The starting signal for the 25th Mini-Transat 2025 will be given on 21 September, and for three German newcomers it will be the premiere of their lives. For Aarau-born Felix Oberle, it will be his second XL Atlantic challenge, this time with a prototype. In his first attempt, the now 33-year-old took the French-influenced race by storm. He came as close as possible to the podium in fourth place in the series classification.
The second mini-transat for Felix Oberle
That was just the beginning of the plan that Oberle began to forge at an early age. Even as a ten-year-old, he dreamed of sailing around the world one day. He, who as an engineer and performance analyst at the Olympic Games also helped to make the Swiss skiers fast, is maturing into a veritable challenger who, after the series success at the première, wants to know what it's all about with a prototype in the upcoming Mini-Transat.
Having only turned professional in 2021, Felix Oberle has a clear plan. After his mini-transat number two this year, his medium-term goal is to move up into the Imoca class. The long-term goal is to take part in the Vendée Globe 2032.
The Swiss doesn't rush, taking the time he needs to mature as a soloist and professional sailor. The Mini-Transat, he says, offers excellent training for this. In the single-handed race, the participants are even more radically limited without external help and communication than in the summit event of the Vendée Globe.
Vendée Globe and Mini-Transat: the same starting harbour
Like the Vendée Globe, mini-transats also start in Les Sables-d'Olonne and take their challengers across the Atlantic to Saint-François on Guadeloupe in nutshells of 6.50 metre-long boats during a three-week stopover in the Canary Islands.
"The main motivation for my project with the prototype is to develop my sailing skills. I want to deepen my expertise in order to apply what I've learnt so that I can race at the front," says Oberle. This time, he will be one of the top contenders in the Proto classification.
"The Mini is a good school where you can learn everything. I wanted to do something new with the Proto. There are people who already work with preparators at the Protos, but I do everything myself," says Oberle. In Mini-Transat, prototypes are one-offs with a fuselage that is usually made of carbon fibre.
The boat is equipped with a tilting and telescopic keel and a tilting mast, which can also be rotated. Felix Oberle's mini - the SUI 1019 - is not. The prototypes have centreboards and have long had foils, come with a bowsprit and retractable rudders and water ballast tanks. The electronics are not regulated.
The mini-class: one movement, two classes
The Mini-Transat idea of dividing the company into two classes is the result of two contradictory wishes: On the one hand, the aim is to be a development class and technological trendsetter in this offshore discipline in miniature format with its XXL challenges. On the other hand, newcomers with small budgets and big dreams should have the chance to enter and participate.
The successful two-division mix makes the Minis the perfect entry-level class into the offshore scene, which Melwin Fink and Lennart Burke once used so formidably before moving up to the next league of the Class40. Now three young German sailors want to embark on the Mini-Transat adventure again. They are baking somewhat smaller rolls than Felix Oberle, but are not without ambition: Hendrik Lenz from Düsseldorf, Wuppertal-born Thiemo Huuk and the German-Frenchman Victor David.
Henrik Lenz from Düsseldorf, who is supported by Trans Ocean, grew up on a converted barge in Düsseldorf harbour, sailed in an Optimist as a five-year-old, was German champion in the Asso 99 and gained experience in the German Sailing League with the team from the Düsseldorf Yacht Club. But he wanted more. Lina Rixgens, with whom he had sailed in the same Opti group as a child, once gave him the mini idea.
Well-filled mileage accounts for mini-transat
Now Hendrik Lenz is heading for the Mini-Transat with a Vector 6.50 from 2022, which he took over from Melwin Fink: "Monoka" bears the number 1085 and is a ship from the latest generation of Minis. Like his two fellow competitors Thiemo Huuk (Vector 6.50) and Victor David (Pogo 3), Lenz has already passed the 1000 nautical mile qualifier.
Internally, the three German sailors have been keeping an eye on how they compare with other, mainly French, Mini-Transat competitors via an Excel spreadsheet. Hendrik Lenz says: "It should be enough for us if the organisers accept entries soon. I think about 85 of the original up to 100 series boat candidates are still active. There are 70 places. Our guess is that the cut will be around 3300 nautical miles. I have 3690 nautical miles under my belt, Victor and Thiemo around 4000."
I'm really hot. I'm on fire!" Hendrik Lenz
The trio is optimistic about their chances of starting the 25th Mini-Transat 2025, which will not be finalised for a few months. Like his German team-mates, Hendrik Lenz has his boat in La Rochelle, where the group regularly socialise and train together. After the intensive 2024 season and a short winter break, the first training session of the new season begins there in mid-February. Hendrik Lenz is delighted: "I want to sail again, get my hands on the boat and take care of it."
Mini sailors at boot Düsseldorf
Before that, however, all three German mini-sailors will be visiting boot in Düsseldorf - a home game for Hendrik Lenz. He will be a guest on 18 January (Saturday) at 11.45 am on the Sailing School stage in Hall 15. On the second boot Sunday (26 January), he will present his mini plans together with Victor David in the Sailing Center in Hall 15 from 12.30 pm. Before that, he will be at the Düsseldorf Yacht Club stand from 3.30 pm on 25 January.
The offshore stage guests at boot Düsseldorf 2025:
- 18 January, 11.45 am to 12.15 pm (Sailing School stage, Hall 15): On course for the Mini-Transat 2025 with Jan-Hendrik Lenz
- 18 January, 13:30 to 14:00 (Sailing Center stage, Hall 15): Lina Rixgens & Sverre Reinke: Offshore Doublehanded Mixed - Team Germany at the first World Championship
- 18 January, 2 to 2.30 pm (Sailing Center stage, Hall 15): "Red Bandit" wins the Rolex Middle Sea Race - the success story of the young offshore team
- 18 January, 2.30 to 3 p.m. (Sailing Center stage, Hall 15): Max Gurgel - Fast offshore sailing
- 18 January, 3.30 to 4 p.m.: Lennart Burke & Melwin Fink, Adventure Class40 sailing
- 19 January, 4.30 to 4.50 p.m.: Tom Wehde, My path to the Mini-Transat 2027
- 19 January, 12 to 12.30 pm (Sailing Center stage, Hall 15): Lina Rixgens & Sverre Reinke: Offshore Doublehanded Mixed - Team Germany at the first World Championship
- 20 January, 12 to 12.30 p.m.: Andreas BadenVendée Globe 2024/2025 - Insights into the toughest single-handed regatta in the world (interviewed from Les Sables-d'Olonne)
- 25 January, 12.30 to 1 p.m.: Lennart Burke & Melwin Fink, Adventure Class40 sailing
- 25 January, 4.30 to 6 p.m. (Sailing Center stage, Hall 15): Female Power to the Race, panel discussion
- 26 January, 12 to 12.30 p.m.: Tom Wehde, My path to the Mini-Transat 2027
- 26 January, 1.30 to 2 p.m.: Rosalin Kuiper: "Leading Team Holcim-PRB into the Ocean Race Europe 2025"
