Mini Transat attempt number two

Nikki Curwen has acquired a new Proto and is firing on all cylinders

Nikki Curwen is showing great resilience. Last year she had to go through an exasperating ordeal when she was stuck on the waiting list for the Mini Transat and, despite being poised and ready to go, was ultimately unable to race. Those who did make it obviously ended up being put through their own ordeals as severe weather resulted in the race first being postponed, then started and prematurely halted in northwest Spain. Eventually it restarted only after the crews had effectively been hanging around France and northern Spain for more than a month (to help resolve this, for the 2015 race there is discussion about trying to dodge the bad weather by holding the start earlier, but having a longer stopover in Lanzarote).

Undeterred by last year's experience, Nikki has intentions on the 2015 Mini Transat and has already embarked on her own campaign. Having sailed the Artemis Offshore Racing Pogo 2 last season, now having parted company from the Academy she has made the significant step of acquiring her own boat.

Following in the footsteps of her father Simon – still the highest placed British finisher in the Mini Transat after his second place in 2001 – Nikki has managed to acquire the best Proto her limited budget can stretch to. While her father bought the boat sailed in the 1999 race by Lionel Lemonchois (now skipper of Prince de Bretagne), Nikki has bought hull #741, which as Boréal Frenchman Remi Fermin has campaigned in last two Mini Transats.

Remi Fermin is a ‘proper’ Mini sailor in as much as, without any formal training, he designed his own boat and then built it under a tent in his garden. Fermin started construction in 2008. He subsequently competed in the 2011 Mini Transat. In this he sadly dismasted mid-Atlantic, but jury rigged and made it to the finish. But in the 2013 Mini Transat Fermin proved that his home designed and built boat works - Boréal came home third overall in the Proto class behind winner Benoit Marie and David Raison’s 2011 race winning scow, being sailed by Italian Giancarlo Pedote as Prysmian.

While the majority of Protos are fitted with a canting keel, #741 is not, relying on water ballast instead. “It will be a little bit slower reaching, because it has got the extra weight in the side, but we’ll see. Remi seems to think it matches the others quite well,” says Nikki.

Typically water ballast boats are thought to be slower in moderate reaching conditions than canting keelers, since to achieve the same righting moment they have to gain weight. However Nikki points out that Benoit Marie’s 2007-built Finot designed Proto which won the last Mini Transat used both a canting keel and water ballast...

Otherwise the boat has a full length chine and inevitably a very flat under belly, similar to other contemporary Proto designs.

Since acquiring her three weeks ago, the boat has been trailered across to the UK and is now in Hamble Yacht Services with her proud new owner, who hopes to take her yachting for the first time this week – weather permitting.

As to why she chose #741, Nikki explains: “It was the best boat I could get for the budget and still be competitive. It is very reliable and strong. It is simple and reliable - while others had to stop in Lanzarote [during the last Mini Transat], Remi didn’t have to stop. He had a few problems with the fuel cell, but other than that he didn’t break anything on the boat, which seems to be the key for the race now.”

From here the plan is to spend the spring getting to grips with the boat and training in the UK, where there is a growing cluster of Minis gunning for the 2015 Mini Transat. This is good news after the 2013 when there was one sole Brit in Pip Hare. Among the 2015 posse most notably is former pro-sailor Toby Iles who has acquired himself a state of the art Series class boat, the South American designed and built RG650, which he sails out of Lymington. There is also Tom Webb who has the Zero Series boat, Yellowfin, and Chichester-based Aussie Ben Rice who has one of the sliding, canting keel Rogers designs, #500, previously campaigned by Nick Bubb and then Andrew Wood.

Other former Artemis Offshore Academy Mini sailors like Nikki, Lizzie Foreman and Becci Scott, have also both got Series boats – Lizzie, a Pogo 2 and Becci a Nacira.

Nikki’s first proper Mini race will be the Lymington to La Trinite race start on around 4 May (the Notice of Race has yet to be published). This is being organised by former Mini competitor Keith Willis out of Lymington Town Sailing Club as the replacement for the Lymington to Plymouth race that Willis has run in previous years, as a feeder to the start of the UK Fastnet (which isn’t happening this year). The race is on the official Classe Mini schedule and as there no clashes, a heartier turn out of French Mini sailors is anticipated.

Once Nikki reaches La Trinite she will keep the boat in France and intends to take part in two new races in the Mini calendar due to take place out of La Trinité-sur-Mer in May – a 500 mile singlehander (the Mini en Mai – organised by past Mini Transat winner, Yves le Blevec) followed by the established ArMen Race, which the Minis are being allowed to take part in for the first time. In this they will race a 300 mile course doublehanded.

This will be followed by some Mini training with leading shorthanded offshore racing coach, Tanguy Leglatin out of Lorient. There are two other races on the calendar following this – the Trophee MAP and the Mini Fastnet, but Nikki is aiming for the ‘big event’ for the Minis this season – the Les Sables-Azores-Les Sables starting from the famous Vendee Globe pontoons on 20 July.

Unfortunately with a new boat, Nikki has to set out once again on the whole arduous qualification process for the next Mini Transat, but having acquired the boat so early in the two year cycle building up to next year''s race, she has given herself a good runway to achieve this. The aim will be to get the required 1,000 miles of solo sailing, plus the additional 1,000 race miles under her belt this season, so that her name is already on the list by the time Classe Mini publishes the all-important preliminary entry list for the 2015 Mini Transat at the Salon Nautique this December. She will have to sail her 1,000 mile qualifier, but once that is done and the Les Sables-Azores-Les Sables, she will have fulfilled the qualification requirements to get officially on to the Mini Transat entry list.

“I have to start from scratch again, but it is good practice,” she says. “You learn the most about the boat when you have to spend a week on it.”

After the Azores race, there are some races taking place in the south of Spain, but most likely, Nikki thinks at this stage, is that she will bring her boat back to the UK and will have it on display at Southampton Boat Show.

However, crucially, her campaign will depend on her fiscal situation. Nikki is on the hunt for some funding for her campaign. Last year in anticipation of being able to compete in the Mini Transat she lined up Pete Goss’ 2010 Route du Rhum sponsor DMS, with whom she is still in contact, but her campaign is crying out for a title sponsor...