mini 6.5 sailboat plans

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The VG-Mini 6.5 2G

Project Detail

The Mini Transat Class is arguably experiencing the greatest growth in participation than any other performance sailing yacht class in the world today. The sailing fraternity universally recognizes this class as being the proving ground for young sailors with aspirations of racing around the world on Class 40s and IMOCA 60s. Technically speaking, these boats are extremely sophisticated with the protos pushing the envelope of development within the confines of a relatively unrestrictive and progressive open rule.

After a significant period of research and development, Van Gorkom Yacht Design is excited to be releasing their second generation VG-Mini 6.5 proto. This mini design is a phenomenal little boat and has the potential to dominate the competition and establish a whole new level of performance. All that, and it’s available as a kit-plan-package for the boat building enthusiast.

The all carbon fiber hull and deck incorporates the latest proven trends in hydrodynamics for this ilk of offshore racing boat. The canoe body has a full entrance angle in its forward sections (not quite a scow bow), and a gentle rocker fairing into a defined wide-body chine aft. This optimized configuration will give the boat a significant advantage in terms of raw power and its ability to perform well in a broad range of conditions.

The appendages consist of an 80 degree articulating fin and bulb, and port/stbd asymmetric dagger boards, and twin rudders. The versatility of this arrangement, plus the added water ballast, dramatically adds to the sailing stability and performance of the boat. The keel has a carbon fiber fin supporting a lead bulb. The dagger boards and rudders are also all carbon construction. A foiling version of the boat is presently under development.

The spar, rigging and deck hardware packages have been carefully selected with the latest philosophies in mind coming from today’s top Mini skippers. This kit is the perfect boat building project for the sailor who wants to put together a “from the ground up” performance sailing yacht and be highly competitive at the end of the day.

VGYD is selling the VG-Mini 6.5 2G basic kit-plan-package for US$4,250. See Kit Plans for details.

Yachting World

• Digital Edition

Extraordinary boats: The Sam Manuard foiling mini 6.50

• Rupert Holmes
• May 31, 2023

Xucia is Mini 6.50 #1081, a radical Sam Manuad foiling mini and hydrofoiling iteration of the popular single-handed class. Rupert Holmes looks at the accelerating pace of change in the Mini 6.50s

The past few years have seen an explosion of activity in the Mini 6.50 class, with qualifying races for the iconic Mini Transat race oversubscribed by up to 100% and two-year waiting lists for new Series-built boats.

Yet the front of the fleet is no longer an economic place to go racing. Typical fully equipped prices for new Series builds are around €150,000, while the bill for new one-off Protos is well over double that figure, reflecting the costs of full carbon one-off boats that incorporate build knowledge gained from America’s Cup campaigns, plus in some cases the enormous cost of foils.

Innovation hotbed

Historically the class has been a hotbed of innovation. It’s here that twin rudder designs and canting keels were first refined and proven to be reliable, even if some of the latter initially had problems when scaled up to much larger yachts. However, for the past few years almost all new development has been in the lower-powered Series fleet, where scow bows have been the norm for several years.

In contrast to the IMOCA 60 fleet, foiling designs have so far been slow to take off, but that’s changing rapidly. This year sees nine new Proto boats set to be launched, many of which push the boundaries of yacht design.

Carlos Manera’s Xucia is designed to be a low-riding foiler with the transom just maintaining contact with the water. Photo: James Tomlinson

Unlike foiling IMOCA 60s, Minis are allowed T-foils on their rudders, which opens up the prospect for a full flying boat. This was the approach taken by the early foiling Minis, including Seair’s David Raison-designed #747 in 2017 – the first-ever flying offshore monohull – and the Verdier-designed Pogo Foiler that launched in 2019.

When I visited Lorient-based Seair back in 2018 development engineer Hugo Feydit told me they were seeing speed advantages of up to 30% compared to the Archimedes Protos of the time. This boat was originally intended as a proof of concept, so it was judged imprudent to build both foils at the outset, in case testing showed a different foil shape was needed and as a result it could only foil on starboard tack. Funding was not forthcoming to build the other foil, which means the boat never raced so direct comparisons with the fleet could not be made.

However, the Pogo Foiler is a different matter. Although Covid forced a break in his early racing schedule, Tanguy Bouroullec, skipper of the first boat, produced some stunning results in 2021, winning the first two races of the season. However, he’s yet to convert the boat’s obvious potential into a Mini Transat win. Although his is a full-flying boat, Bouroullec is very conscious of avoiding heavy splashdowns and when I sailed with him a couple of years ago we kept the leeward corner of the transom just in contact with the water. Nevertheless, it was an exhilarating ride, with boat speed hovering around 17-18 knots for extended periods in 18-20 knots of true wind.

With retracted C-foils. Photo: James Tomlinson

Low riding option

One of the most recent of the new boats is Xucia , sail #1081, a Sam Manuard design for young Spanish skipper Carlos Manera that’s been professionally built at the Sinergia Racing Group’s yard in Cartagena. Manera says he and Manuard shared a similar vision and philosophy for a low-riding foiling boat with retractable C-foils that would offer a significant speed boost in medium and strong winds, without being at a disadvantage in light airs.

This is notably a different philosophy to that of another new Manuard design, Caroline Boule’s #1067 Nicomatic (aka Bill), which is a full flying boat. It was launched last year, but foils weren’t fitted until autumn 2022, so we can’t infer anything from race results to date. A full-on flying Mini is arguably still a risky strategy, but it’s one that Boule, a Franco-Polish nuclear engineer with a background in team racing and foiling Moths, is well placed to capitalise on.

In the past Mini sailors were renowned for getting their hands dirty building their boats, but the popularity of series designs means that’s far less common today. Instead the focus is on maximising time afloat, honing skills and gathering data. Bucking the trend, both Carlos and his sister, Elena, helped hands-on with the build of Xucia , spending six months at the yard. “Some bulkheads and many of the smaller parts were done only by me,” he says, “and we have been learning from the professional team at the yard all the time.”

A clearer view of the C-Foils deployed. Photo: James Tomlinson

Although the boat is a one-off, all tooling was made using CNC moulds – believed to be the first time for a Proto Mini 6.50. “We used the same technology as INEOS Britannia and other America’s Cup teams,” says Manera. Close attention to detail during the build means the boat came out a little lighter than expected, despite the additional weight of the foils and associated structural reinforcement compared to a conventional design.

Clear vision

Manera, who completed the last Mini Transat in an 11-year-old Series boat, started this project with a crystal clear vision of what he believes to be necessary for such a tiny foiling boat to perform reliably in an oceanic race. His overriding priority is avoiding the big loss of speed, and decelerations that can be damaging to both boat and skipper, when a boat suddenly drops off the foils. Instead, his boat is not intended to fly high and the transom will always be in touch with the water. The foils therefore help increase righting moment and reduce wetted surface area to an absolute minimum.

“The main idea was not to fly,” he told me. “Sam Manuard originally proposed the same design as Caroline’s boat to me, but I turned it down because I don’t want to fly. The reality at the moment is we are too far away from being able to cross big waves in hard conditions and stay flying. Maybe it can be achieved in the future, but I don’t believe it’s possible right now.

Gooseneck, boom and mainsail are all designed to boost end-plate effect to maximise the power that can be derived from the bottom of the sail. Photo: James Tomlinson

“The human factor means we need to be relaxed and need to have constant good mental strength. When you are full flying, it’s difficult to rest, it’s really difficult to keep the trim right, and it’s really stressful for you and the boat.”

Xucia therefore has relatively small retractable C-foils that boost righting moment, while producing a bows up attitude. This reduces the propensity for the boat to nose-dive into a wave, giving a smoother ride, while the extreme scow bow shape offers a lot of reserve buoyancy if the boat does splash down.

Manera says this means good control of the boat is maintained all the time: “You are not flying, so the autopilot can manage and you can rest, because the boat doesn’t smash into waves, it just passes over them.”

The now-standard scow bow shape provides both form stability and reserve buoyancy forward. Photo: James Tomlinson

Getting the bows well up also reduces wetted surface area by up to 80%, which creates a massive speed boost compared to conventional boats. When the C-foils aren’t needed in light airs they can be retracted clear of the water – a big gain compared to the big foils of flying boats whose drag can never be eliminated.

High averages

I first spoke to Manera four weeks after the boat was launched, during which time he’d been training in mostly light to moderate winds of up to 20 knots. “The feel of the boat is really, really good,” he says, “and it has the behaviour we wanted from the design, with a very soft ride on the foils and no big bursts of speed. But what’s really interesting is the speed is always very constant. That was the main goal – to maximise the average speed, not peak speeds.”

He also reports the boat is “really balanced and smooth” and that the pilot – currently an NKE GyroPilot 3 while waiting for the HD version to be available – works really well.

In lighter airs the C-foil (left) can be retracted, to sail with canting keel and twin daggerboards. Photo: James Tomlinson

Key priorities before the first Classe Mini races this season are to continue testing to build a full set of data that will identify the fastest mode in all conditions. Despite their diminutive size these are complex boats, with a myriad of sail plan permutations and many options for fine tuning the foil settings, so this is far from a trivial task.

Accurate instrument calibration, for instance, is critical for a good pilot response and to build the data needed for sail selection. Given the complexities of measuring variables such as upwash angles at the top of the rig over a full range of wind speeds and angles, this takes a huge amount of effort at the highest levels of racing. So for most, perfect calibration is a distant goal you’re always working towards.

It’s even more complex for foiling vessels, whose boat speed sensor – one of the four critical components needed to calculate true wind speeds and angles – regularly lifts out of the water. This whole area is one that Feydit told me was “a huge challenge that required a vast amount of work” for the Seair boat.

Slick twin-winch layout saves weight and borrows cockpit ideas from IMOCAs and Class 40s. Photo: James Tomlinson

Manera has only limited time to achieve this before the first races in the Atlantic season, starting with the 250-mile two-handed Plastimo Lorient Mini race, in which he will compete with Elena as co-skipper, just after this issue goes to press. While others are struggling to get a place on this autumn’s Mini Transat (starting September) Manera has already secured one of three spots reserved for boats measured for the first time during the year of the race.

Xucia is not the only entry with C-foils in this year’s Mini Transat. Geoffrey Morel’s #945 Tartine , a Marc Lombard design from 2018, was designed at the outset to be retrofitted with foils. However neither of her first two skippers, Axel Tréhin and Fabio Muzzolini – who finished 2nd in the last Mini Transat, took the plunge. The boat’s new C-foils have a very large chord measurement and again provide plenty of stability while also lifting the hull just above the water.

Given the two different schools of thought among foiling boats – full flying or low-riding – plus five new non-foiling Protos from the same mould as the winner of the last two Mini Transats, it will be interesting to compare their respective performance both in the shorter races this year and in the Mini Transat. The history of the Mini class tells us the outcome of the battle between the different styles of foiling boats and the latest Archimedes designs will have big ramifications for future developments in the wider offshore racing world.

