Finishing in the top ten would be silver, in the top five: gold!" Hendrik Lenz has set himself an ambitious goal ahead of his Mini-Transat première. His results as well as his form curve this year justify it. He finished twentieth in the Plastimo Lorient Mini in April with his 2022 Vector. And in the Pornichet Select shortly afterwards, the man from Düsseldorf attracted attention with tenth place. He then finished the Mini en Mai as a formidable eighth on the water, after clearing an early start and chasing the field half an hour behind. It was only after the strongly contested race that the additional early start time penalty threw him back to 25th place.
That is also interesting:
Lenz then showed his class in the Puru Transgascogne, however, when he set two exclamation marks in the last big test before the upcoming Mini Transat with third and fifth place on the two legs. The man and his boat are in the fight for a place in the top ten in the series ranking.
The conditions for a successful Lenz debut could hardly be better. The blonde North Rhine-Westphalian grew up on a boat. For 19 years, he lived with his parents, a brother and a sister on a converted grain freighter in Düsseldorf harbour. His father ran a shipyard and his mother is a doctor. "I have cool memories of my childhood. Our birthdays were highlights. A life like that welds you together," says Lenz, a family man. Today, he has a master's degree in electrical engineering, is a strong sailor and mentally strong.
Full commitment right from the start
His sailing career took a classic course: he made his first attempts as a five-year-old in the Opti. This was followed by Europe and 505s, and later a national championship title in the Asso99. During his studies, he competed in the national league with Jan-Philipp Hofmann's team for the Düsseldorfer Yacht-Club. The electrical engineer was already fascinated by the Mini Transat. "I was attracted by this incomparable spirit, the contrast between a sense of community on land and being alone on the water," he explains his passion. Lina Rixgens, with whom Hendrik Lenz sailed in the same Optigroup as a child, gave him the idea of competing in a Mini Transat himself. "Wow, I want to do that too," he thought when she took part in her first Mini Transat in 2017.
Now he is fully committed to the project himself: "I'm already ambitious, I'm not in it to mess around." Strongly inspired by England's sailing icon Ellen MacArthur, who once bought her first Mini from the pennies she saved for school, Hendrik Lenz turned his dreams into action. He sails the Vector in which Melwin Fink, Mini Transat bronze medallist in 2021, had actually wanted to compete in his second solo race across the Atlantic. But then Fink ran out of time to collect the necessary qualifying miles.
Lenz now wants to successfully take this boat with the bow number 1085 across the pond. He has been preparing for this in La Rochelle with the training group led by coach François Husson. Lenz had already realised at the beginning: "I wasn't last, I was able to keep up well." This has now become much more than that. Vector soloist Lenz has clearly broken into the phalanx of the French and the maxis and is in seventh place in the series boat rankings for the season. But he is not content with that. Lenz is certain that a double long-distance race like the Mini Transat over two legs "demands completely different qualities. "I think I have a pretty good head for it, I can pull myself together well. That could make a difference."
"From 24, 25 knots onwards, we'll knock everything out. We have a lot more righting momentum."
According to Lenz, the hour of the round bracket has come
Lenz is a miniature sailor with staying power. His maxim at sea is always: "Don't worry, the race is still long." He is aware of the sprinting prowess of the season's best Paul Cousin and fourth-placed Amaury Guerin - both sail their Raison-Maxis at the limit. "They know their areas inside out, they sail even closer to a rock than I would. I look at them and think, 'Wow, that's only possible with the tide. And only for 30 minutes," says Lenz. At the same time, he is convinced that Paul Cousin offshore "is not quite as good", while he believes Amaury Guerin can do anything over long distances. Even victory.
What Lenz also recognises, however, is "the vulnerability of the Maxis". He explains that all Maxis had to be laminated again before the transat. "So we had to install frames at the back, in the centre and at the front, because they are sometimes a little dented at the bow," says Lenz.
On the other hand, the scene also has Hendrik Lenz on its radar as a serious top ten contender. From the small German-speaking group with the dynamic German-Frenchman Victor David and the highly organised Thiemo Huuk, David answers the question of a winner's tip for the series classification without hesitation: "Hendrik Lenz!" He laughs because it's a bold tip that stems from a mix of strong appreciation for his companion and respect for Lenz's performance.
The praised man knows that the top players sail maxis. "With the Vector, we are virtually the next boat that also has a wide bow. There are also a few Pogos that could play a role." Lenz considers one like Victor Le Roy to be very strong, but his Verdier Pogo is more of a "submarine". Lenz: "I believe that the generation of round bows will win the Transat."
Hendrik Lenz on course for success
According to Lenz, this season's races have revealed the strengths and weaknesses of the Maxis and his own boat. "Our strengths lie in the brutal reach. I see a weakness for my boat in the downwind transition phase, when the wind picks up to 16 to 20 knots. That's not the Vector highlight. You have to play a lot to keep up." Lenz swaps ideas intensively with his Vector ally, good friend and competitor Niccolo Gamenara. They help each other to progress. Sometimes they both have a laugh about the maxi throttle. Lenz says: "The maxis jam the sheet in, bam, autopilot on and off they go. They don't even look at the wave. We, on the other hand, have to be careful not to park in the wave. They put all their weight aft. We have to see whether we have it more centred or spread it out. The Vector is much more weight-dependent than the Maxi, which is more tolerant in swell."
And the plus points of the Vector? Hendrik Lenz laughs and says: "From 24, 25 knots, we'll knock everything out. We can also set the big spinnaker. We have a lot more righting moment, which is particularly important on reaching courses. We are also faster upwind as soon as there is more wind." And what about in light winds? "I'm relatively good there," says Lenz simply, "a light breeze is no problem for me, as I come from an inland lake." He likes to be tactical and take the turns. His budget also allowed for a new mainsail, a new spinnaker and antifouling before the race.
In addition to main partner Kruppenbacher, Trans-Ocean also supports the Düsseldorf native. "I have the basics to do well," says Lenz modestly, like a typical mini sailor. Of course, Lenz also cites Boris Herrmann as a role model. "He showed how far you can get in sailing." You don't have to follow the same path, but you can take inspiration from it, says Lenz. Whether and, above all, how his own path in sailing will continue after the Mini Transat is only roughly outlined. Lenz can imagine a "soft entry" into the Figaro class that is not quite so ruthless financially. This refers to two-handed engagements that allow medium-term access to the demanding masterclass of French offshore stars.
For any future planning, however, Lenz applies the same guiding principle as he does now in the Mini Transat on his "Monoka": The race is still long.
