One of the main goals of the Class Mini is to move towards more safety while maintaining the very sporty and innovative aspect of the Mini. This mindset, accentuated by stubborn memories of accidents, results in boat-competitor pairs among the safest of offshore racing.

Safety first

While the measurement defines the boat-specific safety systems, the safety inspection allows checking and validating the mandatory safety equipment that the skipper will take during the race. This equipment varies according to the category of the race.
Race are thus classified by the Offshore Special Regulations (OSR) according to the number of miles and the difficulty:
The Marie-Agnès Péron Trophy : OSR 3
The Mini-Fastnet : OSR 2
The Mini-Transat : OSR 1
The Vendée Globe : OSR 0

Volunteers are taking care of the inspection

One category separates the Marie-Agnès Péron Trophy from the Mini-Fastnet, so more safety equipment is required for the skippers.
In addition to the life raft, the survival container, the EPIRB beacon, the VHF, nautical documents and many other things, the equipment must notably include 2 TPS suits, an AIS transponder and a personal AIS beacon, a SSB radio, an extended pharmacy and additional survival food rations.

A team of volunteers is performing the safety inspection, open until the day before departure. Starting today (Tuesday), they will inspect more than 80 boats.

At the awards ceremony last Friday, Axel Tréhin, winner of the 15th Trophy Marie-Agnès Péron, pointed out: “The Mini Class rules are pretty well done, look at us, our three boats (the 945, 865, 800 that finished 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd, respectively) are quite different and yet, there is a hell of a battle at every race! Indeed, the first two arrived less than 5 minutes apart last Thursday.

The Measurement, supervised by Joël Gâté assisted by Annabelle Moreau, is a set of measures and rules that each boat must follow to be admitted to start at the Mini races. First established in 1994 by the board of directors of the Class Mini, the set of rules addresses both performance and safety issues.

The basic principle is that a Mini boat must fit in a box of 6.50 m x 3.00 m x 14.00 m for the proto and 6.50 m x 3.00 m x 12.00 m for the series.

The Mini is a class to experiment and bring innovation to the field of offshore racing, which sometimes leads to funny situations. During checks, we have seen some having to shorten their booms, another one obliged to race with a reefed mainsail, a boat having to set up pumps without connected hoses. The most extreme case was a proto boat, launched a year earlier, which had to been cut in two to expand it. The most spectacular test during these checks is the righting. Lying on the side, we measure, at the head of the mast, whether the force is sufficient to self-righten the boat.

The Class Mini Rule is a set of rules and a clever mix to balance safety, competitiveness and innovation.