Mini Transat!

flaming

flaming

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As if you hardened race fans weren't already aware....

The mini Transat starts this Sunday! Transatlantic in a 21 foot boat racing against lots of French people with beards.

http://www.minitransat.fr/

This year, without our very own BBG, there is but one Brit entered. My very good friend and occasional Yachting World contributor, Pip Hare.

This girl is full on nuts, by a considerable distance the best sailor I've ever had the privilege of sailing with, and is a long way from being there just to make up the numbers. This will be her second mini transat, in 2011 she finished 17th and this time she's got a good chance of a very decent result.

http://www.pipoceanracing.com/

So good luck Pip!

And as they have a virtual game, I'm going to try and beat her!
 
Yes, a very good sailor, determined and dedicated. I wish her well.

It may be a downhill route, but is is a long way in a 21' fast boat, lots of skill needed and i believe one of the few single handed race with no outside communications.
 
A fabulous event IMO.

A young Norwegian girl arrived in Lagos around this time last year after losing her mast.

She spent (I think) about 10 days under jury rig getting here (insufficient fuel carried for the engine).

She hoped to be entering this year - but clearly not.

What a girl.
 
flaming said:
As if you hardened race fans weren't already aware....

The mini Transat starts this Sunday! Transatlantic in a 21 foot boat racing against lots of French people with beards.

http://www.minitransat.fr/

This year, without our very own BBG, there is but one Brit entered. My very good friend and occasional Yachting World contributor, Pip Hare.

This girl is full on nuts, by a considerable distance the best sailor I've ever had the privilege of sailing with, and is a long way from being there just to make up the numbers. This will be her second mini transat, in 2011 she finished 17th and this time she's got a good chance of a very decent result.

http://www.pipoceanracing.com/

So good luck Pip!

And as they have a virtual game, I'm going to try and beat her!
Click to expand...


I sent Pip an email earlier today to wish her luck, and my (former) boat is going back out to do it again (529). Will probably get a much better result now that I am not aboard! Wish I were, though ...
 
Excellent. Hope she does well.
Rather you than me, so to speak. Nuts indeed, not respect as such, just bewilderment at my age!
 
bbg said:
I sent Pip an email earlier today to wish her luck, and my (former) boat is going back out to do it again (529). Will probably get a much better result now that I am not aboard! Wish I were, though ...
Click to expand...

Did the round bow concept (David Raison's boat) catch on or not for this year's race?
 
Totally rooting for Pip, but there are a few other interesting Anglophone entries to watch as well:

Jeffrey MacFarlane - very high class young US racer, Class 40s & all, probably the best hope of an English-speaking winner in a long while. Was top of the Mini league at the start of the year & then smashed up his hand when his boat broke up on his 1,000M qualifying passage. Has managed to get a new boat & complete the qualifications in record time, but not a new hand - he's waiting for that until after the Transat!
http://sailinganarchy.com/tag/jeff-macfarlane/
http://www.jefferymacfarlane.com/

Katrina Ham - incredibly young & incredibly motivated Aussie girl, based in the Solent until last winter, when she moved to L'Orient with a boat with no fittings, no money, no French & no contacts. Has also done wonders in getting sponsorship from a load of French companies, may not be in the chocs this time but definitely one to watch. She's sailing a Nacira, one of the newer boats in the series (production) category - they're expected to do very well this year.
http://www.katrinahamracing.com/

Richard Hewson - another Aussie, skippered the winning boat in the last Clipper race & won all but (I think) one of the legs. Haven't met him but I gather he's a forceful personality (!) - more interestingly, he's sailing one of the two brand new types of boats in the series class an RG650. (The other is the Argo 650, both Spanish designed but the RG is built in Argentina.)
http://hewsonracing.com/about/

Diane Reid - third Canadian to do the race, life-long sailor & racer, & a very nice woman who lent me a sleeping bag when mine was wet through!
http://www.onegirlsoceanchallenge.com/

And finally - my friend Sofie de Clercq. First Belgian woman to do the Mini Transat, & she lived in Wales for 14 years so there's a (tenuous) Brit connection. She's in a Ginto, which is not the fastest series boat out there but great in lighter airs, & she's a very tough, competent sailor. Go Sofie!
http://www.sofie650.com/www.sofie650.com/Sofie_650.html

I hear there are also some French taking part.............
 
Sybarite said:
Did the round bow concept (David Raison's boat) catch on or not for this year's race?
Click to expand...

The course has changed, with a lot less reaching expected, so I think the jury's still out. It's going again in new hands, and if it wins comfortably again I'd say all future minis are likely to be ugly....