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Team 6-5 Mini Transat 6.5m

Our first design in this most challenging of classes.

Our 6.5m Classe Mini design for two experienced UK sailors was ahead of the curve when they were launched in 1998. Compared to the then predominant Finot designs numbers 241 and 242 took a number of important steps forward including wider more powerful aft sections and a swept spreader rig further aft for better offwind performance, all of which was reflected in their status as perhaps the quickest Mini’s offwind in a breeze. The main features reflect the development of the modern Proto Mini: the canting keel, twin daggerboards and rudders, 3 spreader swept rig, a compression vang. The excellent deck shape and layout refined by Team 6-5 iwas very successful, while the all-carbon engineering and structural arrangements saw them through a 10 knot collision with a containership and a 360 rollover in the Bay of Biscay without major damage.

After the success of the aggressively powerful Team 6-5 Minis in the breezy offwind conditions they were designed for, it became clear that a finer more all-around hullshape would be required to perform in the light upwind conditions which seemed to be predominating, for example in the second leg of the revised Mini Transat course to Brazil. By adding more rocker we could accommodate the larger displacement of a fully laden race-ready Mini better, and that hullform would give us more flexibility in fore-and-aft trim for different conditions.

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Wevo 6.50 mini class

€57,500

VAT included

• Reference ID 668
• Builder Wevo
• Model Mini 6.50
• Skyron: Oris D’Obaldo
• Location Italy
• L.O.A. (mtr) 6.50
• Beam (mtr) 3.00
• Draft (mtr) 1.60
• Displacement (Kg) 910
• Material Composite

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Yacht description.

Wevo 6.5 is designed by architect Oris D’Obaldo and his office Skyron and built by Cima Boats in Grosseto, Italy.

The boat was launched in 8th December 2018 and the owner sailed over 8000 miles with the boat.

About the Wevo 6.5

The Wevo has a round bow, the volume of which lies between that of a Pogo 3 and a Maxi. Everything is designed for absolute weight optimization. The individual parts are manufactured using an infusion process. This makes the structure lighter and at the same time improves its stiffness. She is an innovative boat in shape and materials, ready for ocean sailing in the Mini 6.50 Class 

26 mq – Gennaker 37,5 mq – Code 5 79 mq – Spinnaker Maxi 60 mq – Spinnaker medio 4 mq – Storm jib 25 mq – Main sail 19,5 mq – Jib

• Facnor furler fx for the Code0
• Running rigging Gottifredi Maffioli
• Main sail with 3 reef, owner: reasonable/ used condition
• Code 0, owner: reasonable/ used condition
• Solent with 1 reef, owner: reasonable/ used condition
• Medium gennaker with 1 reef, owner in perfect condition
• Code5 in perfect condition
• Storm sail with one reef in perfect condition
• Large gennaker 70 m2, owner: used condition but for training is ok. 

Deck and Cockpit

• stoppers Constrictor  
• winches Antal
• 4 Solbian solar panels for total 300 watt, 2 panels fo 100watt each one + 2 panel of 50wat each one
• 2 lithium batteries 12V, totalling 200 Ah
• liferaft Iso9650-1  Eurovinil for 4 persons
• all the security equipment for the race Mini class
• 2 bilge pumps

Electronics and Navigational Gear

B&G Hercules 5000

• speed, wind, depth
• Ais transceiver
• Vhf handheld
• remote controller
• vhf bluetooth 
• Hand bearing compass
• Engine bracket
• Anchor 6kg alu

The Company offers the details of this vessel in good faith but cannot guarantee or warrant the accuracy of this information nor warrant the condition of the vessel. A buyer should instruct his agents, or his surveyors, to investigate such details as the buyer desires validated. This vessel is offered subject to prior sale, price change, or withdrawal without notice.

Contact Details

• Name Site Broker | Racing-Yachts.com
• Email [email protected]
• Phone 1234567
• Instagram -

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• Beam (mtr): 4.00
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• Horsepower: 20 hp

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Looking for a Mini 6.50, but new ones are crazy expensive and the used ones are in terrible condition?

Today a new wevo 6.50, ready to sail, with full sails and rigging can be yours for an incredible price. 40-hour setup with a professional skipper included..

Aren't you tired of waiting for someone to board you or sitting on land and watching others sail?

Imagine you have your own boat and start training with your first outings where you get familiar with your boat...

• A boatyard fresh Mini 6.50. Ready to sail with full sails and top deck equipment.
• An Italian boatyard that succeeds in treating each of its customers as if they were the only one, thanks to its small numbers.
• A 40-hour course with one of Italy's top Mini skippers to trim your boat and give you all the tips you need to tackle your first regattas.

An all-new Mini ready to sail for the price of a good used one

This is why the Wevo 6.5 by Cima Boats will make your sailing life better!

An all-new mini 6.50: ready and all for you.

The same project that in 2021 was #1 in the Italian ranking and #1 in the Italian Championship . The Mini that, with Matteo Sericano at the helm, won the Italian GP in 2020 and 2021 and the Archipelago 6.50 in 2021 and 2022 .

OK, we know what you're thinking, "...but 1011 is a Proto and for me it's even too much, I have to start racing in Series...". Actually, Matteo's Mini is a series boat, entered in the Proto only at the specific request of Matteo Sericano in the Mini 6.50 Class.

However, think about the other aspect that you can read from Matteo Sericano's results: a boat that manages to come first in the Proto class, what it can do racing with other series Mini's and how much satisfaction it could give you...

Choose a boatyard near you that follows you step by step from day one! Can you imagine the difference between being just one of our customers and one of our skippers?

We talk to Mini owners every day, we know what it means to order a new Mini today.

• At least a year's wait before seeing the boat delivered.
• Budget approaching €120,000, assuming you are willing and able to invest in your first boat.
• Set-up issues to deal with ("Who do I ask for trimming?!...")
• The sails, the on-board electronics, the deck equipment... all issues to be tackled.
• Turning to a foreign manufacturer can be troublesome. Maybe not so much because of the language, but certainly because of the distance.
• You often have to deal with large companies, where customer service is detached from those who will then work on the boat and where you are just a customer and not the owner of one of their Minis.

Yet this time you can make your dream come true with only a two-month wait for delivery .

A unique chance as there are only two boats like this.

For the construction of the last two Wevo 6.5s to obtain Series tonnage, the Cima Boats shipyard is offering you the WEVO Last Call initiative.

Below is what you get with one of the two Wevo 6.5s in the Wevo Last Call offer:

• A Mini Wevo 6.5 built according to the rules of the MINI SERIES CLASS.
• Moulded hull with outer layer/3dcore/inner layer in isophthalic-neopentilic polyester resin.
• Deck moulded with outer layer/3dcore pvc/inner layer in isophthalic-neopentilic polyester resin.
• New cast iron keel laminated externally in GRP, plus new lead bulb, redesigned in geometry and weight distribution. The Wevo's first keel weighed 225 kg, the current one 90 kg; the bulb used to date weighed 230 kg and the current one 300 kg. This means a boat that is 65 kg lighter (about 6 per cent of the total) and with a further improved displacement/ballast ratio. Ah, before you ask: so as not to create problems for the series, the other 9 Wevo 6.5s are also being upgraded so that they are all identical boats.
• Rudders, with new pintles and gudgeons, redesigned and CNC milled from aisi 316 steel billet.
• New 90 mm longer mast, boom repositioned 90 mm lower. The new design of the immersed appendages has allowed us to make the boat more sailable and therefore more powerful. You have more 'horsepower' at your disposal and your performance grows accordingly.
• Standard equipment also includes improved bowsprit, outrigger, forestay and rigging. The attachment of the D1 diagonal shrouds has been modified and taken to the deckhouse to close in more on the headsail and further improve the upwind angle.
• Deck equipment also includes 3 winches, 5 halyard stoppers plus 2 spi boom stoppers and 2 more stoppers for the staysail. And then rings, blocks, etc.
• Sails to start going out right away with: solent, mainsail and tails 5.
• All the on-board rigging, halyards, sheets, booms and rigging in general supplied by ARMARE Ropes, one of Italy's best-known and most successful manufacturers.
• The electrical system already installed, with switchboard, masthead and interior lights included.
• Stickers for the number on the hull and the number on the spray-painted deck.
• Hull already prepared with hard matrix antifouling or self-polishing, if preferred.

Let yourself be pampered by the shipyard and be treated like a top skipper!

CHOOSE A MINI BUILT BY A SMALL SHIPYARD

We at Cima Boats are still a small company that treats you as if you were the spearhead of our team.

Unlike the big boatyards that reserve their attention for the most successful skippers and for whom you are just one of many customers, we have every interest in having you grow with us!

That is why we are always available to respond to your needs and doubts. Even on the phone, ready to give you advice and suggest solutions to solve all your needs. With the undoubted advantage of being close to home: our headquarters is in Tuscany, in Grosseto, just two hours from Florence and one and half from Pisa airport.

Harshless launch and set up!

Launch in Marina di Grosseto or Castiglione della Pescaia, your choice: the offer already includes transport and preparation, including mast and keel assembly and launch. If, on the other hand, you wish to launch in another port, there is no problem: we can provide the transport service at an exceptional price.

To make sure you don't miss out on anything, we offer you, already included in the sale price, the essential rigging work to have the rigging perfectly adapted to your boat, an undertaking that a renowned professional would value at least € 2,000.

With the WEVO LAST CALL initiative, the Wevo 6.5 is yours instead of €68,800, at the incredible price of €49,900!!!

This is because we want to make the Wevo 6.5 standard and we need the last two to be built. Hurry up, there are only two boats and the offer is only valid until 31 December 2022

For orders placed before 31 December 2022, the benefits continue

The purchase price includes

A top skipper of your choice available for 40 hours to trim your boat

An essential 5-day training course with an experienced skipper. For 40 hours he will give you all the tips for setting up your Wevo 6.5 and you can use his expertise to gain a wealth of experience in solo and Mini 6.50 racing.

You choose who you want to help you get better and better. You can point to one of the most important skippers in the recent history of Italian sailing such as, for example, Andrea Caracci (4 completed Mini Transats) or Francesco Renella (one MiniTransat to his credit) or many others. This bonus alone is worth € 2500.

A complete check-up of the boat after setup

To give you the Mini perfectly set up and ready for your first regattas with the best chance of doing well, a check-up of the boat will be carried out at the end of the 5-day course for possible settings and repairs.

The price will go up and so will the value of your boat

This offer also has another pro: when the Wevo 6.5 comes standard, the selling prices will be quite different, which means that not only will it cost more to buy a boat like yours, but this will also drive up the price of second-hand boats, increasing the value of your boat.

