Mini-Transat: Finale Furioso - Lenz defies broken bowsprit shortly before the finish line

With 14th place, Hendrik Lenz is not only the best German participant in the 25th La Boulangère Mini-Transat. He is also the only GER soloist to finish the race with an intact mast. On 3 November, nine days after the start of the second leg from La Palma to Gudeloupe, the mast on Thiemo Huuk's Bertrand Vector "Europe" broke. Just four days later, the mast on Victor David's Pogo "Ich bin en Solitaire" also snapped above the second spreader.

Mini-Transat: Compassion after mast breaks

Hendrik Lenz felt very sorry for both companions after his own finish at the beginning of the week. "I'm very, very sorry for both of them. Three years of preparation to finish limping and with a broken mast... I hope they both have enough water. I had 80 litres with me. Now there are 15, 20 litres left."

While Hendrik Lenz looked out over the palm trees from a small balcony in Saint-François a few hours after his Monday final and the warm welcome on Guadeloupe and looked forward to a soft bed "where you don't get rough elbows every time you turn around like on the fibreglass boat", he reflected on his first mini-transat, which he had just completed. Lenz also thought about the companions who had been hit so hard and were still far away. Click here to go to the tracking for the Mini-Transat.

At this point, Thiemo Huuk still had 840 nautical miles to Saint-François ahead of him in the middle of the Atlantic under emergency rig at a speed of 4.4 knots. For the German-Frenchman Victor David, it was "only" 470 nautical miles at a similarly slow speed. Hendrik Lenz, meanwhile, happily finished his mini-transat premiere, which was full of ups and downs, in fourteenth place.

First a "horror night", then a broken bowsprit shortly before the finish line

On the final day, Lenz was able to catch two more boats after positioning himself smartly in the north. Then, around 16 nautical miles before the finish line, the bowsprit on "Monoka" broke. A shock. Would the competitors he had just lapped now catch up with him again? Had the final effort after the "worst horror night of the entire race" with thunderstorm squalls every quarter of an hour and at least 20 shots of sunshine been in vain?

At this point, Hendrik Lenz is already covered in green, blue and red marks. He had "earned" them in a brutal way during the "night of horror" by steering by hand and hooking his arm under the railing in his last stand. The autopilot could no longer cope with the conditions. "The boat behaved like a vibrating plate that was constantly being hit by a sledgehammer," recalls Lenz.

On the night of 10 November, the soloists around Lenz informed each other of the squalls by radio on their way to the finish line. Those who were lucky and not asleep were able to take down their sails in time before the next "attack", which was up to 40 knots strong. Lenz survived the night. Then the shock: his bowsprit breaks! He is briefly stunned: why does such a low blow hit him so close to his destination?

Shocked, cried and fought in the mini-transat

"I even cried for a moment," he says later in the harbour. But then Lenz spotted his closest rival Pierrick Evenou on the horizon about four nautical miles behind him. Without a headsail. Lenz regained hope, realising that he might be able to defend his hard-won 14th place even with a broken bowsprit. Without further ado, he tied the large Code Zero to the boat and pulled it up by the spinnaker. "It wasn't pretty, but it was faster than with just the jib - and it helped," Lenz looks back.

At sea, when he looked back shortly after the break, it seemed to him "as if Pierrick Evenou's spinnaker was already filling the entire horizon". "But Pierrick also broke twice. I think that also saved my arse," reflects Lenz. Everyone around him is tired in the final hours of the race. Even more so after the exceptionally tough night. Anyone who can still fight now has an advantage. Lenz can. He utilises his advantage, the circumstances, and finishes in 14th place after 15 days, 23 hours, 17 minutes and 1 second at sea.

It's a great result that I can be at peace with." Hendrik Lenz

"My personal expectation is bronze," said Hendrik Lenz, categorising his own performance shortly after the race. Before the start of the race, he had said: "Finishing in the top ten would be silver, in the top five: gold!" His first mini-transat demanded a lot from him. Throughout the entire mini season, Lenz had previously only ever gone upwards. He had shown his class in the Puru Transgascogne, the last big test before the Mini-Transat, with third and fifth place on the two stages.

Gruelling "pot knocking" at the start

14th place in the small boat race across the big Atlantic is perhaps not quite what Lenz wanted, but considering the course of the race and the conditions, it is a very strong performance "that I am proud of". Vector skipper Lenz also knows that the top ten series boats are all Raison-Maxis. "There are good reasons for that. It was a race with a lot of wind, often 23, 24 knots, but often also the transitional conditions of 16 to 20 knots. Plus an often short and unpleasant wave. That's when the maxis set themselves apart," he says.

