After the award ceremony is before stage 2 of the 2021 Mini-Transat: "I've suffered a bit, but I'm looking ahead"

Last week was one of the most difficult in the 44-year history of the Mini-Transat: a less than ideally implemented action by the race committee and its dedicated crews on the support boats, highly controversial jury decisions and heated discussions and even open hostilities in the otherwise closely knit Mini class caused uproar. Emotions ran high like never before in the ancient French cradle of solo sailing. Because the race committee had advised the fleet to enter shelter harbours on the first leg in view of an approaching storm, but had not officially abandoned the race, the fleet, the organisers and the international jury were involved in a range of discussions, disputes, accusations and decision-making errors that were unparalleled in their extent.

And that's what happened: While the majority of the fleet followed the race committee's recommendation to shelter in harbours on leg one in different ways and for different lengths of time, with or without the need for repairs, leg winner Melwin Fink completed the race. The Austrian Christian Kargl would have done the same had it not been for a blackout of his on-board electrical system that forced him to make a stopover. Kargl had identified and rectified the cause of the power failure - the polarity of the mobile solar panel had been reversed, which is why the 109-watt panel had not charged the battery as intended - long before entering the harbour at sea, but he did not want to sail into the storm without power and preferred to be rested, so he decided to stop in Viana de Castello after all. He did not repair or replace any parts in the harbour. So the bottom line for him was a weather-related stop. The minimum duration for a stop in the Mini-Transat is twelve hours. Kargl stopped for 15 hours.

At the finish of the first leg, Fink and Kargl learnt of 19 protests from competing mini-sailors who wanted a time credit because they had followed the race committee's recommendation and now saw themselves deprived of a better result. While the race committee made it clear several times afterwards that the recommended stop, which a number of skippers used for repairs, was a recommendation and not an order, the jury initially decided that all stopped boats would receive a flat-rate time credit of 24 hours. The four leading Proto sailors were exempt from this, as they had long been up and away at the time of the confusing decision and were not directly affected by the storm warning. Stage winner Melwin Fink ("SignForCom") and the Scotsman Piers Copham ("Voiles des Anges"), who waited out the storm at sea with his jib back because he had assessed the risk of entering the harbour as too high, were also exempt. Christian Kargl was also excluded because his stop was initially mistakenly assessed as a repair stop. Neither he nor Fink or Copham were heard in person.

The actual stops of all boats according to yellowbrick tracking as per the results list of 21 October revealed the following findings, among others: Five boats stopped for less than the 24 hours they should now initially receive as credit. Ten out of 64 boats stopped in the closest harbour, while others sought alternative ports of refuge. The arrival and departure times therefore varied greatly. Some sailors used the harbour stay for repairs, others did not. These and other factors make it clear that the flat-rate credits initially awarded by the jury were neither a suitable nor a fair measure for compensating those who felt disadvantaged, even under the umbrella of the mini-corps spirit. In the tug-of-war over rules and morals, in which Fink, Kargl and Copham were not guilty of breaking any of the rules, they were initially the big losers despite their clean sailing performance.

"Significant error"

Accordingly, Fink, Kargl and Copham as well as other sailors filed applications for a review of the results and applications to reopen the proceedings. They were not heard in person either. Melwin Fink even received quick and unbureaucratic advice from experienced DSV rules consultant Craig Mitchell. However, Fink's requests to reopen and make amends were shot down with the simple reference to the late submission. This left the 19-year-old youngest participant in the fleet shaking his head in amazement: "That's not right, because I submitted my applications twelve hours after publication."

In a new decision published on 23 October, the International Jury has now overhauled the original decision. The corresponding publication on the "Reopening of Cases 2-20" states briefly: "Significant error: Boats must be listed according to their race times minus the stopover times with a maximum of 24 hours." The result shows that Christian Kargl's harbour stopover of 14 hours has now also been deducted. He has not been personally consulted on this either. As a result of the latest decision, the Austrian, who was in second place at the stage finish, moved back up to third place after temporarily slipping to 13th place as a result of the decisions at the green table. Frenchman Hugo Dhallenne on "YC Saint Lunaire" is now second on paper. The race co-favourite had not protested and had also raced during his stop. Nevertheless, he was awarded a credit. "I don't blame him personally," says Melwin Fink, whose original lead of more than a day in challenging conditions has now shrunk to less than two hours ahead of Dhallenne.

"Everyone knows me now"

Following the latest decision and the changed result for Kargl, Fink would theoretically have had the opportunity to apply for the proceedings to be reopened and for compensation. If only because he was not guilty of any offence, but is now one of the main victims of the chain of decisions because his performance was significantly diminished through no fault of his own. But the young sailor has had enough. "In my view, the decisions are not proportionate and not entirely fair. I have suffered a little. That's just the way it is now. But I'm going to put it behind me and not think about it too much. I can manage that. It's good for Christian that the times have been adjusted. What was decided really didn't go in his direction at all." Melwin Fink has found the intensive reporting by the French media to be balanced and fair. When asked what the bottom line is for him, the youngster, who is surprisingly level-headed for his age, answered the question at his eventful Mini Transat premiere not without irony: "Everyone knows me now." The award ceremony on Saturday evening in Santa Cruz de La Palma, which many mini-sailors were awaiting with mixed feelings, went well, report Fink and Kargl. "Some people weren't there, but the award ceremony was nice and everyone was fair," says Fink.

On land, Fink has long been focussing on the second leg of the journey, his first solo crossing of the Atlantic on the four-year-old "SignForCom", in parallel with the storm of protest. "The boat is ready. There wasn't much to do because it survived the first leg very well. We mainly checked the rigging and made additions where necessary, as well as thoroughly checking everything. I'm probably planning for 20 days with provisions, even if we can hopefully complete the leg in 15 or 16 days. At the moment, there are some indications of light winds and doldrums, so everything points to a southerly route. But it's still a while until the start." The other German starters are also preparing intensively for this: "Vorpommern" skipper Lennart Burke, in ninth place, is hopeful for part two. Proto skipper Lina Rixgens wants to get the best possible result with her "Avanade" after the technical setbacks on leg one. "After my double rowing damage, I can only look forward to a nice second leg and try to make the best of it," said Rixgens. Marc Eric Siewert is making the leap across the pond in 24th place and last in the Proto field. The second leg will take the proto and series boat fleets from the Canary Islands to Guadeloupe over a distance of around 2700 nautical miles. Here are the official results published on 23 October according to the implemented jury decisions for stage one (please click!).