The Mini sailing demons from Slovenia

We speak to Kristian Hajnsek about his two boat Mini campaign with Andraz Mihelin

Nestling between Italy's eastern border and Croatia on the Adriatic lies Slovenia. Despite having just 32 miles of coastline, this country has already spawned a Laser Olympic bronze medallist and a fourth place in the Women's 470. Now this former Yugoslavian republic has two sailors making a considerable impression on the Mini class.

Both 30 years old, Kristian Hajnsek and Andraz Mihelin both herald from the capital Ljubljana and met through sailing. Mihelin sailed through his youth while Hajnsek says he got infected by the sailing bug later when he was about 18. "I started with big boats and I went the opposite way - when I searched for more experience I went to smaller and smaller classes."

Their big boat racing was mainly around the Adriatic and Italy on the IMS circuit, and match racing on Jeanneau One Designs, but they also sailed for a season on the former Chessie Racing and Assa Abloy training boat, the VO60 AG Big One, at the time owned by a Croatian. On board this they raced in events around the Mediterranean including the Rolex Middle Sea Race in 2002.



At the time both sailors became interested in longer distance races than were available to them in the Adriatic. "There is a two handed race that is 100 miles long and it is considered a very long race in this area," says Hajnsek. "My first long trip was to go to Malta to do the Middle Sea Race and it was quite an eye opener. It put things in perspective. Then you do the Fastnet and it is another step, you climb another rung up the ladder. You learn this is not such an impossible thing that you thought before."

Hajnsek and Mihelin were captivated by the Mini Transat when they read of Mark Turner and Ellen MacArthur's escapades in the 1997 race in Yachting World magazine. "I checked around and I saw there was a Slovenian, Jure Sterk, who sailed in the first Mini Transat in 1977. He built the boat by himself in his garage. The garage was 5.80m long so that was the length of the boat.

"He started the race but he abandoned because he broke his rudder in the Bay of Biscay. He did it again in something like 1987 but it was more of an adventure. I was quite frustrated with his book, because I am quite competitive and he was just there for fun. And then at the end of his book I discovered there are two pages by Isabelle Autissier and Gilles Chiorri about how they won the race. Gilles Chiorri said he expected a cold front to pass, and so he rested, put chocolate in his pocket and steered under full spinnaker for two days. There was an amazing difference between the competitors. I checked the same time on the log of our sailor and he commented ‘a storm is coming’ and so he weathered it out with short sail. He said ‘that is how I want to sail the race.’"

They tested the water in the Mini class by pooling their resources and acquired Yves Parlier's 1985 winner Aquitaine for the 2002 season competing in the Mini Fastnet, Demi Cle and Solo Chrono, finishing a creditable fifth in the Demi Cle - a fine result for an 18 year old boat.

Getting a taste for the class Hajnsek and Mihelin bit the bullet. "We quit our jobs and did a sponsor hunt because we know that banks are out of the question." The sponsor hunt continued through 2002, into 2003 and they were just about to pull the plug on the project in February 2004 when finally they hooked Adria Mobil, neither a cellular phone company, nor an oil company, but a Slovenian manufacturer of camping trailers and mobile homes. "Like a good movie we found a sponsor in February, signed a contract and started building two boats," recalls Hajnsek.

Adria Mobil are the third largest company in Europe in their market and 27% of their product is sold to France. "We had good luck to be able to present to the General Manager directly because we found that it is very time consuming to go through from below. There are too many filters to get stuck in. We were able to present the project for five minutes to her and then we got five minutes more and that was it." Once Adria Mobil were on board it gave them the credibility to get some other sponsors on board to pay for the campaign costs such as Alfa Romeo - their Mini being the anti-thesis of Neville Crichton's maxi.

Hajnsek takes a leaf out of the Mark Turner/Offshore Challenges book on sponsorship and intends to do all he can to market themselves and their sponsor heavily. "I think that is the whole deal. We have to make a lot of effort so they realise that this is not just a good sponsorship project, it is also a good marketing opportunity and I think it is a good example what Ellen MacArthur did for Kingfisher. It is a textbook of what good project management can do for a sponsor."

The Slovenian sisterships 509 and 510 (Minis are referred to by their sail numbers) are both designs by French Mini sailor and designer Sam Manuard. "We liked his idea for the boats because they are simple and very, very powerful."

