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Ah, got a great article from MAd Spaniel... hope he will keep adding material... The Mini race circuit and why I got into it. (and with what boat) I guess it's a question we're often asked – "why did we get into Minis"? Well, for me, I was probably a slow but natural progression. I'd done a couple of long (2000+ mile) 2 handed sailing trips on my old Swarbrick 11.1 in Australia and loved it, and I've always wanted to get into short handed racing. Of course I'd heard about the Mini Transat and seen photos of the boats, but my first impression was pretty much "those guys are lunatics!" But then we moved to the UK and I started sailing again in IRC offshore races. I remember seeing a Mini berthed in Hamble in my first year here (a Pogo 1, I think), and funnily enough I started thinking – here's a fast, reasonable affordable single handed offshore racing class, and the boats look like a) a handful; and b) the most fun you can have with your clothes on. What more could you want? The thought niggled away at the back of my mind for a year or two, and in that time I got bored with crewed racing – just grinding or sitting on the rail got very tedious. So after doing the Commodores Cup in 2004, it was time to get back into small boats – a season in a Backman 21 in the Sportsboat class reinforced the opinion that going offshore in a dinghy like yacht was the way to go and maybe a Mini wasn't such a silly idea, after all.
Next Steps Everyone says that you should "try before you buy", so I answered a post from James Tingle who was looking for crew on "Deception" for the Demi Cle last year (2006). We met up at Moodys yard in Hamble where James was preparing Deception for the Demi Cle. I was a little apprehensive, to be honest, I'm quite tall (6'6") and I wasn't sure someone of my height could be reasonably expected to perform on an offshore boat measuring 6.5 metres. So I was relieved to find that it wasn't going to be a problem. Besides, I reasoned that if I could live on a water-ballasted Faroux proto for a week, then any modern series boat would be luxurious be comparison. An incident free delivery (apart from a one day stopover in Dartmouth to replace a faulty solar controller) from Hamble to Lorient removed any doubts that I may have had about long trips on a Mini; falling into a routine and working with James to move the boat as quickly as we could was a real pleasure. Arriving in Lorient, we tied up, started the registration process (well, James did as I had to get back to work). The registration and checking process, from what little I saw, seemed friendly, and thorough, and the competitors were a very friendly, interesting bunch of madmen and women all brought together to go racing in these great little boats. Unfortunately, we didn't get to finish the Demi Cle – unforeseen problems with the boat meant we had to retire into Penzance 2/3rs of the way around the second leg which was a real disappointment. Still, a great experience, and I was hooked. I wanted a Mini, and I wanted to race. It was time to get serious and spend money. Series or Prototype? This was a simple decision for me, really. Price and I wanted something competitive without having to spend a fortune. And I guess I had a pretty good idea of my own limited ability, as well – I felt I could come up to speed quicker in a Series boat without having to deal with the infinite variety of tuning issues you have on a proto.
What I looked at So, time to choose. Having decided that I wanted a series boat, the choices at the time seemed fairly obvious. A Pogo 2, a Tip Top, or a Zero. I went down to Marseille and visited the Bepox yard on a day they were launching a new Tip top, I had a look at Alex B's Zero Yellowfin in Southhampton, Ed Higgs Pogo 2 "Gusto" at Port Solent and I made a couple of trips to Lorient to see "Le Gnou 2", another Pogo 2. I finally decided on a Pogo 2, for reasons I'll go into a bit later. New or second hand? The best of the second hand Pogo 2s I'd seen was under a year old, very well looked after, but short a genoa in the sail wardrobe. Comparing the price, new to old, the additional cost of buying a new boat didn't seem all that exorbitant, particularly as I wanted the NKE True Wind option, a Mer Vielle and maybe an Active Echo. So in the end, I decided on a new build.
Why I bought a Pogo 2 Ah, the big question. Actually, it was a fairly straightforward one – I just felt more comfortable on a Pogo. I liked the interior design, open and uncluttered, I felt comfortable in the cockpit, the cabin entrance is very good, and the support from Structures was excellent. Other factors that certainly influenced my opinion – on the Atlantic coast, it almost seems to be the de facto series boat. It's a well proved, well designed boat, and with such a big fleet of Pogo 2s, you can almost certainly find other Pogo 2s to train with. If you look around, there's a wealth of knowledge about the boat that can speed up your tuning process. Support from the builders- my experience has been that the support from Structures has always been efficient and friendly. I really liked the TipTop, and I did feel that support from the Bepox yard would have been excellent, but in the end the cabin entrance and the overall feel of the Pogo did it for me (as well as the NKE electronics options). What I really like about the Pogo
This is only my personal opinion, and it may change, but at the moment, after the delivery to Pornichet and my first weekend training here's what I really like about the Pogo - What I don't like about the Pogo
Again, personal opinion only, and this early into my campaign, the list may change. Not necessarily in descending order of importance (and obviously not that serious!) The Delivery, Combrit – Pornichet Sat Jan 6, 2007, with the TWS at 25 + knots from the west, we set off from Combrit St Marine to deliver the boat to Pornichet. With a reef in the main, the solent and gennaker, we were seeing average speeds of 12 – 15 knots. What can I say? A picture is worth a thousand words.