After a good start, however, the race began for the entire Mini fleet with extremely weak winds over several days. "That was phase one of three and a half: the doldrums fiasco with pot beating. I just had the feeling that my top beat was shorter than the others," says Lenz, summarising the patience poker from the start.

After a few ups and downs, however, he was able to keep in touch with the front runners. On 28 October, Lenz was even briefly in the lead, and on 29 October he was initially third, just 22 nautical miles behind the leader Paul Cousin. On the fourth day of the race, he slipped on deck and fell with his full body weight onto the winch. "That was a big ouch and affected my mood. It particularly hurt when I was sleeping," recalls Lenz, who thought one of his ribs was badly bruised or even broken. The persistent pain is a silent witness.

Mini-Transat: off to the south!

Hendrik Lenz was sixth later on 29 October, when the field of series boats between the Canary Islands and Cape Verde began to split at the 22nd parallel north. Paul Cousin and Quentin Mocudet - the eventual series boat winner in the 25th Mini-Transat and the runner-up - are among the first top performers to head south. Half the fleet follows one after the other. Including Hendrik Lenz. At the 20th parallel south, the southern group then heads west again, only to dip even further south a short time later. The game continues.

Lenz is a little way north of the leaders, initially moving up to fifth place again. "I was able to keep up well in the second phase. We had good winds of 24, 25 knots, often more than forecast," he recalls. In the meantime, 100 nautical miles separate him from Cousin, Mocudet and others in the deep south on the south-north axis. On 2 November, Lenz is still seventh, 72 nautical miles behind Paul Cousin.

It stays that way for a while before the leading boats approach each other again between the 18th and 17th parallel north at about 40 degrees longitude west. Hendrik Lenz takes part in the Atlantic power play until 5 November. He then shifts strongly to the south until almost the 15th parallel north. In the meantime, his deficit in twentieth place has grown to almost 180 nautical miles. The speedbolting of the maxis in their chocolate conditions cannot be maintained with the Vector. This frustrates the German challenger.

Lenz struggles with the weaknesses of his mini

The otherwise peaceful Lenz is annoyed about his own situation. "My boat didn't really get going at 16, 17 knots. The others were travelling at 12 to 15 knots, I was at nine. I'm not usually like that, but I was so angry about everything that I crushed and smashed an empty water liner. That was also the phase in which I rediscovered Ramstein for myself," Lenz later recalls the dark time in the race, not without sarcasm.

I thought I could hand in my junior licence straight away. I was ready to get out." Hendrik Lenz

During this time, the Mini is "completely wet like I've never experienced before," says Lenz. He is convinced that the Mini-Transat breaks every challenger at least once. The trick, he says, is to recover from this head break, which is easy to do in a race like this alone and without communication to the outside world. Lenz is convinced: "A regatta like this always breaks you somewhere. The only question is how you carry on afterwards. It takes a lot of strength, but you have to do it. Felix Oberle says: 'That's just Transat."

"I also had a bit of autopilot problems in phase three. The wave was short and steep. I didn't manage to trim it properly," Lenz explains further challenges. He fought his way back to 16th place without making any big gains and held on to it until the final day on 10 November, for which he headed north one last time.

A lot learnt in the mini-transat

This strategic decision in the final act of his mini-Transat premiere, which Lenz describes as "phase three and a half", is the basis for the successful last-minute attack, the basis for Lenz being able to make up two proud places in the end. "I also made up with my boat," he says later in the harbour with a smile.

He learnt a lot during the mini-transat. Including this: "You can't rely on what you've done before. There are so many imponderables in between." However, Hendrik Lenz was able to rely on his partner Lea and mum Viola Lenz. Just like the hosts, sailors who had arrived, families and friends, they were there when he reached Saint-François in daylight. After many night arrivals this season, Hendrik Lenz crossed the finish line in sunshine for the first time.

Before Proto winner Mathis Bourgnon and Series boat winner Paul Cousin Lenz takes his hat off after the 25th Mini-Transat edition. He says of Paul Cousin: "He was abnormally fast. This time he orientated himself on the routing. And that was just right. Together with Quentin and Amaury, they are the fastest boats. And in the end, it's always who is the fastest that counts."