Mini-Transat 2025: Five German participants have big plans with small boats
Tatjana Pokorny
· 12.07.2024
Driven by the dream of conquering the Atlantic, content with just a few square metres of living and working space, without contact to the outside world and solo in harmony with the elements: Mini-sailors are a special breed of sea stormers. Organised every two years since 1977, their summit event, the Mini-Transat, runs in two stages from Les Sables-d'Olonne across around 4,000 nautical miles via the Canary Islands to the Caribbean. The classic event for budding professionals and adventurers, daredevils and idealists is now heading towards its 25th anniversary edition from September 2025.
Sailing greats such as Vendée Globe winner Yannick Bestaven, England's offshore icon Ellen MacArthur and Boris Herrmann passed the Transat on ocean-going nutshells with a maximum length of 6.50 metres as a journeyman's test before joining the international solo elite.
Mini-Transat 2001: Boris Herrmann in eleventh place at the age of 20
Bestaven and Herrmann even managed this in the same race, which the Frenchman, who was eight years older, won in the prototype classification in 2001, while the 20-year-old Herrmann, as the youngest participant, achieved the best German result to date with eleventh place in the series boats. The army of highly motivated and driven sailors also included sailing stars such as Bruno Peyron, Roland Jourdain, Yves Parlier, Isabelle Autissier, Sam Davies and Michel Desjoyeux. Route du Rhum winner Alex Pella has enjoyed the mini-transat three times and says: "It is undoubtedly the most authentic of all ocean races. I can recommend it to every sailor. It's something you should have done at least once in your life."
After the 24th edition without German participation, the Miniists are picking up speed again here in Germany. Well-known predecessors have laid the foundations for this. Wolfgang Quix flew the German flag with his Waarship 570 "Waarwolf" in 18th place at the premiere in 1977. Alex Wopper had to retire in 1979 after breaking his rudder. Dagmar Häckel was picked up by a freighter in 1981 after breaking her mast and capsizing. YACHT author Matthias Beilken finished 42nd on his "Eissing" in 1997, before Boris Herrmann made his Atlantic debut in 2001 as the youngest participant on the Pogo 1 series boat "Global Crossing", finishing eleventh out of 27 series boats.
He was followed in 2007 by Henrik Masekowitz on a TipTop and Dominik Zürrer on a Pogo 1. In 2009, YACHT photographer Andreas Lindlahr on a Pogo 2 and Norbert Maibaum on a Pogo 1 took up the challenge. Jörg Riechers from Hamburg started in the proto classification in the same year, but had to give up on the first leg with keel problems. Riechers made amends in 2011 with fifth place. Björn Freels reached the finish line in 25th place.
Riechers, Fink & Co: German performances in the mini-transat
Henrik Masekowitz's comeback in 2013 ended with a keel loss. He was rescued by a German freighter. His successors in 2015 were Chris Lükermann, Dominik Lenk and Jan Heinze, who mastered more than 2,000 nautical miles to Guadeloupe after suffering serious rudder damage 150 nautical miles north of Cape Verde. Heinze reported on his adventure and the fascination of mini-sailing in the 2016 mini-book "Atlantic fever - one man, one boat, one goal".
The year 2017 marked a German mini highlight: Jörg Riechers was determined to do it again in the Proto classification, Oliver Tessloff (Pogo 3), Andreas Deubel (Nacira 650) and Lina Rixgens (Pogo 2) finished 14th, 35th and 38th in the series classification. Jörg Riechers was the first German to catapult himself onto the Proto podium, achieving the best GER result to date with second place.
Medical doctor Morten Bogacki also sailed onto the proto-podium two years later. His third place is highly valued because he had to sail his boat for five days on the first section of the Transat stage without the two broken autopilots. Fellow traveller Hendrik Witzmann (Pogo 3) had to abandon the race after stage one with a torn meniscus.
2023 without German participation
The Mini-Transat 2021 will never be forgotten after the furious storm ride and third place in the series boat classification by Melwin Fink, who was only 19 years old at the time. Melwin Fink, Lennart Burke and Austrian Christian Kargl brought a lot of attention to the race as a highly communicative German-speaking group. Fink and Burke are now working side by side as the Next Generation Sailing Team on their rise in the Class40, which is seen as a stepping stone to the Imoca class. The young guns show where the journey can take them after a mini-commitment.
There were no German Mini-Transat participants in 2023. The Swiss Felix Oberle achieved far more than a respectable success, finishing fifth in the overall ranking of the series boats and is preparing intensively for the follow-up challenge. Lisa Berger was the first Austrian to cross the Mini-Transat finish line, missing her sporting target in 45th place, but impressing with her passion and fighting spirit.
As if the German miniists had just taken a breath of fresh air, they now seem to be heading for the solo transatlantic race again. Five very different German candidates with different approaches, backgrounds and objectives want to start.
