From Mini to maxi

Before setting sail on the Oryx Quest we spoke to Nick Bubb about his temporary transition to maxi-catamarans

At present getting their first taste of the Southern Ocean on Tony Bullimore's Daedelus, the former ENZA New Zealand/ Royal & SunAlliance, are three sailors who have made the quantum leap into the 100ft long maxi-cat from their 21ft long Minis.

The last of these to sign up for a ride on the Oryx Quest was Britain's leading Mini sailor Nick Bubb, who got talked into going on the round the world loop by Doha 2006's Paul Larsen during a 'session' on the Guinness stand at London Boat Show. "He had a word with Tony and I got an email the next day saying 'I’ve spoken to the crew and they think it is a good idea - do you want to come, here’s the pay. I need to know in 24 hours..."

Before taking up the Mini, Bubb was a Laser 4000 and 5000 sailor and says that aside from some cruising boat, the largest race boat he has sailed on has been Conrad Humphreys Open 50. Daedelus is more than twice as big and a catamaran - Bubb's only previous multihull experience wsa in a Dart 18. "Looking around the boat it doesn’t seem too bad. The main thing will be appreciating the loads obviously.

"I think it will be just like doing asymmetric sailing. I’ve done the Mini, the 4000 and 5000. One thing is that I don’t think you can see the staysail from the helming position if the rig is rotated. You can’t see any of the headsails basically, so there’s going to be quite a lot of relying on the feel from the helm," says Bubb who at the time had yet to sail on the boat. "The guys say you set it up and you don’t really trim it because the apparent wind is just changing so much. It will be really good to go and sail in the Southern Ocean. It will be a good experience hopefully."

On board Daedelus Bullimore is taking just eight crew - compared to the 14 who sailed her when she was Royal & SunAlliance. Looking among the crew and Bubb says there are a lot who are "good with their hands". Aside from this the boat has new Cuben fibre sails from Quantum South Africa.

Racing in the Oryx Quest means that Bubb will miss one race in the Mini calendar but hopes to use the trip to improve his offshore knowledge. Coming from a background dinghy sailing, meteorology is not his strong suit and he hopes to find time to develop his skills in this area as the race progresses.

In terms of his Mini sailing Bubb is now on the coveted official entry list for this September's Mini Transat, a position he wasn't in this time two years ago. This year he still has to compete 1,000 race miles in 'official' Mini events to be assured of his place. "The biggest logistical problem for me has been trying to enter the races before I flew out to do this. Because most of them hadn’t even written their Notice of Race yet, but fortunately most of them are okay about it. The Mini Pavois starts in the middle of May, so realistically that should be okay. [Sail maker] John Parker is sailing the boat at home while I am away to test some new sails. So I hope it will just be a case of hitching it up and driving down, which would be nice."

Bubb plans to race the full Mini calendar including the Mini Pavois (stopping in Portsmouth), the Mini Fastnet and is considering scuttling down to the Med to compete in the Mini Max before returning to France's Atlantic coast to race the Solo Chrono, Demi Cle and the Transgascoigne, an intense programme that concludes early August. Bubb is then hoping to jump on board something larger and faster for the Rolex Fastnet Race before the start of the Mini Transat itself on 18 September, starting again from La Rochelle.

In this year's Mini Transat Bubb is one of four British boat competing. In addition there is Clemency Williams, sailing the sistership to his own Simon Rogers design, Phil Sharp sailing the quick Magnen design Bubb sailed in the 2003 season and sailing instructor Stephen Simpson racing the Mark Mills design, formerly belonging to Paul Peggs.

As ever the Mini Transat is limited to 72 entries, and currently the waiting list already has 24 people already on it. Knowing how futile this can be, there are many more who haven't bothered to even go on the waiting list, opting instead to leave it until 2007. "There are two Slovenians who have built two new Maynard designs - really good guy," says Bubb. "They are not even on the waiting list because to be on the waiting list you lose your £400 bond. And they’d be 15th on the waiting list. And then there's Erwan Leroux, who has won every race he has done but isn’t doing it, because he hasn’t got the money."

This year following on from Jonathan McKee and Andrew Cape, there are no Russell Coutts figures looking to 'do something different'. The star will probably be Yves le Blevec, currently racing on Orange II who finished fifth in 2001 and is sailing Leroux's boat. Aside from le Blevec and Bubb the hot prospects in this September's race are Kiwi Chris Sayer, returning for the third Transat and second official one and Spanish sailor Alex Pella sailing a sistership of the Lombard design he raced two years ago. Bubb also rates Corentin Douguet, who sails a Manuard design, and did well last season.

"Then there’s a group of about 10-15 other people who are in good boats and in with a chance. So I think the standard at the top isn’t quite as high. Sam Maynard was a very complete Mini sailor and then there was obviously Jon McKee. This time there are more competitive people. Going from Seb [Magnen - designer and double Mini Transat winner], when he first did it, he had a boat that was so much better than everyone else in 1997. And then as you have gone through the years there have been five, then ten really good machines. This time there are a lot more good boats and everyone is a lot more experienced in their boats because of the nature of the qualifiers and because it became so much harder to get a place."

The only thing which hasn't worked out well for this Mini Transat in Bubb's opinion is the change to the carbon fibre rigs. "A majority of people have been waiting to see what works and as you would expect there has been no clear answer because everyone has been a bit cagey. Quite a few people have broken their rigs. There are three wing rigs, and they have all been fine, but they haven’t been amazing."

Significantly the rigs haven't made the boat noticably faster. "The ally rigs were so light anyway and they are nice and flexible which is good in a boat that is over powered. I think most people are going to go for a slightly stiffer section. Certainly this year with my rig we struggled getting the mainsail set up because you can’t adjust the mast shape at all. The problem with my rig is that it is dead straight. It is quite difficult to get the sail shape you want all the time. So we have made a new mainsail. With a wing rig means you need a much flatter sail.

"My jib is 2sqm bigger this year. Last year we had amazing height all the time, I sailed pretty much higher than everyone, but I didn’t have the extra speed because the jib was too small. And we’ve taken some roach off the mainsail, because it was just too powerful and the boat isn’t as powerful as the Magnens."

The other main difference to the class since the last Mini Transat is that the boats are now allowed wind instruments. Bubb sees this as being a much greater potential performance benefit than the change to the carbon rig. "It was a very sensible thing to do, because it doesn’t cost the earth. It is more complicated for me because I have a rotating rig. It can be done, but it costs a fortunate because the only kit is NKE and B&G. I could use a rudder reference unit, but it is all too slow to be of use, so I have taken the opinion, if the apparent or true wind is wrong, then I’ll just select a wind angle to sail to. The beauty is going to be light airs upwind. Because sailing compass angle when it is shiftly - it is just so slow…"

Pilot-wise Bubb is using a Navman system as promoted by Kiwi Chris Sayer. "We have put a new hydraulic ram on which was custom made. It is really smooth, draws very little power and was 100% reliable last year."

At present all this is on hold as Bubb deals with his first baptism in the Southern Ocean.