The hulls were built in France using Manuard's moulds and were taken to Slovenia where they were completed in a workshop belonging to the local SP dealer.



Like Jonathan McKee, Sam Manuard was leading the 2003 Mini Transat aboard his Tip Top Too when he was dismasted off the coast of Brazil. 509 and 510 are the latest development of this boat, with ergomonic improvements in the cockpit and longer daggerboards. It also has a lighter keel, because since 2003 the class have allowed carbon fibre spars. They have not gone for a carbon wingmast, but instead have opted for a lightweight carbon fibre tube.

"The boat is approximately 30kg lighter because of the mast," says Hajnsek, who adds that the all-up sailing weight of the boats is 800-850kg. He shares the view of Nick Bubb, that the move to carbon hasn't been the forward step the Class had hoped. "It is a difference, but it is a lot more complication. What we were discussing with other sailors is that Classe Mini would do a better job if they allowed communications on board instead of going for the composite rig. Then you have something for the sponsor because you have a problem of presenting something where you have a sailor sailing off into the sunset and three weeks later another bearded sailor coming in from nowhere."

509 and 510 were ready to sail at the beginning of July 2004 and they were supposed to compete in the Mini Med race from Port Camargue except that when their carbon fibre rigs arrived the supplier had failed to assembled them properly. "The runners were still on the spool and still had to be prepared. The terminals were misaligned and everything was out of order. We did the first sailing to test the boat and there was 10 knots of wind and all the sheaves for the halyards fell out of the rig," Hajnsek recalls bitterly. As a result they were unable to compete in the race.

Their first race eventually was the Triangle de Soleil two handed race along the South of France in late August and Hajnsek sailing with 60ft trimaran shore manager Francois Coutant finished third while Mihelin was 26th following further problems with his mast. For Hajnsek it was a seminal sailing experience. "The boat was happily trucking along doing around 15 knots, when without a warning she suddenly took off. At 18 kts the boat jumped over the waves, at over 20 kts she was just skimming the tops (latter we checked the log and the max speed was 23.05 kts)."





However being unable to sail the Mini Med had deeper reaching effects on their campaign. The principle aim of the Slovenian duo, and significantly the basis on which they sold their sponsorship, was to compete in the 2005 Mini Transat. On the Classe Mini's first come first served basis of qualification for the 2005 Mini Transat Hajnsek points out that competitors of theirs who's first race was the Mini Med have managed to get on Mini Transat entry list, while they are at present 13th and 15th on the waiting list. Judging from past experience it seems highly unlikely that they will get to be on the start line in September.

"We will try and persuade our sponsor not to cancel the project and to continue the program until 2007, to do that Transat," says Hajnsek. "This is an on-going problem for the Classe Mini. The number of participants has risen by 70% and they haven’t done anything different about increasing the number of places for the Transat. That was the problem for Nick [Bubb in 2003] and we are in the same position this season."

Mini participation is reaching almost epidemic proportions with several of the other major races in the circuit, including ones allowing a larger number of entries than the Mini, now being forced to open waiting lists. June's Mini Fastnet for example has 84 entries at present with 35 still on the waiting list - 119 entries potentially... The same is true of the Transgascogne.

For the Slovenians, they cannot get one of the five 'wild card' entry spots as they are only available to non-Europeans. Their other option is to try for a 'technical wildcard', a controversial move by Classe Mini where the first three boats measured for the first time this year and who get qualified, can earn a place. "That will raise a lot of bad karma," says Hajnsek within a class that usually anything but bad karma. "I was used to the IMS circuit which isn’t a very sporting environment. And then suddenly you come into the class Mini scene and everyone is working together like a big family. It helps working on the boats, borrowing tools, anything. It is one of the best things about the class."

Despite their lack of prospects in being able to compete in the Mini Transat, Kristian Hajnsek and Andraz Mihelin intend to campaign their Adria Mobil boats in all the other major Mini events this season.

[Since publishing this article the Classe Mini have released the latest entry list for the Mini Transat which shows that a surprisingly large number of boats have dropped out of the main list. The two Slovenian boats are now lying in fourth and sixth place from the top of the waiting list - a lot more promising]

More photos on the following pages...