La Boulangère Mini Transat: After a week, finally the prospect of a trade wind
Jochen Rieker
· 02.10.2023
Mini-Transat veterans and observers have recently been wondering whether there has ever been such a dull, unpredictable stage. And for most, the answer is: no!
Apart from a brief heavy weather front, a tricky meteorological nightmare scenario has hardly ever brought any really sailable, predictable, tactically usable wind. Instead: 1 to 2 Beaufort, preferably from the front or strong winds from all possible directions. It was a week for the very brave, because it only offered a few options and these presented themselves rather randomly.
However, things should soon get better for the front of the field: During the course of the day, the trade wind that promises a fast glide to the finish line on La Palma slowly sets in from the north-east. And it will last for several days once it has established itself, with 15 to 20 knots. Picture-book conditions, at last!
The field is widely dispersed
The skippers of the Mini-Transat have earned it without exception. However, it will be a while before everyone can participate. This is because the boats are widely spread out along the Portuguese coast: the series minis alone cover more than 200 nautical miles in a north-south direction; but the field has also fanned out over more than 180 miles from west to east.
The currently chaotic image of a swarm of bees will therefore become more and more funnel-shaped in the coming days - namely when the first boats set course for the finish in the trade winds. "For the front runners, the north-northeasterly will come first, but from Tuesday the entire fleet will benefit from the Portuguese trade winds," explains Christian Dumard, the organisers' weather consultant.
As soon as the Passat kicks in, a "speed race" begins(Christian Dumard)
In fact, from then on, it will no longer be about big strategic manoeuvres, but about the very essence of mini-sailing: foaming planing under spinnaker, as close as possible to the direct route. In this context, the trajectories of the competitors will gradually converge just before the latitude of the Madeira archipelago.
The interim standings of the Mini-Transat in the prototype classification
In the Protos it looks as if Federico Waksman (1019), Marie Gendron (1050) and Laure Galley (1048) are best positioned to pull away. Victor Mathieu (967), who is also sailing in the top five but much further west, and the Slovenian Uros Krasevac (759), who closed the gap by a good 50 nautical miles at the weekend, should only jump on the south-west express after a delay according to the latest weather models. But maybe they can still catch up. In any case, they were travelling faster than the group to the east this morning.
Carlos Manera (1081) stumbled a little recently, having fallen back more than 20 nautical miles at times over the weekend. However, it would be a mistake to write him off because he is very experienced and has a fast boat.
Caroline Boule's race so far has been more difficult to digest. The engineer with the most powerful Mini in the field (Nicomatic, # 1067) sailed 110 miles astern on Sunday evening - and furthest east, right into a wind hole from which she will struggle to free herself today.
Mini-Transat 2023: first task at the Protos
For Caro's "Nicomatic", which has no significant advantage over the more conventional Protos on deep space courses, this could be a kind of preliminary decision. 21st place will not be enough to get to the top - at least not according to the current weather forecasts. Caro Boule's mission to be the first woman to win the Mini-Transat is in jeopardy, as is her goal of making it on a foiler. If the gap remains or even increases today, it will be difficult to close it on stage two. But we're still a long way off that.
Yesterday saw the Protos' first premature retirement: DMG Mori skipper Federico Sampei (1046) quit the race after breaking his mast off the northern Spanish coast. A bitter decision, but a logical one: although the team could have managed a restart technically, logistically and financially, Sampei explained: "I have decided not to continue my race. The reason is that I couldn't find a solution that would give me enough confidence to finish the second stage safely." It is now up to his team colleague Laure Galley to represent the German-Japanese sailing project on her own - which she is doing excellently so far.
The situation with the series boats before the arrival of the trade winds
The series boats will be exciting: three boats are particularly promising here, including, as always, the fabulously sailing Felix Oberle from Switzerland on his Max 6.50 "Mingulay" (1028), but also his toughest rival, Luca Rosetti from Italy (998).
The two are further east in a slightly lighter breeze than the current leader, Bruno Lemunier with his colourfully foiled Pogo 3 (893). Over the last three days, he has constantly kept about 40 or 50 nautical miles to the west and made up ground in the process. It has been leading P1 since Sunday. Let's see which of the three will be the first to find fresh wind.
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Jochen Rieker
Herausgeber YACHT
