Mini 500 miler

Serious sailors to line up this Saturday for the next event in the Mini calendar, the Course des Lions

The Course des Lions two handed race for the Mini class sets sail this Saturday at 13.00 local time from Port Camargue in the south of France.

The 515 mile course will take the boats from Port Camargue along the coast to Cape d'Agde and then the 250 miles across the open sea to Ajaccio in northern Corsica and then back to the start port via the Porquerolle islands off Hyeres.

For many competitors the race will complete their qualifications for September's Mini Transat (cleverly the last race - the Odyssey of Ulysses was a few miles short of the necessary 1,000 required for qualification).

Interestingly this race is one of the most cosmopolitan to date in the Mini class with seven nationalities represented - aside from France there are competitors from Italy, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, USA and Nick Bubb and David Gown from the UK.

Another highly potent combination is 49er silver medallist and former OneWorld crew Jonathan McKee, sailing with Brian Thompson who raced this boat in the Mini Transat two years ago.

		Protos
	Sail no	Skipper	Crew	Nationality	Boat name	Type
1	102	Ghislain Gendron	Xavier Macaire	FRAFRA	VILLE DE BANDOL	Magnan 91
2	135	Stéphane Ayrault	Etienne Carra	FRA/FRA	GOUDURIX3	Finot-Conq 95
3	151	Armel Tripon	Erwan Leroux	FRA/FRA	MOULIN ROTY	Finot-Conq 95
4	203	David Gown	? Bellamy	GB/GB	SQUARE PEG	Gown 97
5	240	Angel Rojas	Alex Pella	ESP/ESP	ALEVI	Lombard 99
6	247	Jonathan McKee	Brian Thompson	USA/UK	TEAM MC LUBE	Roger 99
7	258	Marc Gascons	Christian Schmidt	FRA/FRA	TIP TOP	Manuard 99
8	346	Sébastien Roubinet	Michaël Auger	FRA	ADRENALINE	Manuard 01
9	352	Luis Irisarri	Jorge Fabre	ESP/ESP	DE VIAJE.COM	Finot-Conq 99
10	353	Willy Garcia	Victor De Juan	ESP/ESP	ZINGARO	Finot-Conq 01
11	354	Bruno Garcia	Toni Weifl	ESP/ESP	SALADINO	Finot-Conq 01
12	386	Tobias Hochreutener	Tom Horsfall	SUI/GB	TI WAI	Mergui 02
13	405	Caroline Vieille	Sébastien	FRA/FRA	OKOUME	Mistral 02
14	419	Nick Bubb	John Parker	GB/GB	NORTHERN COMPUTERS	Magnen-Nivelt 03
15	424	Tanguy De Lamotte	Rémi Aubrun	FRA/FRA	CHEEKYTA	De Lamotte 03
16	431	Samuel Manuard	Loïc Le Bras	FRA/FRA	TIP TOP TOO	Manuard 03
17	432	Yannick Cano	Nicolas Marchand	FRA/FRA	OC	Manuard 03
		Series
	Sail no	Skipper	Crew	Country	Boat name	Type
1	45	Jérôme Leonardon	Christophe Kellerhals	FRA/SUI	PETER PAN	Coco 88
2	212	Jean-Christophe Lagrange	Laurent Bourriquel	FRA/FRA	ZOUKATI	Pogo 98
3	216	David Pertuiset	Eric Vaysse	FRA/FRA	WAKATEPE	Pogo 98
4	274	Eric Abela	Hervé Jourde	FRA/FRA	TETE DE MULE	Super Calin 99
5	307	Hervé Pouliquen	Laurent Négrel	FRA/FRA	FIBERA	Pogo 00
6	330	Jean-Pierre Balmes	Nicolas Strube	FRA/FRA	CECIM	Pogo 01
7	389	Arezki Boudaoud	Bernard Morin	FRA/FRA	TOTEM	Super Calin 01
8	399	Jean-Luc Lemaitre	Jean-Marie Vidal	FRA/FRA	YANICANT	Super Calin 02