10-year warranty

To ensure your peace of mind at all times without having to worry about the health of your boat, we offer not one, not two, not three, but 10 years of warranty so that you can rest assured that your boat will retain its value and perfect condition for a long time. Service available throughout Europe.

The Wevo Last Call offer includes:

• Hull built with vacuum infusion, ready to sail - 44,850€
• Deck equipment with blocks, winches and stoppers - 4,750€
• A Electrical system - 1,500€
• Three sails: mainsail, solent and code 5 - 6,700€
• Hull and deck number stickers - 700€
• Antifouling treatment - 1,100€
• Rigging kit Armare Ropes : 5 halyards, jib sheets, spi sheets and booms, mainsail sheet, high and low flyers and various other ropes - 2.350€
• Shipyard-launch transport - 800 €
• Launching, keel mounting and masting - 1,550€
• Rigging - 2,000€
• 5-day starter course with experienced skipper - 2,500€

The total value of the Wevo 6.5 with all these accessories and services is 68,800€ only for one of the two units in the WEVO Last Call offer

For orders by 31 December 2022 it can be yours for 49,900€!!!

*All the prices are displayed excluding taxes

Call now, send a Whatsapp message to +39 329 6636999, or send an e-mail to [email protected] and start marking your calendar now: «-60 days to the launch of my Mini».

The alternative is to wait for someone to take you aboard their Mini, waiting to find the same old -and tired- boat at an even higher price.

Or you can always stay ashore and watch other Mini racing...

Here is what people who have already taken the Wevo 6.5 think

Matthieu Faivre

Skipper 983 - innovafeed.

I bought a Wevo 6.5 because it is very good value for money and it is readily available, without absurd delays in supplies. The design is an interesting middle ground between a P3 and a maxi, it is more comfortable and sturdy than other boats and offers interesting performance.

Elisabetta Maffei

Skipper 949 - 25 nodi.

I find it to be a very robust boat, you can really feel it from the hull while you are sailing!

It's spacious despite being a Mini 6.50, it's fast, we surf at 15nodes of stable speed with 20-22nodes of wind, we peaked at 18nodes of top speed!!!

Very stable and easy to sail

Marco Anzolin

Skipper 1045 - mazykeen.

I had the opportunity to meet Iris, a fantastic person, who followed me step by step on how to rig it, passing on her experience and giving me advice. The after-sales service was invaluable; even after delivery she followed me, helping me and giving me support! From this you can tell how much passion she put into this boat!

Wevo Last Call

Leave your details and you will be contacted within 48 hours to give you a chance to reserve one of the two wevo 6.5s under construction.

Vector 6.5 Mini Racer

• October 5th, 2022

Upon seeing the apparently brand new boat, I immediately took out my cell phone and called a number: “Could this be your new boat?”, I asked the guy at the other end. “Yepp, she is it!”, confirmed the voice of a young man. If I´d see it to make an article, I went on asking. No problem, assured the man and a day later – sunny sky with dramatic autumn clouds – we met in person. The guy is Hendrick Decker, a tall, blond, energetic, always brightly smiling young lad – the prototype of a surfer´s guys, I shall say.

His new boat: A Vector Mini 6.50 racer. Brand new, freshly imported from the yard and parked at the marina , by chance, right next to GEKKO. I was there to fix her on the trailer to make her transport-ready for getting her ack to our yard for completing the last tasks before finally handing her over to her new owners. How lucky am I, have I thought, having this brand new racing boat right next to me. Happy that Hendrick found some time to show me around, I was keen on inspecting how a Classe Mini 6.50 racing boat arrives when newly built.

The Scow-bowed Mini racer

The Vector 6.5 is the latest generation series production Classe Mini 6.50 racer. The boat has been designed by Frenchman Etienne Bertrand in 2017, entering that year´s edition of the Mini Transat race as a prototype, finishing off at an impressive second place. The boat displays latest downwind running optimized hull with an impressive scow bow.

Hendrick smiles brightly as he places a half-emptied bottle of Coce on the trailer: “Yesterday´s regatta celebration went a bit off …”, he smiled half excusatory: “45 knots of wind and a 3 meter wave, it was fun.” Hendrick is a thoroughbred racer. Sailing since he was a small kid, his father´s big cruising boat in a yard´s shed just a few hundred meters away. Hendrick sails races since ever, his old boat, PLAYGIRL, being a used Vector Mini racer, sold months ago: “I am happy to having finally received the new boat”, he reveals: PLAYGIRL 2 is about to be re-located to a shed he rented nearby for finishing.

As a Class Mini boat, the box rule of the class dictate measurements and appearance: At 21 feet length the boat must have a minimum freeboard of .75 centimeters and a maximum draft of 2 meters. The rule also dictates, that the mast could not be taller than 12 meters.

Deep down, still strapped to the improvised trailer, lies the keel. That’s a solid piece of metal: Cast iron fin and a lead T-bulb. Hendrick smiles as I touch the keel: “I am wondering of switching from series boat to prototype”, Hendrick says: “There´s much more possible on these boats, like a canting keel for example.”

Improvements for planning

Nevertheless, even with “only” a series production boat, his new vector 6.5 Mini has some nice improvements over his past boat . He shows a little but interesting detail: The trailing edges of his rudder blades still not “tuned” (like I did on my own boat , he points to a small fin.

This is new, for example, in this latest version. When planning, it´s the front side of the rudder blade right here where it cuts into the water, where a small wave is created. This wave constantly grabs a firm hold onto the boat´s stern, thus creating some drag that costs speed.

The designer of this boat came up with a small horizontal insert that kind of separates the wet downside of the blades from the stern and is meant to divert the water coming up from the blade to shoot away aft. I find this detail is a great example of what we are talking about here: A serious racing machine meant to wind races. In total, what might be the real net gain of having those small “breaker fins” versus not having them? A hundredth of a knot? But it is the sum of all improvements, every gram spared, every bit of drag reduced, tat makes the difference over hundreds of miles sailed – and hence, the win. Or the loss.

A little big boat

Hendrik climbs on the trailer and into the boat´s cockpit, I follow. The boat is a “Mini” in the closest sense of the word indeed. Six and a half meters is pretty short. Nevertheless, the cockpit itself does not feel all too small, I shall say.

With a width of three meters the Mini is half a meter wider than my old First 27 SE which had a beam of 2.54 m. Even her cockpit felt nice and roomy. I look to the bow and contemplate the enormous area the boat´s deck covers: Since it is a scow bow-boat, it bears much more volume than, let´s say a comparable J-Boat that is much thinner.

In essence, the Classe Mini-boats is a pure downwind-optimized class. These racing machines are meant to easily take off and start planning mode very early. Upwind sailing capabilities, Hendrik confirms this, are “pretty adventurous”, as he names it. I shall say, these boats are made for reaching points of sail and those alone. Like a giant surf board made to glide above the water.

The hull including mast, standing and running rigging, is around 50.000 Euros ex VAT. This is a surprisingly low price, I wonder, since the boat is made with infusion technology and 3D core foam. High tech materials and production methods. Yet, Hendrik needs at least the same budget again to be spent on sails, deck gear and financing his Mini Transat campaign: “I work hard for coming up with all the money, but a sponsor taking on at least a part, naturally, would be great of course!”

Totally costumizeble

And such a future sponsor will get a pretty darn good skipper: Hendrik is a keen regatta sailor and – at least for the Baltic Sea, there is seldom a race he misses. “We will see”, he says and shoots out a winning smile: “There´s plenty of time. I am going to customize the boat to my needs over winter. For that, I´ve rented a shed where the boat will be transferred to.” Hendrik places himself on the port side at the helm.

The Vector 6.5 can be bought ”naked”. Skilled boat builders and sailors like Hendrik can now decide where to put the winches, where to put the cleats and all gear. In this, the boat can be tailor-fit to the needs of the skipper´s very own body. Again, how much time can be saved by a winch that does not require to change seating position when working on the lever? A thousandth of a second? Yet, how many times over does a skipper have to fine trim the sails … multiplied by the thousands of miles in a Mini Transat race. A lot of gain.

The boat will receive a central winch on the dodger and two Genoa-winches on the coaming. The mainsheet traveler has already been mounted by the yard, but according to the wishes of Hendrik. “On the old boat the traveler was positioned right in front of the entryway down, which was always a hustle having to go around the mainsheet when working the piano, now it´s much better.” Again, these subtle changes adding to the formula of winning a race or not.

Series boat versus prototype

“Still, a prototype would be even cooler”, he says. Why?, I ask: Just having a carbon made boat won´t make so much difference, or will it? “Well, just being admitted into the starting field with a series boat is a gamble. There are much more applicants than places. With a prototype, your starting place is almost safe”, Hendrik says. Secondly, he explains, the carbon-made Mini 6.5 is much light which directly translates into speed.

“Plus”, he says with a glow in his eyes, you can play around with many much, much cooler things: “Like you get a taller mast, ergo more sails area. Like the canting keel, which give you more power on the tougher points of sails. Or just take the whole topic of foils: This is something I would find absolutely amazing to have a foiling Mini!” He opens the entry to the boat´s interior and invites me to check it out.

Welcome to the inside

The Vector 6.5 comes with a slightly overhang dodger that also has a mini-wave breaker. “This is also new in regard to the former version. I hope that the amount of spray water in foul weather is at least reduced”, he smiles: I know very well by myself how nasty even the tiny Baltic Sea can get at times …

My first look into the inners of the Vector 6.5 is accompanied by a “Wooow!” The boat is just huge! And here I can clearly see what the huge deck area promised: The volume created inside is just amazing. The “saloon”, if one could call it this way, is even bigger than the counterpart on my old First 27 SE. The nice yellow-ish light that shines through the 3D-foam core creates a wonderful atmosphere. No need for any Top Coat-paint.

The Vector 6.5 has three watertight foam-filled chambers which, if the boat flips, gets struck by a reef or has a leak . “It shall swim safely on the water even when filled to the brim by the Ocean.”, he smiles. I love the forward compartment of the boat, directly in the bow: The scow-bow allows for huge volume underneath – I´d say any King-size bed in hotel rooms could hardly be offering more area.

Hendrik shows some of the parts he bought: “I decided to get me some cool stuff, like those constrictor-clutches. They are not only cool looking but also much more kind to the material.” Hi plan is to relocate the boat in the coming weeks to start working over winter: Having her clear and ready to begin his regatta-season in 2023 on spot.

Hendrik´s fundraising campaign

“Still a long way to go”, say Hendrik who is well aware of the current situation: With a looming recession and news of crisis everywhere, inflation like a bad vortex beginning to pull more and more companies in, raising a budget to support his way to the Mini Transat gets even harder. “But I am confident that I can come up with a solution here.” He smiles. There´s no turning back, the boat is bought and for Hendrik it´s not if but how he will hoist his sails next year.

