When 90 boats are on the start line

What is it like to be a solo skipper in the first stage of the 2023 Mini Transat? Peter Gibbons-Neff (USA) shares the experience of racing his 21-foot Mini Class boat from Les Sables d’Olonne in France to the Canary Islands:

On September 25, the race was scheduled to start at 1330 local time (1130 UTC). With 90 Minis in the fleet, there was a long starting line set. All of the series and prototype (protos) start at the same time, but are scored separately. This certainly factors into the game plan when trying to get off the line.

While in sequence, the race committee put us into a brief postponement. This really helped me for a few reasons. First, when we went into sequence I was farther down the line on the right side (towards committee boat) and wanted to sail up to the pin (left side). With the large wind shift to the left, it was taking longer than planned to get to the favored end of the starting line.

Additionally, the Classe Mini usually prohibits the use of bow sprits and struts deployed before crossing the starting line for safety reasons. However, the rule was amended so boats could have them deployed only if they were to immediately use that sail at the start.

This amendment to the rule was supposed to prevent boats from gaining an advantage with having their bow sprit deployed throughout the starting sequence and had to do with the spirit of the rule. – Full report

Event information – Tracker – Facebook

After a one day postponement due to storms, the 24th edition of the Mini Transat, reserved for the Mini 6.50, the smallest offshore racing class at 21-feet, saw the first stage get underway on September 25, 2023.

Ninety solo sailors entered the 2023 Mini Transat with the competitors placed in divisions for prototype and production boats.

A notable proving ground for sailors with shorthanded aspirations, it is also test platform for new boat types, with competitors entering in the production division for manufactured boats and the prototype division for custom designs.

Held biennially, with limited participation for safety that includes strict qualification guidelines, the 4,050 nm course is divided in two parts with the combined elapsed time to determine the results:

September 25: Les Sables d’Olonne (France) to Santa Cruz de La Palma in the Canaries (Spain) – 1350 nm
October 28: Santa Cruz de La Palma in the Canaries (Spain) to Saint-François in Guadeloupe – 2700 nm