There are 85 boats registered for this latest edition of the Mini-Fastnet, the 37th! 27 Prototypes, 3 Proto-series and 55 Series of Minis are preparing to cross the start line this Sunday at 14:00. As was the case last year, the weather conditions are relatively mild and stormy for the start this weekend and early next week.
The list of entrants includes the pairing of Paul Cousin and Julien Hantin on the 981 GROUPE BIOCOMBUSTIBLES, Adrien Hardy, who will be skippering the 871 VAINCRE LE MELANOME with Martin Oudet, and François Jambou, who will be co-skippering the 1055 GUSTA with the Canadian Sylvain Karpinski. For the Prototypes, the trio from the finish of the Marie-Agnès Péron Trophy : Julien Letissier with Jeanne Courtois on 1069 FREROTS BRANCHET, the Laure Galley – Mathis Bourgnon pair on 1048 DMG MORI-ACADEMY 1 and Marie Gendron – Mathilde Da La Giclais on 1050 LEA NATURE.
On the pontoons, the safety checks follow the established programme until Friday at 18:00, time for the general briefing for the Prologue.
On Saturday at 12:00, the Prologue kicks off, followed by the general race briefing and the final weather briefing. The start is currently scheduled for 14:00 on Sunday 11 June.
Comme indiqué dans l’ avis de course et en accord avec les régles de préférences et de préinscriptions aux courses Mini; La classe mini publiera le 10 Février2023 le listing des 85 speakers en liste 1 ainsi que l’ordre de la liste d’attente.
A cette date, le Winches Club enverra directement un mail aux 85 skeapers de la liste 1 ainsi qu’aux 10 suivants qui constituerons la short liste d’attente.
Ce mail contiendra le lien permettant aux bateaux sélectionnés de remplir le formulaire d’inscription et de régler la totalité les frais d’inscription. Les skeapers disposeront de 14 jours pour compléter incriptions et réglement sans que leur date d’inscription auprés du winches Club ne remette en cause leur place dans la liste
A partir du 24 Février minuit, l’ordre de préférence issu des préinscriptions auprés de la classe n’aura plus court et un lien vers des inscriptions en liste d’attente complémentaire sera publié en accés direct depuis cette page . Pour inscrire son bateau en liste d’attente vous aurez à remplir le formulaire et à régler 20 € de frais de traitement de dossier. A ce moment, la place en liste d’attente sera directement lié à l’ordre chronologique de reception des inscriptions.
Au gré de la saison et des désistements éventuels, nous contacterons les skeapers bénéficiant d’une ouverture vers la short liste ou liste 1 afin qu’ils complétent le solde de leur inscription.
L’évolution des listes sera réguliérement publié sur le site de la classe Mini ( sous chaque vignette de courses ) jusqu’a la cloture définitive des inscriptions.
Espérant vous retrouver prochainement sur Douarnenez,
The first words from the skippers as they step ashore after these six days of sailing are “Ah well, it was long” and they all agree on this point. After six days in a light variable wind, with no precise weather forecast, this is understandable. But it’s with a big smile that Victor Mathieu and François Jambou disembarked the 967 Univers 650, having crossed the finish line first at 03:42, this Saturday 18th June.
François Jambou et Victor Matthieu on the 967
Happy to have arrived and above all to have finished first in the Mini Fastnet, François exclaims “It was a real mess with the weather, fortunately I got on well with Victor, otherwise one of us would have gone overboard!” before lying down on the pontoon and saying that it is more comfortable to sleep inside the Mini.
The 3 crews from the prototype podium : the 1026 on the left, the 967 in the middle and the 802 on the right.
