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 Mini Madness
The absence of American competitors in any serious numbers has always been a disappointment for those of us single handed nuts on this side of the pond, but the winds of change are blowing. Jonathan McKee mounted a very credible challenge in the 2003 event, only to be stopped by mast failure two days from the finish. Americans are buying and building both the proto and series versions of the boat in increasing numbers, and we may finally be nearing the tipping point in critical mass needed to make the Mini a viable boat for racing in the USA. With luck, the numbers of US entries to future Mini Transats should be growing. When I got invited to the unveiling of a new Mini built by Drew Wood and Katie Ambach, I jumped at the chance to check out their program. And despite the front page dominance by the Cleans, Mister and Sister, Scot gave the green light to get an update on Sailing Anarchy I first met Drew Wood as a competitor in the 2003 Bermuda 1-2, racing his Olson 30. At the time he was living in Hartford, working in IT, and spending the weekends sailing in Newport. He is an electronics geek, and has helped me and others out of many a jam with our own boats' issues, but his biggest rescue to date was to fly to Ushuaia, Argentina and help Derek Hatfield rebuild his electronics following the capsize and dismasting of Spirit of Canada in the 2003/2003 Around Alone. Derek's is only one of the Open campaigns Drew has volunteered time with, and in the winter of 2004 he was spending his weekends up in Portland ME working on Haji's Open 60, Ocean Planet.
So after a few romantic afternoons of grinding carbon these two kids answered the call of their hormones and shacked up. Just kidding, Mrs. Ambach. I am sure your little Katie's virtue is intact. But before you knew it, Drew had quit his job in Hartford and moved down to Newport full time. They say young love is blind, and these two decided to embark on a campaign to build and race a Mini. They acquired the molds for a Pierre Rolland designed Mini, pooled their resources, and by July of 2004 they converted their one car garage into a boat loft and had started building the first entirely Carbon Composite Mini Transat yacht ever constructed in the United States. The Wood / Ambach project is a modification of Pierre Rolland's successful 2000 hull design which took took 4th in the mini transat in 2003, and was 2nd on the first leg of last year's race. Drew and Katie's boat is built of carbon instead of glass, and has been modified to increase reaching performance. The mast and water ballast has been moved aft, and the new design has a single canting dagger board instead dual asymmetric dagger boards. They also have modified the rudder design to decrease drag The boat is one of the few minis built in wet laminate unidirectional carbon to give it tremendous stiffness, resulting in a laminate of just 300g per square meter of carbon on each skin. Yet despite being as strong as the proverbial brick shit house, the weight of the hull and deck together is only 200kg. She is about 10ft wide at the stern, and when the carbon mast is finished it will stand 40 feet tall on a 21 foot boat. Like all proto Minis she has a canting keel and water ballast. Upwind the she will carry about 35 square meters of sail area, downwind- over 100 square meters. Small potatoes for a TP 52 maybe, but on a boat that is not that much larger than a laser we are talking a monster amount of cloth.
The yacht is
designed and built to be extremely competitive for the 2007 Mini Class
season. They plan on training in the United States in 2006 with a race
schedule that will hopefully include the: The sight of a mini in any of these races is going to be novel, but with a growing number of minis in the United States, there are high hopes to start showing a strong class representation in any race that will give them a starting slot. In addition to the races listed above, a group of skippers has been working with the organizers of the Bermuda 1-2 to design the standards and rules that would be necessary to have the race organizers get comfortable with allowing Minis into what is the marquee single handed race in the eastern United States. Qualifying to race in the Mini Transat is no easy task, and involves racing in qualifying events in Europe or applying for a very limited number of DCQs that the Mini organization uses to promote interest in the event in some of the non-European countries. While the odds are long, Drew will be applying this fall for a slot in the 2007 race, which happens to be the 30th anniversary. If Drew fails to gain an exemption, then 2007 will be for racing the Bermuda 1-2 and other single handed races in the US. Drew and Katie have been lucky enough to get support from SP, NKE, Lopolight, Karver and MAS epoxies, and most recently BoatNumberPlate.com. Tony at Forte RTS has been an angel for the program, helping with the build of the mast. They are still looking for sponsors, so if you have coin rattling around in your pocket and want to help, drop them a line! And if any of you have similar crazy dreams, I am told that the molds and a carbon deck for this boat are now available for peanuts. If you want
to know more about the project, and check out a bunch of photos from the
build, go to www.solosailor.com
for all the info. |