The German candidates and their ambitions for the Mini-Transat 2025
Thiemo Huuk: "I learn something new every day"
A German predecessor inspired Thiemo Huuk to take on the Mini-Transat almost a decade ago. "When Henrik Masekowitz wanted to sail around the world on a 40-foot boat in 2015, I read about it in YACHT. I started looking into long-distance sailing and came across reports from other classes, including mini-sailing," recalls Wuppertal-born Thiemo Huuk, recalling his initial inspiration. Until then, he had been more of a pleasure sailor with friends. Over many years, the idea of his own campaign matured in the mind of the now 37-year-old bioengineer, who studied in Bielefeld, remained active in the university sailing club there and later completed his doctorate in Karlsruhe.
The final decision was made in 2022. In early 2023, Thiemo Huuk looked at several Vector, Maxi and Pogo 3 boats before deciding on the 2020 Vector with build number 1003. He bought it from a young Swede whose dreams had been dashed during the coronavirus pandemic. "It's a very well-equipped boat," says Thiemo Huuk. He put it in the water for the first time in La Rochelle in September. His 1,000-nautical-mile qualification for the 2023 Azores race, which in turn is important for the Mini-Transat qualification, turned into 1,400 hard probationary miles, four of which he spent in Brest.
Huuk has discarded the original idea of continuing his job part-time during the campaign. "It all looks simple on a Mini, but there is some wear and tear, and you also make mistakes. Vectors are tinkering-intensive, and I do a lot on my own because I want to learn. In the Mini Transat, it's of little use if the electric company in La Rochelle can repair the autopilot," he now knows.
In La Rochelle, the German, like Hendrik Lenz, trains at the Centre Excellence Voile (CEV) with a group of around 25 minis. He spends half of his time there in France, where he shares a holiday flat with two other sailors. Half of his time is spent in the greater Wuppertal area, organising projects and looking for partners. What is he looking for in the Mini-Transat? "A challenge!" comes the direct answer. In the past decade, he has also had to tackle problems and surpass himself in his professional life with his own start-up.
Thomas Woithe: "Without plush on board"
The 49-year-old Thomas Woithe from Fehmarn is the oldest Mini-Transat candidate in the quintet of German candidates. Born in Pritzwalk, Brandenburg, Woithe grew up with a passion for sailing and boat building. He climbed into an Opti as a five-year-old. He developed a growing love of sailing in cadets, 420s, FDs and also in the Soling. When Thomas Woithe came to the Baltic Sea for the first time in the mid-1990s, "I was hooked". He bought a Dehler 35 and travelled "mainly in the Baltic Sea, but also sometimes in France". He started sailing single-handed because his family did not fully share his sailing dreams. In 2018, he showed his mettle at the MidsummerSail from Wismar over 900 nautical miles to Töre in Sweden: the soloist was the only participant to cross the finish line with his Dehler 35 after eleven days in the race, which was characterised by alternating storms and lulls.
Although he is under a lot of pressure as an entrepreneur, Woithe wants to fulfil his long-held dream of a mini-transat in 2025. Woithe draws on the expertise of Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink for two years. He charters a boat identical in construction to Jonas Kroner's, a Vector 6.50, from the talent and boat forge and works through the qualification races with his very well prepared boat. Woithe wants to "compete in as many preparatory races as possible" on the Mini-Transat 2024 and 2025 course. In dialogue with the other mini sailors, Thomas Woithe is driving his game forward sustainably, because: "With costs of up to 80,000 euros per season, mini seasons are too expensive just to try out and play around."
At the same time, Woithe is a driving force for more activities in Northern Europe and wants to contribute to meetings, regattas and the creation of new mini formats. Where does his passion for the meagre little boat come from? "Mini sailing is super-direct sailing without plush on board, a blatant nature experience. You can master exciting distances alone or in pairs."
Jan-Hendrik Lenz: "A lifelong dream for me"
His prerequisites for a solo set across the Atlantic could hardly be better: Jan-Hendrik Lenz grew up on a boat from birth and spent 19 years living with his parents on a converted grain freighter in Düsseldorf harbour. His father ran a shipyard. The son learnt a lot from this and now holds a Master's degree in electrical engineering.
His sailing career was classic: he made his first attempts as a five-year-old in the Opti. This was followed by Europe and 505s before school took up too much of his time. Hendrik Lenz returned to sailing during his studies via the German Sailing League, where he competed with Jan-Philipp Hofmann for the Düsseldorfer Yacht-Club. The mini-transat fascinates him with its "incomparable spirit, the contrast between a sense of community on land and being alone on the water".
Lina Rixgens, with whom he once sailed in the same Opti group as a child, once gave him the idea. "Wow, I want to do that one day," he thought during her first mini-transat in 2017. Seven years later, the 30-year-old is setting course for his own premiere next year. He's doing it with ambition: "I'm already ambitious, I'm not going to dabble around. The French are of course very strong and in their element. The coach only speaks French. I'm learning - at all levels."
Inspired by England's sailing icon Ellen MacArthur, Melwin Fink and Boris Herrmann, "who influences each of us a little and shows us how it's done with his team spirit and openness", Jan-Hendrik Lenz is working his way towards the mini-transat starting line at the training camp in La Rochelle.