Half an hour later, the second Proto arrives: the 1026 Uoum with Robinson Pozzoli and Arno Biston on board. Also with a smile, they try to eat the delicious hot food provided by the Winches Club “We’re hungry! The race lasted longer than expected, we were missing some rations on board…” but it’s not easy to leave the pontoon, between the journalists, friends and the boats which come to moor next to it…
Victoire Martinet and Nicolas D’estais from the 1031 Minion
At 04:52, the first of the Series crosses the line – that is to say 01hr10 after the first in the scratch race – and the happy winners are Victoire Martinet and Nicolas D’estais on the 1031 Minion. “It was crazy, there were like 15 starts throughout the race,” says Victoire, “when the wind was blowing, the whole fleet would settle down and start again with the next light breeze, the counters almost back to zero. “We were lucky to finish first, clearly,” adds Nicolas, bottle of champagne in hand. The skipper of the Grand Ocean 624, Thibault Chomard, who came 7th among the Protos, explains that he dropped anchor in the bay of Douarnenez, to avoid going backwards with the current. Laure Galley and Alexandre Demange on the 1048 DMG Mori, are quite disappointed to have led for most of the race and to have finished 5th. “It’s the boat’s first defeat” exclaims Laure.
The 3 crew from the serie podium : the 886, the 1031 and the 1038
3 hours and 58 minutes separate the first from the last on the finish line, which is not much for a week-long race. In the early hours of the morning, with beer on the pontoon and couscous at the Sailing Club, the skippers exchanged impressions and tactics of the race in a good mood and general tiredness.
Warm plates at the maison du nautismeCheers on the early morning!
The return leg to Douarnenez is long and laborious. At the end of the afternoon, the fleet, which has dispersed slightly, is south of Ushant and is making difficult progress in a very light variable wind. At 17:30, the first Proto, 630 James Caird, is 24 miles from the finish line. The first boats are expected to arrive at around 22:00, but this may be delayed until later. The prize-giving ceremony has been brought forward by one hour and will therefore take place on Saturday 18th June at 16:00.
At the end of this sunny day, the whole fleet, still well grouped, is about 135 miles from Douarnenez and is facing a south-east wind of about 12 knots, which is easing off during the night. The 1067 Bill is in first place among the Prototypes while the 963 DynaMIPS is first in the Series and 5th in the scratch race, closely followed by the 1038 Faun. The 744 did not finish the race and arrived in the port of Douarnenez during the night, while the 482 did not receive the information about the change of course and continued towards the Fastnet. After being informed and following the decision of the Race Directors, they stopped in Baltimore in the early afternoon to avoid being caught in the gale that is forecast for Saturday. According to the latest routing, the first Minis should arrive in Douarnenez by midday on Friday 17 June. The prize-giving ceremony will take place on Saturday 18th June at 17:00.
Still in light winds, the skippers must be thinking that Aeolus is playing with their nerves… They all went around the waypoint that replaces the Fastnet lighthouse, about 50 NM south-east of it, during the day on Wednesday 15th June and headed for Douarnenez Bay. Same configuration as yesterday: a nice group of Prototypes in the lead and a fairly compact fleet not far behind. Indeed there is 18 NM between the first and the last sailor in the race… anything can still happen on the remaining 200 NM! The new recently launched Minis are leading the group: the 1067 Bill, followed by the 1048 DMG Mori Sailing Academy 1 and the 1050 Léa Nature. These are good boats in light winds it seems! A few NM further north, the leader of the series is the 903 Cancer@work skippered by Anne Liardet in her 60’s and Lucas Valenz-Troubat, followed closely by the 963 DynaMIPS skippered by the well-known Julie Simon, who has already made two podiums this year, and Hugo Picard. The 1065 Irvin moved up to 8th position, while Marco Varray, the youngest of the race at 16 years of age, accompanied by David Genest, owner of the 511 Bingo, moved up the fleet to 7th position after having been 40th in the afternoon.
photo taken from an accompanying boat, 13.06 (also the cover photo)
Still not much wind on this edition of the Mini Fastnet… and yet it is to avoid a sudden and short gale, announced for Saturday 18th June that the course has been reduced by about a hundred miles. The skippers will have to wind round a waypoint located at 51° N and 008° W before returning to the Bay of Douarnenez, the first ones are expected to arrive on Thursday 16th June in the evening and the bulk of the fleet should arrive on Friday. At the end of the day, the Minis are in the middle of the Celtic Sea and it seems that the calm has grouped the boats together, except for a group of unyielding Prototypes, further apart from each other and a few miles ahead. The 1050 Léa Nature is still in the lead among the Prototypes, followed by the 621DephemeridTrois with Arnaud Machado and Maël Cochet on board. The 1065 Irvin, a Series boat, tussles gently with the Prototypes, followed by the Swiss on the 1064 Nath Yachting Squaw. The ridge of high pressure looks comfortable in the Celtic Sea and leaves the Minis with baggy sails. The NW’ly flow doesn’t exceed Beaufort 2 until maybe Thursday evening, according to the Arome model.
