On the protest decisions in the 2021 mini-transat: "A little distorting"

Since its first eruption on 19 September, Cumbre Vieja has destroyed almost 2,000 buildings on the north-western Canary Island of La Palma and is currently endangering the already evacuated community of La Laguna. The volcanic ash has also already hit the miniature ships preparing for their second leg in the harbour of Santa Cruz de La Palma. "The layer on the boats was a centimetre thick," reports Austrian stage runner-up Christian Kargl. While the Cumbre Vieja (Old Peak) still hasn't calmed down more than a month after its first eruption in 50 years, the mood in the fleet of mini-sailors also remains heated. The protest decisions announced by the jury and organisers on Wednesday contributed to this - if only because they did not agree and therefore caused further heated discussions in the fleet, in which the word "farce" is now appearing more and more frequently.

Because there had been various announcements and recommendations from the race committee to the participants about an impending storm during the first leg, some of the starters had continued the leg while most of them sailed to a harbour of refuge. However, there was no official cancellation of the leg. The race committee's announcements were categorised by the participants in very different ways, ranging from requests to advice. The quartet of proto leaders, who had long since lost the lead, as well as the eventual series boat stage winner Melwin Fink, Austrian Christian Kargl and Briton Piers Copham, sailed on. The latter because he had judged the risk of entering a harbour to be too high. Fink and Kargl, on the other hand, had initially planned to sail as far south as possible and call at a harbour of refuge in Portugal. On the way there, new, less dramatic wind forecasts persuaded the two sailors, in consultation with each other, to continue the race and not call at a harbour of refuge. They considered the conditions to be sailable and had no idea at the time that the entire fleet was holding out in harbours. "All Hands On Deck" skipper Christian Kargl later had to stay in a harbour for 15 hours with empty batteries. Not so Melwin Fink, who mastered the leg with his excellently prepared "SignForCom" despite two fierce fronts without any significant damage and won.

The unusual course of the stage resulted in a flood of protests from competitors who felt disadvantaged by the "protective stops" and demanded compensation. The jury initially decided on the protests. Click here for the jury's protest decisions (please click!). Accordingly, 18 of the 19 protesters who withdrew their protest were to receive compensation equal to their sailed time minus 24 hours. Of the German participants, Lennart Burke is among those on the list of those who would benefit from this. In the course of Wednesday, the organisers then published a press report with decisions that differed from those made by the jury. In the press report, the announcements made by the race organisers to the participants before the storm were described as "inadequate" and "not clearly understandable". In addition, the press release on the Mini-Transat homepage states that all 80 skippers involved except the top four in the proto classification and Melwin Fink ("SignForCom"), Christian Kargl ("All Hands On Deck") and Piers Copham ("Voiles des Anges") would receive a 24-hour credit. This would mean that Melwin Fink would still lead the series boat classification, but instead of the 26 hours he had sailed, he would only have a lead of just under two hours over the Frenchman Hugo Dhallenne ("YC Saint Lunaire"), who had moved up to second place. According to the organisers' press release, Christian Kargl would drop back to third place.

The contradictory publications by the jury and organisers initially left the participants with uncertainty, which is increasingly coupled with resentment. The trio of Fink, Copham and Kargl are discussing the current situation, but want to wait and see how the situation is finally clarified. A protest by the three sailors who were hit hard by the decision is also being discussed. However, it is still unclear which decision they would protest against. "The whole thing is a bit distorting," says Christian Kargl, "things are just simmering and the overall mood is not good. For Melwin, the amount of compensation for the others would certainly be too much and not entirely fair. This kind of punishment would also not be fair for Piers Copham (editor's note: the Brit is in twelfth place in the Protos in terms of time sailed), just because he decided not to take the risk of heading for a harbour in heavy weather. He would be penalised for not wanting to take a risk. We are thinking together about a protest, but we still want to see what really applies. We are waiting for a final official decision in reliable paper form."

Melwin Fink initially reacted calmly and level-headedly to the chaos of the protest decision. The stage winner, who is only 19 years old, said: "A lot of things don't make sense at the moment, but we are in dialogue and are monitoring developments. The minutes of the jury meeting would certainly be interesting to read..." The remaining concern about a complete cancellation of the results of the first stage is not yet off the table either. "The risk remains," says Kargl. He has a suggestion as to how the communication problems in the mini fleet could be better managed in future: "The race committee could send their decisions via the trackers. It works like SMS messages. That would be clearer and more binding than statements from accompanying boats, which you can hear and understand - or not." It remains to be hoped that the issues will be resolved by the start of the second leg on 29 October.