This cool young dedicated man! We say Goodbye and whilst we shake hands Hendrik promises me to take me with him in his brand new PLAYGIRL 2 when ready to sail next spring. Hoping that he will find a way to raise the budget needed to support his dreams of competing at Mini Transat, we part. I drive away and see him climbing onto his boat again in my driving mirror: Surely, he is going to work for an hour or two on his boat to fit some parts. How cool must it be to be young again, I think to myself, and being so close to make a dream come true !

Classe Mini 650: Here is some more fuel for you:

PLAYGIRL : Hendrik Decker´s fast Mini racer

Endgame Mini Transat: Lisa Berger sets full canvas to her dream

Lizzy Foreman on the Mini Transat race

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Sailing coaching, consulting and instruction, crew training, sailing systems & techniques for solving sailing's challenges. call coop at 401-965-6006, building a mini, the diy option.

This essay is an updated version of a story I wrote about my Mini in about 2001 for a European website dedicated to Mini 650’s. Thus some of the references to races, ideas and people must  then be taken in view of this history.

Cooper’s Mini-Alongside the docks at Sail Newport, Summer 2002

NB the images of American Express are courtesy of Marco Romanelli who owned the boat in the early 2000’s and with whom I corresponded for a time. The rest are mine or my long time shipmate and photographer, Don Miller www.donmillerphotography.com

Moving the hull skin from Tom’s shed outside. Me on the left, Tom on the right, Buster the dog’s head on the bottom. Sometime in the summer 1994

I have known about the Mini-Transat, around the edge of my sensibilities, for a long time, but I first became closely aware of the boats in 1991 while working as crew on a yacht in the south of France. There was a copy of “Voile & Voiliers” a sailing magazine, prominent in French sailing circles on board and there was a very thorough coverage of the boats, the class, and the idea behind the race, because in those days it was just one race. Well I was really excited by the idea of it all. A solo ocean race in a small boat that would be cheap and manageable, self-built if necessary, no crew worries, at least not in the crew-gathering department, no big expense for tricky electronics etc.  With basically nothing in the way of instruments and not much in the way of rules this was an ocean race I was attracted to. Particularly in this last aspect for a couple of reasons. I had always been attracted to and followed the solo events and the participants like Chay Blythe, Chichester, Knox -Johnson, Moitessier and then the O.S.T.A.R., BOC etc. I would always be asking myself what I would do if I were in the position the skipper’s in these races would frequently find themselves in. I was attracted to the idea of the Mini-Transat because it offered the opportunity to test one’s seamanship skill in action instead of in the armchair.  I thought it would allow me to put into practice all the (great ?) ideas I had accumulated over the years of sailing with a view to seeing just how clever I was. In April of 1992 I left the job on the yacht and returned to the U.S .to work on my plan.

Design, Concept & Drawings A good friend in San Francisco suggested I talk to Tom Wylie about designing my 650. I knew of Tom’s reputation because Tom had designed American Express, the boat that won the 1979 race hands down. (It is possible Tom Wylie is the only designer to win this race who is not French, but I may be wrong.) Tom and I had several long phone conversations (he was in California, I was in New York) where we spoke in rather general terms about simplicity, economy, and such factors as strength vs. weight as a function of cost and time. My brief to him was for a boat that would be strong, simple, easy to sail and good in all conditions. I wanted an all-around boat with no condition where I would say, “Oh **** I am really slow.” The boat has borne out these characteristics in every way. After the second call I sent him some money and in about two weeks I got a hull profile and a deck plan, in reasonable detail but not 100% done. My immediate reaction was that he had done very well putting down on paper what I had in my head. I thought that we were very much on the same wavelength. We had another couple of talks adjusting a couple of small things, back came a revised drawing and that became the boat I built. As can perhaps be seen from the pictures, this boat is quite different from the “standard” French design. Remember it was designed in 19923 before all the new hull Box Rules were implemented. In fact it was Grandfathered in Jan 1995. It is distinctive in narrow beam and low freeboard.

The boat reflects ideas that Tom and I agreed on early in the planning, as explained below.

Heading east across the Rockies on I-80 about Thanksgiving 1994

Point 1: A basic boat should not have a high beam to length ratio. (current minis are 6.5m long and 3m wide) This is because when a beamy boat heels over the water plan-form becomes extremely asymmetrical and out of balance. This is one characteristic that requires the wide boats to have two rudders, and now I see some boats with perhaps 3-4 other blades in the water. I think all these blades are really to compensate for the asymmetrical shape created when the boat heels over. Some of the boats I see now have foils moving fore and aft and I have seen sketches of fins that move side to side in the boat.Well, all that is great if you can either design and build it yourself or have the money to pay someone to do it. In any event all of this small delicate detail requires design time, engineering time, construction time and weight and must be paid for and THEN you must learn how to sail the boat so rigged. For the same LOA, a wide boat has greater wetted surface than a narrow one. For the same displacement and length the canoe body of a wide boat must be (shallower) flatter. This wider flatter shape combined with additional surface area means the boat will have more drag in very light air and pound upwind and in waves in any breeze.

In a wider boat, for the same level of construction technology, in other words the same finished weight per square foot of hull, there is more sq. footage of hull so it must weigh more for a fixed LOA. If it weighs more, then you cannot have such a heavy keel if you’re going to keep the total displacement down, and bear in mind about 25%-30% of the designed disp. of the mini-boat is in the crew weight and consumables. In my case, my weight alone accounts for 10% of the displacement of the boat (I was at the time  6’4″, 210 pounds) in ocean-going trim. It is even higher in day-sailing trim, more like 13%. So you either have a less powerful boat OR you need to have a lighter structure. So for a wide hull on a fixed LOA a lighter means more expensive materials and more sophisticated people building it. I understand Amco, a prominent French yard outside LaTrinite is now doing carbon pre-preg hulls for say USD 60k just for the hull and deck, maybe. And don’t forget all the blades are additional wetted surface too. Say three blades in the water with each blade averaging 4.5 feet (deep) times 1.25 feet in average cord is 6.75 sq.ft. times three foils is 20 sq.ft. This is about 20% of the wetted surface of my boat. Not only do you have the weight of the blades but there is the weight of the structure through which the blades operate in the water and of course the cost to design and build. A boat with less wetted surface and a narrow beam waterline, and roughly the same sail area will need less wind to break out and surf. For instance, I have sailed at 10 plus knots of boat speed in 9-11 true wind speed, at 90 degrees apparent wind angle with a 600 sq. foot kite, with the equivalent of half a tank of ballast. In very light air I can sit forward like on a Laser, get the transom out of the water (where it is fully immersed in the pictures of all the French boats I have seen) and reduce the wetted surface even more.

My brother in Law and his wife and kids live just north of Salt Lake City, so we stopped there for a visit, feed and bath.

Point #2: Wide boats generally are fitted with two rudders, which in my experience are a drag, literally. On a small boat the lower portion of the weather rudder is dragging in the water. On an open 60 the weather rudder is fully out of the water, because the transom is so wide relative to the depth of the rudder, although Desjoyeaux had kick up rudders like a Laser. While this is a good idea it still requires design and engineering time, weight and money to implement. When I sailed a twin-rudder Quest 30 from Newport to Plymouth, England, the steering was very heavy. Most of the twin rudder versions of this boat have been converted to single rudders.

Twin rudders are also exposed to banging into things in the ocean and they are heavier in total than one. I have measured one of a pair of rudders on a French boat and it is the same surface area as mine, about 3.25 sq.ft. So now with 2 rudders, the total surface area is 2 times the surface of one rudder PLUS they require more mechanism to operate, which is additional weight and another thing to design, engineer, pay for and break. As to net performance, in the 1991 race (I think) the first boat was the widest, skipper’ed by Desjoyeaux ( with the first canting keel on a mini, or any where else for a long time-probably since Red Herring but that is another post…)and the second boat was the narrowest, at about 6 feet, under the command of Patrice Carpentier. Two very experienced sailors, even then, finished within hours of each other.

As far as I can tell after looking at this scene for 17 years the only true advantage to a wide boat is in two-sail power reaching. David Adams won the BOC 50 class in a relatively narrow, simple, strong, single rudder boat, and he sailed the daylights out of it. Steve Peggengill was what, 2nd (?) in a generation-old boat with similar characteristics and an economy program (compared to the French) in the 60 foot class in the next race I recall.

On the subject of design, engineering and construction costs, I mention that the boat was originally drawn with a canting keel. I was OK with the idea but eventually settled on a fixed keel and water ballast in order to minimize the three elements noted.

These are some of the factors that became the rationale for my boat’s design. Easy and simple-to-build became important as I progressed into the building of the boat. Construction Phase Initially I had hoped to have enough money to hire a boat-builder and I even went as far as getting a quote from Eric Goetz, in Bristol, Rhode Island. Unfortunately I did not have the money so I had to resort to building it largely myself. The construction of my boat was great fun and a great lesson in boat building. It happened in about 5 stages. Initially Tom Wylie suggested to me that the only way to get people to pay attention, and potentially sponsor my program, was to have a boat, or at least a photo of a boat so I could be taken a little more seriously. He proposed a course of action that I followed. Remember that Tom Wylie is not “just” a designer but has been ( and remains active today) a boat-builder since the early 1970s. There are several boats in the 30-45 foot size in different parts of the U.S. built by his company. His 1978 650 design American Express was built by him in cold-molded wood and it was job #25 or something like this, in his shop in 1978.

The “other” Wylie Mini, American Express taken in Brest in 1993 as she prepared for another atlantic crossing. 15 years old and still going

As of the mid 2000’s American Express was still going and had finished a race in the 1990’s sometime.

Here is how we built my boat or at least the hull.

He and two of his crew set up mold frames on the strong back. They then laid ribbands over the stations and screwed these down. So now the shape of a boat was visible. This took three guys about 2 days. Then they took H-80 Foam and bent it over the skeleton, putting shaping slits in the sheets as required and holding these foam sheets down to the ribbands with screws. By the third day the foam was on. Then they took uni-directional Carbon and S glass and laid it over the foam according to a laminate schedule Tom had calculated. Using vinylester resin the boat was laminated on the outside skin within a week. It was the slickest thing ever. It was a long way from a boat but you couldn’t tell looking at the photos, which was the idea. He did another clever thing. He took a can of white, house paint, and painted the bottom, the water plane of the boat, and also painted on a red boot stripe. The topsides he left black from the carbon. The result as you will see is a pretty cool looking boat except there was not much to it. But now I had a “boat” to use for raising money. I took some pictures, seen above, of the whole caper and used them in my presentations When I had the next pile of money we made a cradle for the boat to sit on. Then we laminated the inside skin and put on a transom. This was again about a week’s worth of work. By this time I had decided I was going to have to get the boat to the East coast, from San Francisco. This was also a great adventure. First I bought a trailer of suitable proportions. We then tabbed some cheap construction plywood “bulkheads” onto the inside skin of the boat. Remember there was no internal structure at this point and I wanted to keep the boat from flexing around too much while being towed 3000 miles. We then bolted some framing 4×2 timber to the bulkheads and bolted the boat, upside down to the trailer fore and aft. We loaded all the rest of the materials into boxes, lashed them to the trailer, hooked the whole lot up to another friend’s Volvo station wagon (with 500,000km on it) and drove across the U.S. to New York.

