{"id":2083,"date":"2020-10-13T16:32:26","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T16:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sailsporttalk.com\/?p=2083"},"modified":"2020-10-15T19:01:52","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T19:01:52","slug":"guest-nyyc-commodore-christopher-culver-queens-cup-race-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sailsporttalk.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/13\/guest-nyyc-commodore-christopher-culver-queens-cup-race-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest NYYC Commodore Christopher Culver & Queen’s Cup Race Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The afterguard of Bella Mente Racing includes Mike Sanderson (far left) and owner Hap Fauth (steering). ROLEX\/Daniel Forster
USA45 Bella Mente Hap Fauth Maxi 72 NYYC \/ STC \/ RORC Naples, FL, USA
2020 RACE WEEK AT NEWPORT PRESENTED BY ROLEX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Our guest Christopher Culver serves as the New York Yacht Club\u2019s Commodore and participates personally in the racing \u2013 celebrating the sailing life-style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Karen Lile and Christopher Caen interview Christopher together just a few days after the races were completed \u2013 and the excitement is just as high as the days on the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sailsporttalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/christopher-j-culver-sq-600x600-300x300-1.jpg?resize=300%2C300&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2095\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sailsporttalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/christopher-j-culver-sq-600x600-300x300-1.jpg?w=300&ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sailsporttalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/christopher-j-culver-sq-600x600-300x300-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Bella Mente Racing:\u00a0<br>A Queen\u2019s Cup Victory and Third at NYYC Race Week<\/strong><br><br> \u201cIt has been a great ten days of sailing, that\u2019s for sure!\u201d said Mike Sanderson after sailing with\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/bellamenteracing.com\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bella Mente Racing<\/a>\u00a0to a Queen\u2019s Cup victory on Sunday, Sept. 27. The Queen\u2019s Cup, staged by the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) since 1953 and offering as its prize one of the Club\u2019s oldest and most prestigious trophies, was for many years held during the Club\u2019s Annual Cruise. Of late, however, it has been a stand-alone event held in the waters off Newport, R.I.; this year it was added to the end of NYYC\u2019s four-day New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex, in which Bella Mente also competed to finish third.\u00a0<br><br>The Queen\u2019s Cup course was 17 miles and triangle-style, bringing back memories of the old Olympic course,\u201d said Sanderson, who serves as\u00a0<em>Bella Mente<\/em>\u2019s crew boss and co-helms with owner Hap Fauth in offshore races.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s always fun to go reaching!\u201d He said the first full lap was in a healthy nine knots of breeze; however, a second lap brought a rain shower that killed the wind and pushed it hard right. \u201cOur timing was good, and we made a nice little gain at the top of that lap and were then able to take advantage of it for the long light run to the finish. We never stopped, but it did get pretty light.\u201d<br><br>Fauth said the competition was outstanding and the conditions\u00a0\u2013 a fading southerly that saw many of the smaller boats in the fleet struggle to make the finish line \u2013\u00a0favored\u00a0<em>Bella Mente<\/em>. \u201cWe are honored to have won such a prestigious trophy at the New York Yacht Club, and we would like to thank the Club and the race committee for a great day,\u201d said Fauth.\u00a0Of the 15 boats competing in the Queen\u2019s Cup, the TP\/52\u00a0<em>Vesper<\/em>, skippered by David Team (Newport Beach, Calif.), and the Botin 52\u00a0<em>Fox<\/em>, skippered by Victor Wild (San Diego, Calif.) were\u00a0<em>Bella Mente\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0closest competitors, taking second and third, respectively.<br><br>Those same boats were also\u00a0<em>Bella Mente<\/em>\u2019s fiercest rivals in ORC 1 class at Race Week, held from Wednesday, September 23 to Saturday, September 26.\u00a0<em>Bella Mente<\/em>\u00a0shared top-three standings with them in all but two of the seven races completed on windward-leeward courses ranging from 5-23 nautical miles. <br><br>In the end, however,\u00a0<em>Vesper<\/em>and\u00a0<em>Fox<\/em>, in that order, prevailed in overall scoring to take first and second place.\u201cThe best way for us to get a good result against the two highly competitive 52s,\u201d said Sanderson, \u201cwas for us to do what we could at the start of the race to make sure that they would fight it out amongst themselves. Unfortunately for\u00a0<em>Fox<\/em>, that meant if they opened the door for us to tack on them a couple of times and get them behind the lower rated\u00a0<em>Vesper<\/em>, we would do that. Since the corrected times for our three boats were so close, we needed every second!\u201d<br><br>With a total of five practice days and five racing days, the net gain for Bella Mente Racing was quality time on the water, in a variety of conditions, for testing a new keel and bulb and other modifications recently made to\u00a0<em>Bella Mente<\/em>, which was designed by Botin Partners and built at New England Boatworks. The team also got to reconnect personally and rejuvenate its cohesive sailing skills after a months-long period of waiting for Covid-19 to lift its foggy veil enough to make it a reasonable decision to ship\u00a0<em>Bella Mente<\/em>\u00a0from Mallorca to Newport and fly in her 22 crew members from different parts of the country and the world.<br><br>Said Sanderson: \u201cIt was a lovely reminder, after this crazy year, of how much we love sailing\u00a0<em>Bella Mente<\/em>\u00a0with Hap. We will stay Newport-based for at least the next few months and see what the world will let us do! Fingers crossed that we\u2019ll race again sooner than later.\u201d\u00a0<br><br>For more information, visit\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/bellamenteracing.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/bellamenteracing.com\/<\/a>.\u00a0<br>Follow Bella Mente Racing on\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Bella-Mente\/86086079984?fref=ts\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/US45bellamente\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCyye6GELZImIaXrRfRv0Agw\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/bellamenteracing\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"527\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sailsporttalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2020NYYC_RWAN_DF_1943-768x527-2.jpg?resize=768%2C527&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2087\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sailsporttalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2020NYYC_RWAN_DF_1943-768x527-2.jpg?w=768&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sailsporttalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2020NYYC_RWAN_DF_1943-768x527-2.jpg?resize=300%2C206&ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption><em>Bella Mente<\/em>\u00a0won the 2020 Queen\u2019s Cup and finished third in the New York Yacht Club\u2019s Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex. PHOTO: ROLEX\/Daniel Forster<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our guest Christopher Culver serves as the New York Yacht Club\u2019s Commodore and participates personally in the racing \u2013 celebrating the sailing life-style. Karen Lile and Christopher Caen interview Christopher together just a few days after the races were completed \u2013 and the excitement is just as high as the days on the water. Bella Mente Racing:\u00a0A Queen\u2019s Cup Victory and Third at NYYC Race Week \u201cIt has been a great ten days of sailing, that\u2019s for sure!\u201d said Mike Sanderson after sailing with\u00a0Bella Mente Racing\u00a0to a Queen\u2019s Cup victory on Sunday, Sept. 27. The Queen\u2019s Cup, staged by the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,181],"tags":[298,209,295,297,296],"class_list":["post-2083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-york-yacht-club","category-recognitions","tag-bella-mente","tag-christopher-caen","tag-christopher-culver","tag-nyyc","tag-race-week"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sailsporttalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/christopher-j-culver-sq-600x600-300x300-1.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sailsporttalk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sailsporttalk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sailsporttalk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sailsporttalk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sailsporttalk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2083"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sailsporttalk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2102,"href":"https:\/\/sailsporttalk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions\/2102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sailsporttalk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sailsporttalk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sailsporttalk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sailsporttalk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}