The Mini 6.50 are 6.50 metre long ocean racing monohulls. They are intended to race the Mini Transat and other numerous races. Find the latest news and investigations from Tip & Shaft on the subject.
Marked by speed records, a low number of retirements and an international podium, the 24th edition of the La Boulangère Mini Transat was won in the proto class by Federico Waksman and in the series by Luca Rosetti. Tip & Shaft reviews the race with organiser Emmanuel Versace, weather consultant Christian Dumard, coaches Damien Cloarec (Roscoff) and François Jambou (Concarneau) and architect David Raison.
On Monday (the start has been postponed), 90 solo sailors should set off from Les Sables d’Olonne heading towards Santa Cruz de La Palma in the Canaries, and the end of the first stage of La Boulangère Mini Transat. The second stage will take them to Saint-François in Guadeloupe. And, here, as before each major race, Tip & Shaft analyses the field with a panel of experts
As at the start of each and every year Tip & Shaft goes around the different offshore racing classes to look ahead to the coming season. After the Ultims last week now it is time for the Mini 6.50s, a class that is still stronger than ever at nine months before the start of the Mini Transat, which has new organisers.
Each Mini Transat is unique, but this 2021 edition will long be remembered for a whole gamut of reasons. It also was a great race won conclusively by Pierre Le Roy in the prototype division and Hugo Dhallenne in the series. Tip & Shaft takes stock of the sport and the technical stuff on this 23rd Mini.
The first stage of the Mini Transat, won in the series division by German teenager Melwin Fink (19) with a big lead over his pursuers, has produced confusion, as he was one of the very few who did not to stop during a big storm. Now 19 requests for redress have been filed with the jury. Tip & Shaft reconstructed the facts by interviewing the main players.
90 skippers – 25 racing in the proto division and 65 in the series – set off on Monday from Les Sables d’Olonne for the Mini Transat EuroChef. As before every big race, Tip & Shaft has garnered the opinions of a posse of experts to play the game of predictions.
In the context of a real boom for most ocean racing fleets in France and even seemingly despite the health crisis, the demand for high level offshore race training is growing sharply, to the point that many centres are approaching full capacity. Tip & Shaft looks at the structures of France.
The new organizers of the Mini Transat announced that the 2021 edition, which will start on September 26 in Les Sables d’Olonne and heads to Saint-François, Guadeloupe, via Santa Cruz de La Palma, is already full with 126 pre-enrolled for 84 places. Tip & Shaft took the opportunity to discuss this with Race Director Denis Hugues.
After almost a month of lockdown, the different ocean racing divisions are spending a lot of time working with race organizers on the possible reprogramming of their 2020 or even their 2021 calendar, while at the same time trying to reassure their members, affected to varying degrees by this new turbulent economic crisis. Tip & Shaft goes round the houses, speaking to different key classes.
After four seasons in the Figaro circuit, Justine Mettraux will only be competing in 2020 in the Transat AG2R La Mondiale, in order to hand over her Figaro 3 TeamWork to her fellow Swiss sailor, Nils Palmieri. Mettraux, now 33 years old, was discovered in France in the Mini 6.50 (2nd in the 2013 Mini-Transat). She tells us why she is moving on, talks about her projects, in particular The Ocean Race, and looks back at the start of her career on Lake Geneva.
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