Through another friend who owned a boatyard I was able to put the boat in a shed he was not using and I started to put the framing inside it.

At this point the skin weighed only about 200 lbs or so. Easily maneuvered by a couple of healthy lads.

There are basically two longitudinal members running fore and aft in the boat. In the middle section of the boat around the keel area, they are the vertical face of the water ballast tanks and under the cockpit floor they are faces of a void into which the flotation foam was poured. Because both of these faces are fastened from the deck down to the floor the whole boat is really super stiff. I can wind the backstays on super tight and the lifelines do not move an inch. Then I worked on building the deck. Again more friends came to the rescue, this time in the form of Don Watson (now the Boat Builder at NEB in Portsmouth, RI) who was at the time head boat-builder at Concordia Custom Yachts.

How We Built the Deck and Cockpit Because the deck was really quite flat (like American Express or a J-24) and without a cabin it was very easy.

American Express on the wind-With a flat deck that actually came out of the mold for a Moore 24 and which Tom trimmed to fit the hull… It does not have to be complicated

S.A.I.L for Kids at sea en-route to France Sept 1995. Flat deck just like her Mummy…

A “cabin” was not required by the rules at that time. On a flat laminating table we laid out the plan shape of the deck from the plans. We cut H-80 Divinycell foam to the shape and placed it on the table including heavier foam in hi-load areas. We then applied the laminate using epoxy and vacuum-bagged the whole lot down to the table and left it to cure overnight. In another corner of the room, we built a mold of the actual deck shape with the camber it does have. The next day when the first layer had cured we took the foam, with laminate on one side and placed it, laminate down, on the mold. We held it in place with screws again and then applied the “other” skin to the foam and vacuumed it down. While that was curing we made another panel which was totally flat shaped to the rough outline of the cockpit floor and vacuumed that down. The net result was after 5 days, with 3 guys, I had one deck and one cockpit floor. We tied the deck and cockpit to the boat, now on its trailer, right way up and drove back down to my little shed in the boatyard in Connecticut and went to work building the internal structure. This was the easiest but the slowest. The main reason was it was the first time I had gone solo in building the boat. I had just undergone a crash course under the tutelage of some of the best composite and boat -building guys in the business and I had learned a lot but now I had to go it alone, so I went extra careful. Back in my shed I had stored a sheet of 8mm marine plywood. I made cardboard templates of the parts I needed to put in place. These included the two longitudinals, plus a third one under the centerline of the cockpit floor and a watertight bulkhead across the forward end of the cockpit between the bottom of the cockpit and the hull. (Refer to the pictures)

The water tight compartments with the flotation foam installed. All this structure made the longitudinal axis really stiff. The transverse bulk head forward makes the rudder area water tight in the event of a serious crash with the rudder. My all suffering wife Jill, under the hair made it all possible.

The end result is that I had under the cockpit two spaces which are filled with foam and another two spaces which became sealed off and watertight. One advantage of this was that in the event something hit the rudder and damaged the transom the boat had a watertight bulkhead about 2 meters forward of the rudder. It also made the boat very stiff fore and aft. After I had made sure the boat was level and upright, I cut out the plywood shapes and held them in with clamps and battens. I put in the fillets and then tabbed the plywood in with 4″ fiberglass tape and epoxy. Why plywood instead of foam panels? In the size of the parts we were using the weight saving is very small if any, the plywood material is cheaper and I did not have to spend time making flat panels. Plus I could go to the local shop and buy another sheet when I needed it. This all sounds pretty easy and fast but considering I was reading the book on boat building and fiberglass work with one hand and spreading epoxy with the other hand it took a while. Also I was fundraising, calling suppliers, and generally doing about 100 things as well as actually building the boat. At the time this was all going on I was living in New York City and the boatyard was in Mystic, Connecticut, about 130 miles to the east at the end of Long Is. Sound. Typically I would work for 4 days in the middle of the week, staying on the sofa of my favorite friends and then go home for the weekend. In the midst of all this, through my fund raising endeavors I was introduced to Richard Pierce who operated a branch of the Offshore Sailing School in Jersey City opposite NYC. One thing led to another and he offered me the use of the warehouse in which the school stored their fleet of instructional Solings in the off season. This was good because I could “commute” home at night and still be working on the boat during the day. This worked well for a while.

In the Offshore Sailing School shed in Jersey City. Deck tank faces & baffles installed. The chart on the wall is the Atlantic chart of the course. Jill still smiling.

As it turned out I ended up with another offer for boat-building space, from again another mate in the business, but as usual up in Bristol RI. Barrett Holby of Holby Marine has been a boat-builder in Bristol for the last 20 years or so and is currently the builder of the Quest 30 and 33. So back up to Bristol we go. It was a bit easier being back in the company of composite boat-builders who took pity on me and would say things like, “No not that way, this way…” as I was about to do something really dumb.

At Holby Marine in Bristol RI. The tank baffles are glassed in. One of Barrett’s very successful Rodger Martin designed Quest 30’s in the background.

During this stopover I put in the main bulkhead at the front of the cockpit, the water tank faces including the baffles, more float foam, the watertight bulkhead in the bow, the deck and the cockpit. Climbing around inside the boat tabbing the inside of the deck joint was pretty grueling work and I take my hat off to the guys who do it every day for a living. It was very weird too because, being all carbon it was almost literally pitch black. Even the light from quite strong lamps would be absorbed by the blackness of the carbon. A very eerie feeling. So now I had a hull, deck, interior structure but no method for attaching the keel. The other detail missing was a deck/seat in the cockpit. This ended up being 8mm marine plywood on supports. The overall effect is like the deck/cockpit arrangement in the America’s Cup boats, where the cockpit floor extends all the way across the hull from inside skin to inside skin and the “deck” is just basically something to sit on. You can see this in the pictures. Next stop was to fair the hull and prepare it for paint. Off to another mate’s shop, again around the corner in Bristol.

At Brian Bennett’s shop down the street from Holby in Bristol RI. While I was there Brian was fairing the mold for what became the Viper 640

Brian Bennett ran a shop that did bottom fairing and paint jobs for the local Etchell’s 22, and other one-design fleets. It was here I built the cockpit/deck structure and did the filling, fairing and painting. So in I go and start sanding and filling and more sanding. That was even harder than tabbing in the deck. I worked 10 hours a day on the long board, by myself sanding and filling and fairing. It was hard work and discouraging just grinding away all alone but I figured since I was going to be alone for 2-3 weeks in the race it was good mental practice. After about three weeks of this I called it done enough and turned it over to Brian who put some undercoating on it onto which I could apply basically any paint I wanted later on. He also gave me an old J-24 rudder he had in a corner. Cross another 2 things off the list.

Out for an afternoon sail. Perhaps the only time a Mini has towed a Dinghy? My wife, Jill, and son Ned, steering.

The Keel By this time it was looking more and more like a boat, and the next thing it needed was a keel. The next stop was to Eric Goetz Custom boats back up the street a few hundred yards. Bristol by the way is a small village, maybe smaller than La Trinite. In one section of town there is an old stone building that contains a boat-building supply company, marine plywood shop, and Brian Bennett’s shop. A big hardware store is around the corner. Most of the boat-building happens on a small street called Broad Common Rd. Along this street is Goetz Custom Boats, Resolute Shells-(A Carbon rowing shells builder that Eric started) Carroll Marine, Holby, GMT (carbon spars), Hall Spars and Rigging, a couple of other boat-builders who do cruising boats, and a really fantastic metalwork shop called CAM Engineering. It is like living in a candy store for someone interested in the finest boat-building and outfitting in the world. So back to Eric’s. I arrived on the appointed morning as he was pulling the last boat he had completed out of the door. Eric has a very interesting business policy. Once every week at the morning break the people in the front office tell the guys on the floor what is going on up front and the production guys discuss what has been happening on the floor, in front of everyone. There is very good communication between all the staff and I think this contributes to the excellence of his boats and the efficiency he brings to boat-building.

So I was introduced and the outline of what I was attempting was described and the extent of the work to be done. After the break we rolled my boat in, set it up in a corner and I was introduced to “my” two workers, Judd and Bilzo. I had about a week between other Goetz projects to get the keel installed and a few other little things done. We discussed the needs and the plan. For this work there was no detail from Tom, which we had agreed on in the first place. Therefore the engineering and the laminate schedule for the keel box was done by Eric’s team. Again as you can see from the pictures, below, it is a fairly “normal” box into which the top of the keel fits. It was subsequently held in place by two transverse bolts made by CAM Engineering seen in the pictures of the interior, below.

Testing the stability Summer 2002. I could not get her to 90 degrees with a 4:1 tackle.

While all this was going on I needed to get the actual keel. The keel, the fin and the bulb, is literally from a Melges 24. The whole keel assembly comprises a carbon strut built by Omohundro, in Nevada, for Melges, with a 750lb. bulb, the diameter of which meets the bulb diameter rule. When the Melges 24 was being developed it was designed to have an aluminum mast so it had a heavier and stiffer keel. When the boat finally came out with a Carbon mast they changed the keel to make it lighter. Well, I have a prototype earlier model keel, which is heavier. The good news is it was not much money and it would do the job almost perfectly. The bad news was it was in Wisconsin, about 1,000 miles from Bristol. After being unable to find a way to get it from there to me, I decided I’d better go get it. So, I drove to Wisconsin, picked up a U-Haul trailer, put the keel on the trailer, paid for the keel and drove back. And yes they really do have cows in the front yard at Melges Boat Works. That was about 4 days door to door, sleeping in the car and dining while driving. When I got back to Goetz they were ready to put the keel in the box. We turned the boat upside down and laid her on soft padding and lined it up under a small crane. Hanging on the crane was the keel, upside down. We lowered the fin into the slot and checked the fit. At this point we also installed a screw thread in the top of the fin that would permit the fin to be screwed up to the top of the box, which was tapered, so it would be a super tight fit.

The Melges 24 keel going into the boat. Eric supervising

When we were happy with the fit we pulled it out again. We then coated the top of the fin with wax release agent (so I can get it out if I have to), put into the slot lots of epoxy with thickening agent and dropped the fin into the hole again for the last time. We then trued it up with two lasers and secured it so it would not move while the epoxy was curing. After the epoxy finally cured we bored the holes for the transverse bolts and installed them. Now I had a fin. We turned her over, right way up and put it on stands back in another corner. Now she was really looking like a boat. The last jobs were painting the deck, water proofing the inside of the ballast tanks, installation of the mast collar and mast step, floatation foam in the bow and some tabbing in an area I was too big to get to, done by one of the smaller guys. While all this was going on I found a bow rail in a secondhand/consignment store in Newport that I bought for $20. CAM Engineering modified this rail to fit the boat and it worked as If I had had a custom design done for the rail. Down the street at Carroll Marine, I was invited to a tour of their parts room to relieve them of anything I could use and which they could not. Items like old lights from boats no longer built and so on. I got my life line stanchions this way and CAM Engineering cut them down to the Mini-Transat size (18 inches from 24″) for me.