His Mini is the Vector 6.50 built in 2022, which Melwin Fink had originally intended to use for his second Mini Transat. Jan-Hendrik Lenz is giving the Mini 1085 a new lease of life. He has worked intensively on the boat over the winter, which has a lot of potential. After the first training sessions in France, Lenz was able to state optimistically: "I wasn't last, I was able to keep up well." Like all the other mini candidates, he is also fighting to qualify for the race of his dreams on his "Monoka". He has founded his own company, Hendrik Lenz Sailing, for his project. "I'm the only employee," he says with a grin. The journey, he says, is also the goal: "Getting to the starting line is so much effort, so much logistics, so much struggle. For many people, it's unimaginable to sail across the Atlantic in such a small boat. For me, it's a lifelong dream."
Despite falling ill at sea, Lenz has already achieved the required 1,000 nautical mile qualification. The highlight this year is his participation in Les Sables-Les Açores. The tenth edition of the Azores race over 2,600 nautical miles starts on 19 July.
Victor David: "I'm aiming for the first third"
Born in Bergisch-Gladbach, his father is French, his mother German: "I live a little in both worlds, I studied mechanical engineering in Aachen and combined that with a degree in shipbuilding in Nantes."
That's where he caught the mini-transat virus. "It really bit me!" He hears and reads about the big race for the small boats in dockside conversations and on social media. "It seemed to me that the mini world was the only one you could get into as an amateur," recalls the 26-year-old. He took part in his first ocean race at the age of 23 on a Pogo 36. "Someone had posted on Facebook that they were looking for someone to take part in a regatta from La Trinité to Cowes, including people with no experience," he explains. Victor David applied, completed a familiarisation training course and was allowed to join. It was the beginning of a new passion.
"But my problem was that after two years in Nantes, I had to go back to Aachen to do my Master's there," he recalls wistfully. In his Master's degree in engineering, he is trying to give his subjects the "right direction" with specialisations such as fluid mechanics. In his free time, he specialises in weather and routing.
He purchased his Pogo 3, built in 2020, in his home town of Saint-Briac in Brittany in 2022. Before Victor David took over, the excellently equipped boat had never sailed a transat
Structurally, he confirms, pogos are "very well built". Victor David also has his boat in La Rochelle and swaps ideas with Hendrik Lenz and Thiemo Huuk. The 1,000 nautical mile qualification has been ticked off, the first races have been contested and Les Sables-Les Açores is in sight, for which there is a further 1,600 nautical mile credit. Victor David is optimistic about making it to the mini-transat start line. He says with a nuanced self-assessment: "I reached the top ten in the 2023 Mini Fastnet thanks to a meteorological decision. I'm certainly not a professional sail trimmer, I won't win races on boat speed alone. But I can do weather strategy, it's my passion and part of my job. I'm aiming for the top third in the Mini-Transat, even though there are many who have been sailing since childhood." Victor David financed his first full season in 2023 with a loan. The search for partners is ongoing.
Jonas Kroner: "A different house number"
Jonas Kroner is the youngest of the German candidates for the Mini-Transat 2025. He is the up-and-coming talent in the team of young talents: Lennart Burke, 25, and Melwin Fink, 22, have included the 19-year-old from Schloss Holte near Bielefeld in the Next Generation Sailing team. The newcomer joined the team as a preparer at the start of 2023. He is looking forward to continuing the mini-tradition of the up-and-comers: "Sometimes I feel like it's all just a dream."
In addition to Fink and Burke, master boat builder Markus "Porky" Mehlen is also on hand to advise him. "I learn as much as I can from Porky," says Kroner.
As a child in the Opti and as a teenager in boat classes such as the 420, Laser and OK dinghy, Kroner is under no illusions: "4,050 nautical miles across the Atlantic alone is a different house number to the regattas I've sailed so far. But I will give it my all. You only get a chance like this once." The echo comes from Lennart Burke: "You can feel Jonas' passion for sailing in every fibre of his being. He lives for it to the full, putting everything else to one side." Jonas Kroner is on a first-name basis with every screw on the Mini. Like his young team mates, he trains with top coach Tanguy Leglatin, learns French via an online app and lives in his converted van in Lorient, which is also his workshop. It takes him three minutes to walk from bed to boat in France's offshore cradle La Base. Kroner says: "The Mini is equipped with the bare essentials, but it's still super fast."
The down-to-earth North Rhine-Westphalian has not yet decided whether he wants to switch to Class 40 after the mini-campaign or whether he would rather start studying yacht design first. In addition to Fink and Burke, Kroner also cites Boris Herrmann as a role model because he is "a motivating person". "First Mini and Class 40, then Imoca - a fantastic career!" says Kroner, paying tribute to the German sailing star. His own path was similar at the beginning.
About the Mini-Transat
The route runs every two years in two stages from the Vendée to the Caribbean, with the first leg being considered the toughest. So far, 19 German boats have taken part. The pioneer was Wolfgang Quix, who completed the premiere in 1977. Boris Herrmann laid the foundation for his professional sailing career by taking part in 2001. Melwin Fink achieved the sensation in 2021: victory on the first stormy leg, which saw most of the competition weather off in the harbour.
