Mini Boat, Maxi Troubles

We'll admit to not knowing much about the Mini Class or the politics of it. But with the French involved, we're sure their must be a ton of nonsense involved. We recently heard about the saga of Chris Sayer. The gist of it is this guy built a Kiwi designed, amateur built, cold molded mini a couple of years ago and took it to Europe where he ran his totally amateur effort against the French $$$MegaBuck$$$ campaigns. He damn near stole the pickle dish right out from under them, finishing second at his first attempt in their league.The French don't like being beaten at what they see as "Their Own Game" so we understand they have done all they can to block this guy out of future events. He lost his first new boat in a storm off NZ earlier in the year and has built a newer, Brett Bakewell-White designed and better boat for this latest attempt. Liz Wardley, (ex AS 2 in the VOR) has built a sister mini to the same design as Chris Sayer's boat in an attempt to also break into the French scene. Here is Chris' report.

Hi, well I am here in La Rochelle and the boat is all ready to go. Still no entry and I am told that there is no way that this will happen. I have been to see Grand Pavois and Affaires Maritimes who wish me well but say no more than 70 boats, no exception. I have not seen Classe Mini and they do not answer their e-mails.

The only small chance I have I think is if enough people e-mail to Grand Pavois, Affaires Maritimes and Classe Mini. They are not going to care about what 1 sailor says but maybe just maybe if they get e-mails from members of the NZ government, Yachting NZ, business people, RNZYS, SSANZ, MSA, the media etc. something will happen. For this to happen soon I need a lot of your help.

Key points I think are:

Classe mini knew of my plans for this mini in April of 2001. When the first 403 was lost I told them in August of 2002 that I would still be here:

There was no problem with my entry until Classe Mini chose not to have Wildcard entries as laid out in the 2003 Mini Rules. I was told that sailing 3500Nm from NZ to Noumea, Sydney and back was not good enough for safety reasons and that I had to sail a 700Nm 2-handed race and a 580Nm single handed race to qualify for the mini transat. This change of rules on how to qualify happened in February of 2003 only once it was too late to get to Europe from NZ in time to do the races. (At the time it was peak export season from NZ and ships were leaving cargo behind they were so full. Shipping would have had to been arranged well in advance, not with 2 weeks notice.)

For me to get an entry now it has to be in addition to the 70 entries. 72 entries has been mentioned in the correspondence between the 3 organizing parties as they have 6 support boats, 1 for every 12 competitors.

Having worked for many years (unpaid) with mini boats, having sailed over 24,000 NM in mini boats (over 4,000 NM in the new boat), as the only competitor coming from the otherside of the world with a new boat, I think I fit what the wildcard entries were made for in the true spirit of the rules. To quote from the mini rules forward, 'The objective is to encourage the study and development of these boats to increase safety whilst permitting development of performance in offshore conditions."

Classe Mini and Grand Pavois are good people and try to do a very good job. The 2 competitors from Brazil, Don Wright (who bought his boat in March) and Gustavo Pachecco (who bought his boat April) have been given a lot of help to make things easier for them, as I was in 1999. So the people to contact are:

 

Speaking of Mini's...

There is now an effort to establish these odd (but very cool) little ducks here in the states. A gentleman named Jack Boye announced the formation of the Mini Class US, with hopes that by next summer there can be some US momentum. The class website will be up shortly, but you may contact Jack here with your comments or questions.

These things really do look appealing, and for anyone that has raced single handed this looks like it could be a whole new ballgame, assuming enough kooks will play. We're doing a quick InnerView with Jack to find out more about the Mini Class US and will have it up this week.