Moving the mast, in 2001, from Hood over to my house.  (only 3/8 of a mile by road. The Red Shirt is my son, the helper, the 5 year old Ned.

Also in parallel with the keel installation was the mast building. The section is a Hall Spars aluminum standard section used for the J-80 class. It is roughly 5″ x 3″ and weighs about 1.7lbs per foot. This is about 0.4 lbs. a foot heavier than the class minimum. The other options were to have one right at the minimum weight but without the required moments and to reinforce it. This would have taken again time and money, both in short supply, so I went with the slightly heavier version. I was not convinced the net weight of doing the reinforcing would have been any lighter than what I had.

Again I was fortunate to have the help of yet another mate in the boat game-A rigger named Tim Leary. He and I went over where everything was to go and I left him to it. I think I came back the next day and it was ready to receive halyards and standing rigging. Fantastic Job.

When tapered, with the sheave boxes installed, slots for the spreaders installed and generally ready to be rigged the spar tube weighs 72 lbs. When dressed ready to go into the boat with spreaders, standing and running rigging, VHF and Windex the whole thing weighs 105 lbs. The boom, also a J-80 section, weighs 23 lbs. I had two spinnaker pole tubes another rigging mate had given me. They weigh 22 lbs. and 19lbs. with the ends. They are 3 ½” diameter aluminum. The lighter one is used as a bowsprit so has no pole end fitting on it. The other is used as a spinnaker pole. I had the boat rigged in such a way as to be able to release the tack down-haul and use the pole and an after-guy to brace the spinnaker aft, off the bowsprit. Remember this was when the big (3m) bowsprits seen now had not yet been invented. I think most boats still used a conventional round spinnaker.

After all this work was done in Bristol, I bought some beers for the Goetz and CAM crew, loaded the boat onto a (again borrowed) trailer from a J-80 and drove back down to the boatyard in Connecticut.

A view of the boat in 2001. This is basically what she looked like in the water in 1995. The rudder is from a J24 and was given to me.

At this point I had the following weights noted down, in Lbs. This batch of numbers is precise as determined by my weighing them. Hull shell before anything added:  230 The structure under the cockpit floor: 18 Cockpit floor:     40 Bulkhead across the cockpit @ stn. 7. 13# Deck:      69 Watertight bulkhead in the bow:  6 Water tank faces:    11 each These numbers are educated estimates. Cockpit “deck”, seat only:   10 Supporting structure for above:  5 Floatation foam under cockpit: 20 Hull fairing materials:    30 Deck fairing materials:  5 Paint:     15 Bottom paint:    10 I did not have accurate weights for the resin although I used a 5 gallon jug of WEST epoxy. Nor do I have weights for: Flotation foam in the bow All the cockpit floor tabbing Deck tabbing All the rest of the tabbing, of tanks and so on The weight of the keel box and related attachment The weight of the epoxy and filler used to waterproof the inside of the ballast tanks… The weight of the boat on the crane at Goetz’s, in the summer of 1995, was 1375 pounds. This was after the keel went on but before the forward floatation foam was installed. This included all the above but no hardware, batteries nor methods of attachment of them, any electrical or ballast system equipment. A basic boat with nothing in it. (NOTE on the weight: Fast forward to May of 2002. The boat now weighs 1575 pounds. This included the following things bolted onto the boat, but NOT the lifting gear itself. Bow rail, stanchions and lifelines:  18 Jib tracks and cars:   2 Main traveler and car    2 Mast step    1 Rudder fittings on the boat  4 Mast jig for the trailer   30-obviously subtracted Forward hatch    6 Chainplates    5 Bow float foam for which I do not have a number Paint, I estimate 3 gallons, say 30 All the above is 98 lbs. If we call it 100 lbs. of excess stuff that was not on the boat when I weighed it at Eric’s then the net weight in May 2002 is 1475. This means, using the 1375lbs. weight from Goetz when none of this was aboard except the float foam, I have 100 lbs. I cannot account for. I have a feeling a big chunk of it is in the forward float foam and the supporting structure.) Getting Closer to a Finished Boat

In the water for the first time in Mystic, at the Mystic Shipyard

Back to summer 1995: Even with all the work done we were only partway there. Although they are small and simple boats there is a lot needed to go onto and into these boats. In the next couple of weeks in the boatyard we figured out the locations for and then installed: Genoa tracks, including the car movers Mainsheet track and traveler line All the deck hardware, blocks, pad eyes and so on Stanchions Compass Bow and stern rail Chain plates (from CAM) Runner tangs An electrical system, including three batteries, charge meter, switchboard, all the cabling and a volt meter. Ballast plumbing system Auto pilot Speed and depth meter and the instrument Spray hoods over the hatch. There is a little hatch on the foredeck facing aft so I can have a hood on it and keep it open at sea. Storage bags inside the boat for all the “stuff” one has to carry The rudder to the boat, including getting a tiller made The frame for the sun panel Solar panel itself Chocks for the bowsprit pole I also had the boat painted and put bottom paint on. We rigged the mast and boom and put it in the boat.

In the water again after 7 years on the hard, summer 2002

Time to Look at the Boat as a Whole Finished Thing My lovely little 650 was named “S.A.I.L. for Kids” then and is now named Bushranger. The boat is 6.47m LOA, 8 feet beam, and she meets the 14-meter keel to masthead rule. The freeboards are less than the new rules require. For instance my freeboard at the bow is 30 inches while the French designed boat number 112 is 38 inches. (Think about all that added surface area and weight.) There is no escape hatch. The Melges 24 keel is fixed and there is 200 liters in the water ballast tanks. Because of the fairly flat deck and the 8-foot beam combined with the intrusion into the interior of the ballast tanks, the space inside is really quite small versus the “new” boats.

The interior of Bushranger in April 2002

Headroom was built specifically around having enough for me to just sit down, about 900 mm. (I am about 6’4″ -1.85m) The idea behind the low freeboard idea was not only reduced windage but also less weight and as it turns out more sail area. The boat meets the “10-degree heel with ballast deployed” rule. I have not fully completed the “stability” test but I have pulled the boat down so the bulb is at the water surface and, with a 4:1 Tackle to the masthead, it was still VERY hard to keep pulling. I stopped because it was late at night and I was pulling the boat down only to put the Windex and VHF antenna on. There is only one rudder ( a gift- it was a spare J-24 rudder—cross another item off the list) on the centerline again for simplicity and reliability and because with a boat not so wide there is no need for two rudders. Again this made it easy to get parts. The rudder fittings are off-the-shelf , Schaefer stainless steel as used on production 30 footers. There is now another rudder Tom designed while I was at sea. This is about a kilo lighter but a nicer shape and a bit bigger in surface area.

After a sail, on the trailer at Sail Newport July 2002. Probably around the time of the New England Solo Twin

There are 8 sails in total, all Hood Woven Dacron except the kites, which are Nylon. The mainsail has 5 Full Battens with Batt-car sliders, slugs in a round groove and three reefs. The carefully measured total area is 330 sq.ft. The Solent Jib is 105 sq.ft with reef, I have a high clew Jib Topsail, about 115 sq.ft. and 2 storm sails in heavy Dacron. The storm staysail has a reef and the trysail is orange. The kites are a 600sq.ft. Masthead kite, a 326 sq.ft.  Fractional kite and a 318 sq.ft. flat genniker on a roller. Although built in 1995 the sails have very little use. The main and jib have the most use and then the big kite. It would be possible to get an 800 sq.ft (or even larger) spin on the 7 foot pole. The ISP is about 39 feet so using a 41 foot luff length and a 165% of JC girth kite it could be about 850 or so. Considering the less wetted surface my boat has compared to the wide boats I think this is more than enough. It would be possible to have a 1,000 sq.ft. kite with the 3m pole. There are just 2 Lewmar winches, Lewmar deck tracks, the jib sheet cars are adjustable, Lewmar mainsheet track, mast base blocks etc. with some newer Harken blocks, Lewmar and Spinlock Jambers. All the cordage for sailing like the sheets, guys, halyards is either Kevlar or Vectran covered in polyester. At the moment I have a German AC double-ended main sheet system and a 2:1 with 6:1 fine tune on the jib sheets, so I can adjust the jib sheet from the high side while steering, without a winch. There is also a 60 watt Solar panel. The Inside of the Boat

A view of the interior in April 2001. I had started on the “refit” as the bare wood around the port aft tank hatch indicates

Well, what is to be said for a Mini interior? Apart from the fact it is on the inside, not much. It is white, there are storage bags, an electric panel, battery and enough room to lie down and snooze. I have done all of this and cooked, if not a meal at least re-fueled enough to keep going. There is VHF radio with the correct antenna, Navico pilot, Navico speed and depth meter, Sea Swing stove, ballast/bilge pumps, spare bilge pumps. One Danforth anchor, chain & rode, safety jack lines on the deck and a Compass.

Picture of the interior taken April 2001. Very much the same as I left her after I arrived back from my aborted attempt to get to France. Lots of strong memories. I have the log and a diary too…

Most of the other safety stuff expires, like flares, but I have enough current safety gear for sailing off Newport. There is also a 406 EPIRB but, like much of this stuff, for the cost to replace the battery and the cost of re-registering it today, one can go out and get a new one. Boat is also set up with a center lift sling so it can be pulled out anywhere you can get a 1,000kg crane along side.

On the crane at Sail Newport with yet another helper, Rich Moody

All in all the boat is very strong, simple, fast to sail up to speed and watertight. I have sailed her at over 10 kts. in 9-12 kts. of wind at 90 degrees apparent with the masthead kite up (and full main) with one crew and the boat is a joy to steer. In another (double-handed) race I have sailed at 7-7.5 plus knots with a full main and fractional kite in 5-8 kts of wind and fairly flatt’ish water at about 45-50 degrees apparent wind angle. I have sailed the boat upwind, solo, in 18-20kts apparent with one reef in the main, no ballast in and steering with a piece of string tied from the tiller to the life lines, this for over an hour, while I had a rest and looked around.

After sailing, July 2002. The boat has the “proper” rudder shipped.

It was very interesting to me to have in the loft (I was working for Hood Sailmakers at the time) some sails from a slightly later French design boat, #112.  I discovered (by laying the two sails on top of each other) that my mainsail plan gives the same area with 500mm more hoist on the main. This is another reason for the low freeboard and the flat deck when you have a 14 meter rule. With the narrower boat I know for sure I have less wetted surface and a lot less drag from all those foils dragging through the water. So the same waterline and same sail area combined with less wetted surface is a pretty good combination for speed in my mind.