The website says

Giancarlo Pedote, returned to the Mini circuit after a detour through the Figaro class, he made a daring choice for the next Mini Transat. He decided to buy the revolutionary prototype of David Raison which was brilliantly placed in the Transat 6.50 2011 from La Rochelle to Salvador de Bahia. If he is successful on this second pass, some naysayers might see this as confirmation that the boat is better the rest. If it fails ...
Click to expand...
 
Almost forgot - we might yet have another Brit girl in the race.

Nikki Curwen is #4 on the waiting list & ready to go - she's part of the Artemis Offshore Academy & is sailing their Mini (Pogo 2). Another very young one but very experienced & sound Mini pedigree - her father Simon was second in the 2001 Mini Transat, the highest placing so far achieved by a Brit. The pair of them won last year's Myth of Malham sailing two up, when conditions were so bad that only around 15 boats started & (I think) only three finished (5m standing waves in the Needles channel, by all accounts). A very ballsy girl by all accounts, hope she makes it to the start.
http://nikkicurwen.com/
 
Sadly unlikely as all of the boats registered have passed their safety inspections and all have indicated intent to race. So sadly not this time for Nikki, at least not as an official entrant, but she'll be back for sure.
 
True - was hoping they might let the four on stand-by go anyway, but I guess they're limited by the number of competitors allowed per support boat. Shame for Nikki, she did great to get herself & the boat ready in time.
 
chinita said:
A fabulous event IMO.
A young Norwegian girl arrived in Lagos around this time last year after losing her mast.
She spent (I think) about 10 days under jury rig getting here (insufficient fuel carried for the engine).
She hoped to be entering this year - but clearly not.
What a girl.
Click to expand...

That was Kristin Songe-Möller. But it wasn't the Mini-Transat. She sailed her Beneteau Figaro 2 in the Transat Bretagne-Martinique:
https://sites.google.com/site/kristinforfulleseil/nyheter/dismastingtransatbretagne-martinique
 
Sybarite said:
Did the round bow concept (David Raison's boat) catch on or not for this year's race?
Click to expand...
I'm not aware of any others as extreme as David's boat, possibly for the reason pointed out by flaming.

However, the yard that built the most popular "series" (production) boat is launching a new design. The Pogo 2 (which Pip is sailing, and which I sailed) will soon have a new cousin - the Pogo 3. The images I have seen suggest it has a much fuller bow section than the Pogo 2. Definitely not as extreme as David's 747, but I would not be surprised if that had a big influence on this new design.

Another anglophone is Craig Horsfield, who did the race in 2009. Back for another go.
 
Just announced, change to start date to avoid the fleet running straight into a deepening depression in Biscay. No decision as yet but the race organisers have said likely Monday or even Thursday. They did suggest bringing the start forward to tomorrow but a number of boats said they weren't ready to go, so that idea was abandoned.
 
MissFitz said:
Just announced, change to start date to avoid the fleet running straight into a deepening depression in Biscay. No decision as yet but the race organisers have said likely Monday or even Thursday. They did suggest bringing the start forward to tomorrow but a number of boats said they weren't ready to go, so that idea was abandoned.
Click to expand...
That was always the risk when they changed the course to go to the Caribbean. Can't start too early or you risk hurricanes on the other side. But as the start gets later (it is about three weeks later than our start in 2011) the weather in Biscay deteriorates.
 
flaming said:
The course has changed, with a lot less reaching expected, so I think the jury's still out. It's going again in new hands, and if it wins comfortably again I'd say all future minis are likely to be ugly....

The website says
Click to expand...

I seem to remember him saying in an interview that there were advantages on all points of sailing. Going upwind he said something to the effect that given the enhanced buoyancy in front, the bow didn't dig in as much and the boat was thus not slowed down to the same extent.
 
Sybarite said:
I seem to remember him saying in an interview that there were advantages on all points of sailing. Going upwind he said something to the effect that given the enhanced buoyancy in front, the bow didn't dig in as much and the boat was thus not slowed down to the same extent.
Click to expand...

If this becomes apparent after this race it means very rapidly the AWB will obviously adopt this feature. "Going upwind the new shape with enhanced buoyancy orward, the bow does not dig and the boat was thus not slowed down to the same extent. Whilst a considerably dryer cockpit, on a reach....."

There will be increasing numbers of AWB with excessively wide sterns and bows, the designers will obviously say this is a design employed after the mini transat, they will neglect to mention that it allows an extra two double berths forward. Or a second option of two en-suite double berths with walk in wardrobes...

This will obviously be perfect for the charter market as well.

Not certain it would make the AWB any prettier, at least they would all stop looking the same...

Oooops thread drift, sorry. Good luck to all taking part...
 
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