Roma x 2 Mini Transat qualifier

As Brits take the top spots Sam Davies tells us how it went racing with Miranda Merron in Italy

British Mini sailors have swept the board in the Roma x 2, a 535 mile race from Riva di Traiano - Capri - Lipari and finishing in Riva di Traiano. At the time of writing, the only Minis to finish in the eleven boat fleet are all from the UK.
I Must Be Mad skippered by Brian Thompson and Tanguy Le Motte won the race, finishing at 2am on Thursday 26th.

Aberdeen Asset Management skippered by Sam Davies and Miranda Merron finished in second place at 5.30am and QDS skippered by Simon Curwen and Phil Meakins finished at 6.30am.

The 2001 Mini Transat starts on the 22 September and in order to qualify to start that race the Mini sailors have to complete 2,000 miles of sailing - 1,000 miles must be from races in the Mini Calendar. It is a race to qualify for the race itself. There are only 55 places in this race, so the first to finish the miles gets in and there are only a certain number of qualifying races. The Roma x 2 is one of them, and the Mini sailors who want to qualify have come to Riva di Traiano in Italy to get some miles in.

The four day race threw all conditions at us, starting with light and shifty conditions, the breeze slowly built all day to give some excellent downwind surfing with masthead spinnakers. As the breeze built more during the night, small chutes became the only option and those of us who could hold on to our spinnakers made the gain.

At Capri, I Must Be Mad rounded first, QDS second and Aberdeen third. The first night was the best spinnaker sailing I have had with Aberdeen, mainly due to a new Sobstad small fractional spinnaker that we were able to hold through the night, spearing along at 11 - 12 knots with bursts of 15.

On the leg to Lipari, the first three positions remained the same, in reaching conditions. We had to negotiate a thunderstorm around the island and as we came away from Lipari, the breeze quickly freshened - we reefed down to two reefs and a reefed jib, hard on the wind.

This is where decisions had to be made. As the breeze dropped and swung into the south east, we were faced with jibing downwind. On Aberdeen, we stayed offshore to try and reach the new breeze first. This paid off and Aberdeen passed QDS, who had gone inshore in search of land breeze.

We stayed offshore (west) for the whole leg to the finish and continued to gain on I Must Be Mad but not enough. However, we were very pleased to achieve second place which was celebrated with champagne on the dock, delivered by the race committee.

The Roma x 2 was a great start to the Mini season for me. I am now on my way to Pornichet in Brittany for the Select 6.5 which starts on the 5 of May, followed by the Mini Pavois (from La Rochelle - Portsmouth - St Quay) on the 20 May. Both races are solo. I will miss Miranda, who was a great co-skipper for this race.