Our first sail late in the afternoon. Scott Bradford assisting and checking the spar. There are few things I have experienced that are as satisfying as sailing a boat that you have (largely) built yourself.

I was an accepted entry in the 1995 race under the name S.A.I.L. for kids, USA 50650. I left New York en route to France to start the race but was delayed by avoiding hurricanes and then finally returned to NY. I had realized I was, to too great an extent, still building the boat. True it was built and sailing but I had too little time in the boat, too little time after I would arrive in France and overall I was totally pooped.

Sea trials one day in Summer 1995. A fresh North Westerly-A good time to test out the small sails. Gordo Wagner assisting at the mast.

This was in September 1995. I am fully aware of the smallness of these boats when faced with really hard weather. Solo in the fall in the North Atlantic, with no other boats around in a boat you have only just (almost) finished building did not excite me too much. It was with a really heavy heart that I turned tail and returned to NY.

A “press picture” of me, along side the docks at South Street Seaport, NYC a day or two prior to departing for France, Sept 1995. Picture Don Miller www.donmillerphotography.com

The S.A.I.L. for Kids name was the plan I had to sail the race, have school kids follow the race from the Argos positions and also to follow the school lessons I had prepared for the purpose. Even before 1992 this was being done especially with the BOC. I thought the Mini would be a good boat to follow because it did not take so long and was across the Atlantic, an ocean that most American school kids know a little bit about. When I came back I called the Mini Class and arranged to get all the press releases and the positions every day via fax. I then called all the schools who had subscribed and told them what happened so they could still follow the race even though I would not be in it. Or I would return the money. All the schools said their kids were so excited they would follow the race without me and so I followed the ’95 race as closely as if I HAD been in it. As it turned out it was long, light air race. This really annoys me because I think my boat would have had the performance to do well. Oh well, life is an imperfect arrangement.

Underway outbound New York Harbor bound towards France. The books and stories are right. The emotional energy runs at full flood. Picture Don Miller www.donmillerphotography.com

Since I returned from my abortive effort to sail in the Mini-Transat the boat has been out of the water , almost 7 years. Then, in the winter of 2002, I did a pretty big overhaul of the boat, changing things I did not like and redoing things that were done in a hurry towards the end as I prepared to leave for France in Sept 95. I have just about gotten over the disappointment of expending such energy and then not getting to the race. The boat is for sale. It is in Newport RI, where I now live. For someone who is interested in a boat that is not the same as all the rest it is a boat that should be looked at.  I am in no particular hurry to sell in that I do not need the money to pay the bank or my aunt or something like this but it is time to move on to the next adventure. I think it is a great boat with excellent potential especially in the new course across the ITCZ with the light and shifty air. I see that for the 2013 race it is back to the Carib. Island of Guadeloupe.

You are single handed on the boat, but no one does these things alone.

BoatNews.com

4 things you need to know about the Mini-Transat

The Mini Transat is the flagship race of the Mini 6.5 Class! Organized every two years, the 2021 edition will be given on September 26th from the Vendée pontoons of Port Olona. And yes, goodbye La Rochelle, welcome Les Sables d'Olonne, the organizing city of the next 3 editions. After Martinique, city of arrival of the last two editions, it is now Guadeloupe which will be the host of the solo sailors. In short, there are changes in the Mini class but the principle of the race remains unchanged. Explanations...

The concept

The Mini Transat is an original concept that Bob Salmon created in 1977 and organized every 4 years. Today it takes place every two years. It consists in crossing the Atlantic solo and without assistance on a racing yacht of only 6.50 m. This transatlantic race takes place in two stages starting from France (since 1985) with a three-week stopover in the Canary Islands before reaching the West Indies .

The first edition in 1977 aimed to compete with the gigantism of the transatlantic races organized since 1970. For this crossing, the skippers had only the minimum equipment - until a few years ago, the sextant was the only authorized means of navigation - and set off to attack the Atlantic on boats that had to measure 6.50 m. Some built protos, others cut their boats! Some build protos, others cut their boats!

The first three editions will be held from Penzance, Cornwall, with a stopover in Tenerife and an arrival in Antigua.

No communication with the earth!

On the Mini Transat , there is no communication! Indeed, on board these small boats, there are no computers, no satellite link, no vacation, no possibility to send photos or videos. No contact with the race organization or family and friends!

The only link with the land for the "Ministes" is the daily bulletin, issued on the SSB radio by the race direction to give the weather situation, the 48 hours forecast and the distances to the goal of each competitor.

The only possibility for the sailors to exchange - between them - is the VHF which transmits up to 10 miles.

However, the solo sailors are not left to their own devices in the middle of the Atlantic. Accompanying boats follow them on their journey and provide assistance, if needed.

Small" boats of 6.50 m

The Mini Transat is raced on the smallest ocean racing boats in the world, only 6.50 m long. To be allowed to cross the Atlantic, the Minis need a derogation from the Maritime Affairs - they must be designed as a category B boat, but are approved as a category C - hence the presence of accompanying boats.

They are classified into two categories - production boats, of which there must be at least 10, and prototype boats. The latter are unique boats born from the imagination of architects and racers in search of innovation.

In fact, many innovations first appeared on these 6.50 m racing yachts before being adapted to other classes and even to pleasure boats:

• Ballasts in 1979
• Carbon mast in 1985
• Mast-wing, canting keel, removable and pivoting bowsprit in 1991
• The round bow in 2011
• Foils in 2015 (allowed from 2014)
• The semi-rigid wing in 2017

Eclectic profiles

Everyone can participate in the Mini Transat and most of the great sailors have worn their first oilskins before continuing in Figaro, Class40, IMOCA, Ultime...!

Men and women from all walks of life will take the start of this transatlantic race in two stages.

But above all, the Mini is the project of a lifetime! If some can count on the support of sponsors, others invest their own money! Because after all, their dream is to cross this huge ocean on a "mini" boat.

Published on July 9th, 2020 | by Editor

Class Globe 5.80 hits the spot

Published on July 9th, 2020 by Editor -->

Conceived by Don McIntyre, Australian adventurer and founder of the 2018 Golden Globe Race, as an affordable solo racer for amateur construction, this 19-foot ocean and offshore racing yacht has over 80 sailors setting up to build in 23 countries.

International fleets are expected to appear over the next few years. The yacht’s ability to ship inside a 20ft container is creating real interest and new opportunities travelling to Europe for the 2021 Globe 5.80 Transat and Mini Globe Race.

At a time when some sailors question the escalating technology and money winning races, a whole segment of sailors previously left behind in the rush to speed and winning at any cost, are now embracing the benefits of a simpler more sustainable challenge.

Unlike the highly advanced Mini 6.5 Class, the idea of an affordable wholesome, back to basics, non-foiling and safe Mini yacht, able to sail anywhere, has found great appeal. Being easy to build, own and maintain, then offering fun yet serious one design sailing, seems to have hit the spot.

“The excitement and passion for the 5.80 across all levels of sailing is a pleasant surprise,” admitted McIntyre. “I thought it would take a year to see 100 sailors building, but it is happening in months. Adventurous solo sailors are excited, but there are plenty of club racers who see this as an opportunity for some fun.”

The 32-year-old French sailor Mathilde Lozachmeur has her sights firmly set on the solo 30,000-mile 2024 Mini Globe Race. Inspired by Éric Tabarly who lived near her home in Brittany, and Bernard Moitessier, for his madness and his do-it-yourselfer fashion, she has taken two years off work to build her Globe 5.80.

She will use a CNC cut kit to build her yacht, then train towards competing in the first ever Solo Globe 5.80 Transat, departing Portugal in November 2021, racing 3600 miles toward the Caribbean. “I have this in my blood, I feel it and I have a year and a half to improve myself, because I will devote my life to this project,” said Lozachmeur. “I’ll be 33 in November 2021, for the Globe 5.80 Transat Race, and my boat was given race number 33! It is a sign. This is to realize a dream, of adventure, of escape and of surpassing oneself.

“Many people take these little boats for toys, but they have all big ones. You have to take this Mini seriously. Being rather manual, I find the idea of having to build your boat too exciting. I never imagined going into boat building, but I like the idea so much. Take on a personal challenge and learn from this adventure, especially now that I have decided to make it a profession!”

The Solo Globe 5.80 Transat is the first major event in a growing calendar for the 5.80 Class. Host Port partners are expected to be announced in the next few months and already there are 13 expressions of interest from around the world.

The 34-Year-old sailor Alenka Caserman from Brisbane is the only woman among six experienced Australian sailors building Globe 5.80’s, all focused on the 2024 Mini Globe Race.

“I’ve always been driven to immerse myself into experiences and seek adventures, so the idea of being hands-on, building a small offshore capable boat and racing competitively against other likeminded people seems like the perfect thing,” said Caserman.

“I’m just an average person yet this is within my means, it feels challenging, but absolutely doable. The main reason I decided to jump in and build a 5.80 is to fulfill my dream to participate in the next Solo Trans-Tasman Challenge in 2022. The 2024 Mini Globe Race is my next big challenge!”

Australian/Slovenian Caserman has been offshore sailing for two years and plans a solid workup program in the years leading up to the Mini Globe Race in 2024.

This unique concept is simple. Buy building plans (Euro$300), hand tools, plywood, glass and epoxy, then clear out the garage and start building your Globe 5.80 dreams. All on a budget of 5-600 hour labor and Euro $16-35,000 depending on where you want to go.

The 5.80 CNC cut timber kits (Boat in a BOX) are proving popular with agents appointed to 15 countries with more to follow. A Plastimo Builders Pack with most hardware to complete a 5.80 is available and one design mast packages are ready from Sparcraft and Selden, or you can build your own.

Ten Sailmakers are currently under review to select an Exclusive One Design Sail Supplier to the 5.80 Class for the next five years. This will deliver identical high-quality racing sails at a realistic price to all sailors through economies of scale. It also caps cost, leveling the playing field ensuring even competition, whether sponsored or unsponsored. A final decision is expected by the end of July 2020.

Details: https://www.classglobe580.com/

Tags: Class Globe 5.80 , Don McIntyre

Related Posts

Johnson wins Globe 5.80 Transat →

WANTED: Ordinary sailors for retro race →

Swiss wins first Globe 5.80 Transat Race →

Revised schedule for Globe 5.80 Transat →

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21′ Mini Transat 6.5 Pogo II

Description

Specifications, standard features.

Looking for a great Mini? You need to check this one out.

Owned by a very Experienced sailor/racer and she is a beauty!

She has what it takes to win a Transpac: new Proline bottom paint, rebuilt rudders, Raymarine Autopilot Octopus Drive, AIS VHF transceiver with a monitor, Axion Chartplotter, and depth. Plus, she has her own trailer! She is definitely a worthwhile vessel to see.

