Seven women Mini-ists

Solid female participation in this year's Mini Transat

32 years after the creation of the race, the 17th Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat 6.50, otherwise known as the Mini Transat, will start on Sunday 13 September 2009 and will see competitors racing their tiny 6.5m long Minis singlehanded from La Rochelle across the Atlantic and the Equator to the Brazilian port of Salvador de Bahia via a stopover in Funchal, Madeira.

One of our favourite events, the Mini has been the development test bed for huge innovations such as canting keel and the event has spawned many of the top solo offshore racing talent from Ellen MacArthur and Sam Davies and Brian Thompson to Isabelle Autissier, Thomas Coville, Michel Desjoyeaux, Lionel Lemonchois, Bruno Peyron, Bernard Stamm, etc.

This year among the 84 sailors, seven women will be participating. They are aged from 24 to 43 years, with different backgrounds and education and from several countries - four French, one Spanish, one German and one Brazilian. The common feature of these competitors is their love of the sea and a passion for sailing.

Sandrine Bertho ( Hamtaro), 40, a nurse, lives in La Trinité sur Mer has been sailing since her childhood: "I have always sailed, at first with my family, then as a member of the supervisory staff in a cruising school and in my first job into a boat rental firm." It was in Douarnenez in 1991 that she discovered the Mini when she participated as a volunteer in the organisation of the race that year. "I fell in love with the vessels,” she
recalls. Her best memory: "I arrived in the Azores in 2008, I was in 13th position in the Series category.” Her worst memory: "I don’t have any, just difficult moments sometimes but quickly transforming into a feeling of victory over myself so it can not be called a bad memory."

Anna Corbella ( Ulisses 65), 33, Spanish, and who lives in Barcelona, discovered the Mini class with a friend who was sailing on a Mini 6.50, before racing on bigger boats.

"When I experienced the Minis I immediately knew it was the perfect boat for me! Recently I qualified for the Charente-Maritime/Bahia 2009." Corbella went from race to race at the beginning of the season - the Pornichet Select, Mini Pavois, Mini Fastnet and Transgascogne. Her best memory: "I am full of good memories, I do not know which one is the best." Her worst memory: "In the last qualifying race there was big gusts of wind which caused a problem with the mast, added to exhaustion and cold ... I was not very happy at that time."

- Marine Feueurstein (C²O), 30, lives in Ecully (69), Management Control.
Tel.: +33 (0)6 15 20 34 21. "I have always sailed! That is to say 30 years..." Marine is a real fan, this will be his first Transat in September, a dream coming true. On the waiting list in 2007 she, in the end, could not leave "I lived according to the withdrawals and updates of the entry list. It was awful." In 2009, she will be on the starting line more motivated than ever.
Her best memory: "The first times: the first beginning, the first downwind leg, the first night, the first arrival, the first podium. In September it will be my first Transat 6.50."
Her worst memory: "The worst memories are those spent ashore, during the preparation difficulties. "

Cecile Hoffart ( Toud’suite), 24, is a student from Les Sables d'Olonne and the youngest woman to participate in this year's Mini Transat. In 1999, she was 14 years old when she participated in the Transgascogne with Arnaud Boissières. "A great souvenir" as she puts it now. Then in 2006 when she sailed the first Les Sables-Azores race it was “love at first sight”. From this moment, she was part of the vast family of Mini fans.

Her best memory: "The Trophée MAP 2007, my first single-handed race on a Mini. I finished second out of 49 boats, I had a lot of fun without any pressure." Her worst memory: "To go back and forth endlessly in front of another competitor’s boat who was waiting for rescue. I stayed near while he was winched up into a helicopter and I found myself alone again in the storm in the Bay of Biscay. Rough!"

Daniela Klein ( Jolly Roger), 40 s, OIT training program assistant, German but lives in Capri – Italy. Klein has always loved the sea. She began windsurfing when she was a child. "I started with a friend who founded the Mini Class in Italy and I bought my boat a few weeks before my first race in 2007." Her best memory: "To have won the Course des Lions" (the Mini race in the Mediterranean Her worst memory: "The worst is not at sea but on land at the time of preparation"

Izabel Pimentel, Petit Bateau, 43 years living in Rio de Janeiro, Systems Analyst. In 2006, Pimentel bought her first Proto mini in France in St Quay Portrieux and sailed it to Brazil via Portugal and the Cape Verdes. Petit Bateau will be the first Brazilian boat that has made a single-handed crossing of the Atlantic. In 2008, Pimentel built a Proto in Brazil and started again but headed back towards France this time ready for the Mini Transat.

Caroline Vieille ( Tamagoshi), 34, manager in a sail-making firm, lives La Trinité sur Mer. She is not a beginner in the Charente-Maritime / Bahia Transat 6.50. Vielle participated in 2003, but dismasted and was obliged to retire. She returns in 2009 with the aim of finishing the race. Her best memory: "I have plenty, including my first single-handed race, an incredible feeling.” Her worst: "Bad memories tend to fade quickly once you are back in a port. The dismasting during my first Mini Transat has long had a great effect on me. As if the sky fell on me head."