Mini-Transat 2019: Bogacki chases the leading group at his Transat premiere

The leading boats in the 22nd Mini-Transat have already covered around two thirds of the distance across the Atlantic, from Las Palmas on Gran Canaria to Le Marin on Martinique. The only German skipper in the race is still hot on the heels of the leading trio in his Mini-Transat premiere.

Close at hand

The 33-year-old solo sailor is currently in fourth place out of 20 boats in his class on Offshore Team Germany's Proto "Lilienthal" behind the consistently leading French skippers François Jambou, Axel Trehin and Erwan Le Mene.

Bogacki had even led the field for a few hours shortly after the start, but then sailed longer than his competitors on a northerly course and lost the top position as a result.

Tough race, tried and tested boat

Nevertheless, the former 505 Junior World Champion should be perfectly happy if he can hold on to fourth place until the finish. Before the start of the second stage, he said:

"The top three are a long way away, but there's certainly room for improvement up to fourth or fifth place with a good strategy. The potential of 'Lilienthal' is there, as the first part of the first stage has shown."

Morten Bogacki finished the first stage of the race completely exhausted (at minute 1:55). Both autopilots failed, he had to steer himself throughout

Etienne Bertrand's prototype has already shown its potential at the last Mini-Transat in 2017. Professional skipper Jörg Riechers sailed the Mini with the number 934 to a fantastic second place two years ago - after 13 days and 12 hours alone at sea. It was the toughest race of his life to date, commented Riechers after his night-time finish.

Only 900 miles to go

Morten Bogacki still has around 900 nautical miles to go before the memorable reception that every finisher of the Mini-Transat in the Caribbean receives. If he maintains his position in fourth place in the Protos field - currently 239 nautical miles behind François Jambou in the lead - he would just miss out on the podium, but after Jörg Riechers he would once again prove that the "Lilienthal" and its German helmsmen can certainly hold their own against the French mini elite.

The German Hendrik Witzmann did not start the second leg due to a knee injury. The two participants from Switzerland, Mathieu Gobet and Andréa Pawlotzki, are currently in 28th and 52nd place out of 61 minis still in the race in the series boat classification.

You can read how the two German sailors fared on the first leg from La Rochelle to Las Palmas in the current issue of YACHT 23/2019, which can be ordered here (click).

Click here for the Minis tracker.

Great cinema

Anyone who wants to immerse themselves in the adventure of mini-transat for 90 minutes and meet sailors from the mini scene can do so on 16 December in Hamburg. With the support of YACHT, the film "Sillages" (French for "wake") will be shown. at the Zeise cinema. YACHT readers can win free tickets. And that's not all: the star of the French Mini scene, Ian Lipinski, who won the Transatlantic Regatta in his class in 2015 and 2017, will be there.

The Hamburg mini-transat sailor Jan Heinze, author of "Atlantic fever - one man, one boat, one goal ", is included.