Mini Transat start postponed

Bad weather forecast for Monday causes race organisers to take a prudent path

Above: Wind chart for Monday 12GMT.

The start of the Mini Transat, scheduled for 1730 local time this afternoon has been delayed until Tuesday because of the weather conditions. Tomorrow (Monday) afternoon a depression centred over the UK is expected to lash the course with 40-45 knots westerly winds and gusts of 60 knots at a time when the boats will be crossing the continental shelf. Even in moderate conditions the seas are sharper here because of the dramatic shallowing of the water. In severe conditions sailing upwind into breaking waves could be treacherous.

Some interesting dockside speculation is going on here in La Rochelle that the waves may be particularly big at the moment because of the added energy in Atlantic weather systems at present thanks to Hurricane Fabian.

The Mini Transat's organisers politically cannot afford to have a repeat of the 1999 race when numerous boats were broken and several skippers were forced to be airlifted off their boats most courtesy of the Spanish rescue authorities. In France the Mini Transat only happens thanks to a special dispensation from the Minister of Transport, so the organisers of the Mini Transat cannot afford to risk putting the future of their race in jeopardy.

"If we start the race there is a risk that the boats will have big problems and many will have to abandon and we prefer to delay the start for reasons of safety," Classe Mini President Patrick Benoiton told The Daily Sail.

There is of course a converse argument - if the competitors know that the race organisers will not start the race in certain conditions they may start building their boats lighter.

However past experience in this event would suggest that the organisers have made the right call. In 1999 the race organisers didn't delay the start despite severe weather being forecast and instead left it to discretion of the skippers as to whether or not they took the start line. After nearly killing himself in that event competitor Nick Moloney said that with the pressure from his competitive instinct not to mention commitment to his sponsors and all the people who had helped him - there had been no question of him delaying his start.

British competition Ian Munslow told The Daily Sail that he'd rather have gone. "I'd go, but you have to live with it. 45 knots - some say more, some say les. I have a new jib I don't want to break! But someone has got to carry the can and it is them."

With two more days to kill now, the Mini sailors and their entourage have taken to the bars of La Rochelle.