Newport Bermuda Race: Shockwave beats Bella Mente by 7 minutes

Hamilton, Bermuda (June 23, 2014) – After sailing nearly side by side over 635 miles and two and a half days, George Sakellaris’ 72-foot Mini Maxi Shockwave nipped Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente at the finish line at St. David’s Lighthouse, Bermuda, by 7 minutes to win line honors in the 2014 Newport Bermuda Race.

The Reichel/Pugh designed Shockwave finished Monday at 5:33 a.m. EDT (6:33 Bermuda Time), followed by the 72-foot Mini Maxi Bella Mente at 5:40. The third boat on elapsed time, Alex Schaerer’s Caol Ila R, finished more than three hours later. The next boat to finish will be the US Naval Academy‘s TP52 Constellation.

This was a repeat of their dramatic duel in the 2012 Newport Bermuda Race, when the Judel/Vrolijk designed Bella Mente beat Shockwave on elapsed time by 2 minutes, 3 seconds, and both boats broke the previous elapsed time record for the race. Shockwave won the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Trophy on corrected time in 2012.

This year, the teams were so close that they sometimes appeared as one boat on the tracker.

Source: Event media

Tracking – Race website

Photos by Daniel Forster from the start.

Background:
The race has five divisions, essentially five separate race fleets:
– Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division: for professional crews on modern competitive boats
– St. David’s Lighthouse Division: for amateur crews on dual purpose racer-cruiser boats
– Double-handed: only two people on each boat
– Cruiser: for amateur crews on boats not designed for racing
– Open: for boats of a size or construction type beyond the normal range of the fleet