On the 606 a message from a father for his daughter Clémence : Happy birthday !
In the early afternoon of 13 June, the first Prototype, the brand new 1050 Léa Nature, skippered by Marie Gendron and Marine Legendre, passed the Isles of Scilly in a light north-westerly wind. During the night, the race was sailed upwind and the fleet spread out over about 40 miles, 30 hours after the start.
The 1050 with Marie Gendron and Marine Legendre
After tacking for about 50 miles in a north-easterly direction, the small boats set a course for the Isles of Scilly. Laure Galley’s 1048 DMG Mori is overtaken by Victor Mathieu’s 1050 and 967, co-skippered by François Jambou. Among the Series, two Pogo 3’s lead the race: Team Asi 1007 with Nicolas Dupard and Damien Fleury on board, two newcomers in the Mini class who are holding on to first place, closely followed by the 1065 Irvin skippered by Thimotée de Carpentier and Matthieu Vincent.
Nicolas Dupard and Damien Fleury on the 1007
At the end of this afternoon, caps and sunglasses are the order of the day for the Minis in the race: in a light wind and under a blue sky, the average speed is around three knots. Passage through English waters is likely to be long and laborious!
The tows for the race start scheduled for 08:00 begin under a bright, cool dawn. The last ones to leave the harbour struggle to reach the start line in a very light wind, so the start is delayed by a quarter of an hour… but miraculously, all the boats leave the start, so there are 170 skippers taking on the Fastnet adventure! Newly arrived for the Mini race and former winners of the Mini-Transat, it could be a hard fight on the course!
The start is due west, crosswind, speed is the key and the Protos are very quickly at the head of the fleet. We find Laure Galley and Alexandre Demange on the 1048 in first position. For the Series, the ranking overlaps a lot more, in the first ones we count amongst others the 910, with Jean Cruse and Tanguy Bourroulec, who already has a great record in the Mini class, the 1009 with Titouan Quiviger and Maxime Abgrall and the 1007 Team Asi with Nicolas Dupard and Damien Fleury, who remain quite steady in first place at the end of the day. There’s about a 5 hour gap between the first and the last of the fleet at about 21:00, so about 13 hours after the start. The 747 Proto dropped out due to a problem in the rigging. A good 15 knot NNW breeze is forecast for the night, easing off at the end of the night.
Active day today on the pontoons, between the Prologue, the last repairs, the race briefing and the welcome drink, the skippers must take care not to get too tired because the tows start around 5 a.m. the next morning, for 4 to 6 days of sailing in the English Channel and the Celtic Sea.
The prologue took place between 12 and 2 p.m. today on a banana course 1.5 nautical miles long between the two buoys, under a radiant sun and a north-westerly wind not exceeding 10 knots. No damages to report. But some skippers returned before the end of the Prologue, pressed for time and the last finishing touches to be done on their boat. This is the case, for example, of Marie Gendron and Marine Legendre on the brand new 1050 Léa Nature prototype, built by the skipper Marie in 9 months and launched recently, this will be this boat’s first race and “there’s still some work to do on the seamanship and fittings before the start of the race” exclaims Marie as she moors her Mini to the pontoon.
The start of the regatta at 8 a.m. will be on a straight line, across a north wind of 5 to 10 knots scheduled for Sunday June 12. Headwinds and ridges hover on the way, some skippers are afraid of getting stuck in the calm. The passage du four already risks splitting the fleet: headwind and against the current, the passage will be challenging! A little reminder, Offshore Socialclub will broadcast a live video of the start tomorrow morning, it’s HERE.
