler with a quiver of course records in classic distance races all over the world. But Justin Shaffer’s Orion (above) cruised to line honours in the latest Transpac fully in-class; designers VPLP did a pretty good job back in 2008… as did CDK with all of the seven boats that they built still sailing
The strategy with the fin and bulb had great results on the Quantum
Racing TP52 and it felt appropriate to use Artemis’s design tools for Bella Mente. The trick for 2023 is to improve on the reaching and downwind performance without giving up too much upwind. At the 2022 Maxi Worlds we were 2,1,1,1,1 at the first top mark…
and did not win the regatta! I firmly believe it is a poor craftsman who blames his tools, but continual improvement needs to do exactly that, continually improve. Refining for one event, the Maxi World Championship, is hard;
it can be varied conditions and, as we have learnt, the Maxi72 has become quite refined with each boat strong in its specific condition. For Bella Mente, though, it is exciting to see the changes. The science can only be so correct and then it is down to how we learn the boat and develop. And sail! Hap (Fauth) has pushed hard for the changes and the shore team
led by boat captain Pete Henderson have done a great job on a very tight schedule. Regardless of the outcome in September Bella Mente is better reaching today than she has ever been. It will be exciting to see if we can keep the consistency in starting and our top mark deltas. A lot of different ways to win! In other happenings this month will see the first AC40 racing with
a test event in Barcelona. The TV and race software need to be tested prior to the first event in Vilanova and this is the opportunity to shake out the kinks. Should be exciting! Standing by at 41,000ft on UA 992, Barcelona bound!
FURTHER WEST – Cam Lewis Meanwhile… at 39,675ft above the big blue Pacific on HAL 90 going 603mph from Honolulu to Boston, 4,429nm, then a 141nm hop to Owls Head, Maine then to Vinalhaven Island and the summer home… I had tears in my eyes this morning while out kiting alone at Kailua
Beach, Oahu. Me, the seabirds, turtles, millions of reef fish around the coral heads below, the busiest island in Hawaii (1.5+ million
18 SEAHORSE
humans) and no one except me out there kiting over crystal-clear reefs in 15kt of perfect breeze – yay. OK, it was 07.15am yet what the heck, huh? Sleeping late is silly. Get up. Get out. Rig big. Gotta love life on the sea! I was on my seventh and last session out kiting since our speeding
win in the 2023 Transpac on Orion a week ago. As my best and late friend Laurent Bourgnon once quipped to a
curious journalist about why he raced big, fast trimarans… his now legendary response was ‘to get from one disco to the next in a hurry’. And that’s what we used to do, plus win a few races and hearts along the way. OK, those disco days are way past for my lifestyle, yet the Aloha
vibe in the biennial Transpac is so special, unique. The camaraderie is super special among our tight three-boat MOD 70 fleet. Example: Jason Carrol, Argo owner, hosted all of us for a small fiesta and meal at his local in Cabrillo two days before the start. We share a long pontoon for a couple of weeks pre-start in Cabrillo, plus tools, coms, containers and workshops, cars and a lot of laughs. Sure, secrets are kept… and as we know the best way to keep
a secret between three people is to kill two of ’em… Orionwas immaculately prepared by Hogan Beatie and our team
– Argo as well. Maserati had a serious hiccup with some bad-boy Mexican officials in Ensenada and could not get their race sails and foils out of their container in Mexico… so raced with stock foils and delivery sails. Not ideal. Something about a racy poster of a bikini- clad gal selling auto products… Who’d have thought of that? We started off at 12.00 on 1 July with a weird forecast, with a
lot of light air upwind to get through to break out in the downwind and notorious fun tradewind sailing that this race is supposed to be about. Upwind with gennakers is not ideal. Crossover to Solent/J1 is at 10kt TWS and 20/22 AWS. Our start was a bit off – a lot of traffic from spectators changed
the plan of attack. Yet we bounced off Maserati’s windward hip and went well on port until the long tack onto starboard to round the west end of Catalina – the only mark on the course – where we
SHARON GREEN ULTIMATE SAILING
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125
