It’s easy to overlook the influence of course selection on design. David Raison won the 2011 Mini Transat on his original scow no747 (see pg32) but the next edition went to a more conventional design when the course changed with less time spent reaching. Now the pendulum has swung back and this year’s top dog is Griffon (above) – designed by Raison as an evolution of his original race winner
now be able to adapt the trim of SodeboUltim according to the speed and the motion of the sea. It works just like the elevator on an aero- plane, allowing the skipper to trim his big trimaran how he likes. The modified Sodebo Ultim will launch later this month to begin
trials before the start in June of The Bridge, a race across the North Atlantic between other Ultims and the… Queen Mary 2.
Plus ça change And the same player shoots again. In March Charlie Dalin won the Solo Normandie, the first race of the Figaro circuit, and he won again at the Solo Concarneau the next month in a 37-boat fleet including such talents as Erwan Tabarly, Yann Eliès, Nicolas Lunven, Jérémie Beyou… and so on. ‘Last year I took my first victory on the solo circuit by winning that
same Concarneau Solo. I needed that to break my duck… since then there have been some other victories,’ laughed Charles. ‘The 2017 season has started well. Two races, two victories. But the Normandie was difficult because my start was poor – even on long solo races it is always very important to get a good start.’ Charlie has always lived around sailing boats and especially
around offshore racing. It was aged six, on holidays in Brittany, that the young guy originally from Le Havre discovered sailing. And the passion would not leave him alone. Racing first on 420s and then keel boats, Charles got his academic qualifications in France before going to Southampton to study naval architecture. He discovered the tides and wind shifts of the Solent before continuing his career in design offices in Thailand, Australia and Sweden… For the second year in a row Charlie is in charge of the Skipper
Macif entry in the Figaro (he won the tough selections for the job that every young sailor in France wants). But also for two years he has finished second in the Figaro Solitaire itself. Charlie must break another duck in July.
Scows rule the waves The Mini no865 Griffon sailed by Ian Lipinski and Sébastien Picault beat 50 other Mini 6.50s to win the first event of the season, a 150nm two-handed race out of Lorient. Séb Picault declared at the finish: ‘We stayed calm after a catastrophic start! The fact that we
know each other so well – and our boat – enabled us to keep concentrating and then really attack the leaders when they were slowed in light air ahead of us. But in those conditions we also have to work really hard on our boat; Griffon’s wide hull has a big wetted surface and it is not easy to make her go in light weather. After his beautiful victory on a production boat in the last Mini
Transat [2015] Ian [Lipinski] was able to acquire the last design of David Raison, who is of course very famous for drawing and building a scow Mini with a big nose as wide as the stern of the boat and… for winning the Mini Transat on that boat. Following his success, David was hired to draw an evolution of
his revolutionary prototype. Thus was born the Maximum(no865). Skippered by Davy Beaudart for the last two seasons, she won nearly every Mini race in 2015 – except for the Transat where he retired after winning the first leg. He then sold the boat to Ian Lipinski who has continued the
success story by winning many races in 2016. On 9 April 2017 in Lorient he showed that he is still the man to beat. He is without question the favourite to win the next Mini Transat. Patrice Carpentier
NEW ZEALAND As the days shorten and the nights close in, autumn sailing is upon us denizens of the southern hemisphere, but Brian Petersen’s enthusiasm to eke out as much action as possible is more obvious than most as he boards his yacht for Auckland’s Friday afternoon rum race. Preparations include stowing beer in the fridge while he reflects on an outstanding summer of racing with his 11-year-old Elliott 50 Ran Tan II. ‘The beers were part of my prize from the Jack Tar Regatta,’ he
says in reference to the most recent triumph.Ran Tantook handicap honours in the hotly contested 50ft class, which is mostly made up of TP52s. With its canting keel, Ran Tan II is not as nimble through the tacks
as her class rivals, so windward-leewards are not really her forté and the bigger boats were predictably quicker round the track. However, the Jack Tar event, Auckland’s biggest keelboat regatta, dished up a testing mix of light, drifting conditions on the first day, followed
SEAHORSE 15 w
CHRISTOPHE BRESCHI
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