You’ll love how she sails…

West Coast Yachts offers the details of this vessel in good faith but cannot guarantee or warrant the accuracy of this information nor warrant the condition of the vessel. A buyer should instruct his agents, or his surveyors, to investigate such details as the buyer desires validated. This vessel is offered subject to prior sale, price change, or withdrawal without notice.

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M 65: A “Mini” Review

• By Jeremy McGeary
• Updated: August 27, 2008

The M 65 is the first production Classe Mini 6.5 (or Mini Transat boat as the class is commonly known) to be built in America. Under class rules, production Minis are less complex than their custom cousins and are not permitted canting keels or water ballast. This two-tier class arrangement allows newcomers to cut their teeth on these specialized and demanding boats at a lower level in both cost and competition.

Because it won’t be able to take part in its true métier until the Classe Mini movement takes hold on this side of the Atlantic, the M 65 needs to have a broader appeal. To that end, Jeffrey Dingle, who founded The Mini Store to promote the class in America, specified that Owen Clarke Design provide the M 65 with a lifting keel, to simplify trailering, and other features to make it more appealing as a sporty pocket cruiser.

www.minisinamerica.com

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Low budget performer

~ Economy of plywood

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~ High performance racing on a tight budget

"Warlock" is in the water and sailing

Comments from crew for her first sail, Wednesday 10th September 2003.

~ Rick Nankin, North Sails ~

Potent little boat. She is most impressive even at this early stage of her life. The boat appeared stiff to windward and very buoyant over the waves. Reaching and running she just took off easily and planed with the kite up fantastically. The rudder just followed the boat and the helm was light and responsive.

~ Pete Shaw, Sparcraft South Africa ~

Beware!! This little boat could become more addictive than coke in Amsterdam. What a sea trial! The boat performed really well upwind and simply took off downwind. The layout all seemed to work pretty well apart from a few minor tweaks that need to be done, but nothing major. Credit to all concerned.

~ Andrew Edwards, Project Manager ~

Sailed this evening, wind NW about 15knots, little girl picked up her skirt and took off, easy 10knots on a reach, planes easy and effortlessly......

This is the scene (above) at Bayfront Center for Maritime Studies at East Dobbins Landing in Erie, Pennsylvania. Under the capable eye and hand of Director Jim Stewart, hundreds of youths are working together building a Didi Mini as part of a community project. They come from many schools and juvenile placement facilities in the area and they come with little or no boatbuilding experience. Here their project is seen with a group from Walnut Creek Middle School fitting the radius section of the hull skin.

Mini 6.5 or Mini-Transat boats attract great interest worldwide. Tiny but costly offshore yachts, they give spectacular sailing, and are generally beyond the ability of most amateur builders. Commissioned by a client who wants to build a reasonably competitive boat himself, this design is our contribution toward reducing the cost of these boats.

Detailing is based on the series of radius chine plywood designs that started with my DIDI 38 "Black Cat", and was followed by the DIDI 34, Mount Gay 30 and DIDI 26.

Design principle is simplicity and to the Mini 6.5 Class limits. The initial design has a fixed keel and conventional water ballast, as well as single aft daggerboard for tracking downwind. We have added a canting keel & forward daggerboard to the package, so that builders can choose the option that suits them. Linked twin rudders are steered by central tiller.

Keels are hollow aluminum fabrications with through-bolted beaver tail ballast bulbs. The fixed keel has optional trim tab. Both keels are supported by the hull structure by means of an internal aluminum box frame. The fixed keel has an integral post to transfer some of the keel loads through to the deck structure.

The Didi Mini of Enrico Manuretto nearing completion in Italy.

The deck layout is a fairly conventional 3-winch arrangement. The smaller headsails sheet to the top of the cabin and are led to the cabintop winch. The larger headsails and spinnakers sheet to the cockpit winches. Tweeker lines replace headsail tracks.

We have sold nearly 60 sets of plans for her, as at Dec 2005. Drawings include full size Mylar patterns of the backbone, bulbs, rudders and daggerboards. Optional full size Mylar patterns for the bulkheads are also available.

We have made some modifications to the design, as from January 2004. The stepped stern has been replaced by a deck extending to the transom, moving the mainsheet track aft and giving more cockpit space. A small mound has been added over the emergency hatch, allowing it to be mounted higher above the water. At the same time the rudder linkage has been changed to improve the geometry of the rudders. The drawings below show the Mk2 version.

We now also have a cruising version of this design, the Didi Cruise-Mini. It has a smaller rig, optional lifting keel, more accommodation and more headroom in the cabin. It is more suited to those who want good performance but a simpler boat with a bit more comfort.

Bill Of Materials

CHIPBOARD (for setting out bulkheads if building from offsets) 1,83x2,74m (6'x9') 16mm (5/8") - 1 sheet MARINE PLYWOOD 1,22x2,44m (4'x8') (preferably Gaboon or Okoume plywood) 3mm (1/8") - 7 sheets 6mm (1/4") - 16 sheets 9mm (3/8") - 15 sheets 12mm (1/2") - 2 sheets SAWN PINE (for building stocks etc) 25X125mm (1"x5") (rails) - 18m (59') 50x50mm (2"x2") (bulkhead legs) - 20m (66') 75x75mm (3"x3") (posts) - 5m (17') CEDAR or similar, selected, free of knots, shakes fractures etc 20x20 (3/4"x3/4") triangular fillet (joinery fillets) 20m (66') 19x23mm (3/4"x29/32") (tangent stringers) - 33m (108') 19x32mm (3/4"x1 1/4") (hull and deck stringers) - 154m (505') 22x32mm (7/8"x1 1/4") (bulkhead cleats) - 4m (14') 22x64mm (7/8"x2 1/2") (sheer clamps) - 16m (53') 32x32mm (1 1/4"x1 1/4") (toerails) - 10m (33') RESIN & GLASS (for coatings and reinforced areas) Epoxy resin (low viscosity 100% solids) - 40kg (90lb) 50mm (2") Wide woven tape - 60m (200') 75mm (3") Wide tape - 15m (50') 100mm (4") Wide tape - 15m (50') 450g/sq. m Biaxial fabric - 8sq. m (90sq. ft)

This design is dimensioned in both metric and imperial measurement systems.

Radius Chine Plywood Mini 6.5

LOA 6.50m (21'4") LWL 6.45m (21'2") Beam 3.00m (9'10") Draft 2.0m (6'7") Displ to DWL 1050kg (2315lb) Displ light 850kg (1874lb) Ballast 320kg (705lb)

Related Products

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Didi cruise mini plans.

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Mini 6.50 design

Discussion in ' Sailboats ' started by Ferman , Apr 23, 2010 .

Ferman Junior Member

Hi, i am considering buildind a mini 6.50 for the trasatlantic race, i have 2 designs one from Dudley dix th MK3 http://www.dixdesign.com/didiminiMk3.htm and one from Van Gorkom http://www.vgyd.com/Mini.html but i am not sure wich is a better performer by design not by displacement o sail area i just want to know wich have a better hull design please help me.  

jwboatdesigns John Welsford

Ferman said: ↑ Hi, i am considering buildind a mini 6.50 for the trasatlantic race, i have 2 designs one from Dudley dix th MK3 http://www.dixdesign.com/didiminiMk3.htm and one from Van Gorkom http://www.vgyd.com/Mini.html but i am not sure wich is a better performer by design not by displacement o sail area i just want to know wich have a better hull design please help me. Click to expand...

Guillaume C. Junior Member

You may want to check Francois Lucas work too: http://www.fr-lucas.com/cadreus.asp  

Tanton Senior Member

Mini Transat Mini 6.50 design. Updated with chines.  

Attached Files:

250sail-chine.jpg.

Eric Sponberg Senior Member

he thanks for the replyes i liked a lot the one of lucas the mini 1999 but im still worried with the construction prosses since i want to build it my self pobably for this it will be better to build the dix design thanks for the help please keep posting  

The one I wanted you to look at is the Mini CP (CP stand for ContrePlaqué... Plywood in french) It is probably the simpler mini to build, being hard chine plywood The new dix design look nice too, a hard choice to make!  

Hernandiz Junior Member

You may also look for Jean-Pierre Magnan's Super-Calin. I cruise one on the St-Lawrence river. Hard chine plywood, quite simple to build ( we did ). The design may seam outdated but it's a good performer at low cost. http://www.super-calin.com Sadly it looks down  

wmonastra Junior Member

Im currently working with a small but great designer who is helping me design and create a NZ version of the mini based on the current minis and we are designing it for NZ waters and souther ocean sailing. Its a reat project and we hope to get the boat in the water for a test sail by xmas. For the waters we plan to sail (race) in the boat has a fixed keel, and fully self righting. We have created a one design race boat (based on the french minis) to be in the water and sailing for under $100k.  

wmonastra said: ↑ Im currently working with a small but great designer who is helping me design and create a NZ version of the mini based on the current minis and we are designing it for NZ waters and souther ocean sailing. Its a reat project and we hope to get the boat in the water for a test sail by xmas. For the waters we plan to sail (race) in the boat has a fixed keel, and fully self righting. We have created a one design race boat (based on the french minis) to be in the water and sailing for under $100k. Click to expand...

HI John I think you may missunderstand me (us) we are building a boat for the southern ocean and very heavy weather sailing, we are not planing on entering the mini races, we are only using some of there ideas for our designs, (like the size and basic layout.) We think that the boat we build would not be fast enough for the mini race, ( as there boats would be too light and flimsy for the race we are creating.) But for sure this will be a great event and will keep you posted. W  

I probably did not put it right. I encourage anything connected with the Mini Transat race and class, they are amazing boats and the skippers are a great bunch of people. Its an event that Kiwis should have a go at, and racing boats of similar type here in our waters would lead to more of "us" having a try. Navman was a fairly heavy boat for a Mini, but was particularly competive in light weather. She was tried out in the Southern Ocean as well as competing in the Singlehanded Trans Tasman and did a run up to New Caledonia and back. She did two Two handed Around North Island races, Chris and I ran her in the Coastal Classic, and raced her in some of the winter two handed series in Auckland, she was amazingly competitive against the bigger boats and even had some of the multihulls looking worried. There are lots of events that suit these boats, that plus the one you are proposing would give enough to be an incentive for younger home builders to give serious short handed ocean racing a try. John Welsford  

I will send you some photos once we get into the buidling of the boat. W  

wmonastra said: ↑ I will send you some photos once we get into the buidling of the boat. W Click to expand...

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tane Senior Member

Hernandiz said: ↑ You may also look for Jean-Pierre Magnan's Super-Calin. I cruise one on the St-Lawrence river. Hard chine plywood, quite simple to build ( we did ). The design may seam outdated but it's a good performer at low cost. http://www.super-calin.com Sadly it looks down Click to expand...

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