How I feel about the boat after three months training The boat is currently based in Pornichet, where I'm training with four other Pogos - the best and fastest way to come up to speed. So far, the Pogo has proved to be a stable, quick boat, relatively forgiving and it feels solid and reliable. Upwind, I've been pleasantly surprised about the speeds, between 5.5 – 6.3 knots in 12 – 16 knots TWS (in relatively flat water) but 40 - 45° TWA seems to be about the closest optimum angle I've been able to get on a beat. Obviously, in rough choppy water, these numbers will change, but so far we haven't seen any serious chop. Off the wind, it's quick and stable – so far, I've been quite confident using the pilot on a reach, although in anything above 15 knots TWS the gain settings on the NKE need to be set quite high to keep course and stop the boat heading up. This could be due to my poor sail trim, so experimentation with the NKE settings is continuing. I really like the NKE Remote, it does make working in the cockpit much easier. I haven't tried the ST4000 ram on a reach with the spinnaker up yet, but we've seen it work fine on a beat and a fetch with the genoa in 15 – 18 knots. Yes, I have broached with the spinnaker and put the mast in the water. My own fault, but it seemed to recover fairly quickly once the spinnaker sheet was released and we were able to get going again without dropping the kite. I suspect in heavier conditions (above 20 knots) you'd need to release the halyard to recover. I'm not looking forward to finding out. Both times I've hoisted the big spinnaker it's come down with a tear in it. I think this was because of the long split pins Structures use in the shroud terminators at deck level – they have pretty sharp ends that wore through the tape - so I'd recommend changing them to split rings as soon as possible and re-taping. You'll tape the spreader ends anyway, but I'd also recommend examining every fitting all the way up the mast. (Put some foam on the spreader ends too, then tape-Leov) We've done two overnight training sessions so far this season, and I've been quite comfortable (relatively speaking!) in the cabin and cockpit. The cockpit is a surprisingly comfortable place to sleep, even for someone as tall as I am. The cabin is easy to get in and out of, and the sleeping pockets are great. The stowage is neat and well designed and holds the stack securely. I can get all my food and tools, spares and other equipment into two 20lt waterproof drums, the additional safety gear into a 10lt drum, and the survival water and equipment all stowed to windward behind the stow pockets with no problem at all, leaving plenty of room to tie the water containers down in the area directly near the internal brace for the mast shrouds. And there's still plenty of room to stow sails to windward in the windward bunk. Future changes I'm contemplating – for longer races, a bypass switch that would allow the NKE computer to drive the ST4000 ram would save quite a lot of power. I also want to put a NMEA feed into the ST4000 control head as well – in theory that would allow the ST4000 to steer to an apparent wind angle upwind based on the data provided by the NKE data bus, but it will also allow the ST4000 control head to be used as another data display. We've been discussion the issue of Lithium batteries amongst ourselves as well. Personally, I feel the money at this stage would be better spent on training and sails - a couple of the guys I train with seem to agree.
We've experimented with hoisting the storm jib on the babystay, but the jury is still out on whether or not this will work. I asked Charly Fernbach at structures if the deck fitting is string enough, and he said, yes, they think so, but they suggested using the forestay is easier. In a blow, moving the storm jib back I think would result in better sail balance, and allow us to have the storm jib ready on deck, hanked onto the babystay while still under the reefed solent (so no bare-headed change), but it could be a little fiddly and none of the existing halliards are at a perfect angle. We're going to try it again as soon as we have time (probably after the Select, as there's too much to do beforehand changing the pulpit, pushpit and safety gear to conform with the new regulations). This year, I'm on the entry list for the Select, Mini Fastnet and UK Fastnet - as well as the waiting list for the Transgascogne. If I get time later in the year, I'd like to get my qualifier finished, so I'm in with a chance for the 2008 Azores race. And 2009? We'll see. Ask me in a year or so. Thanks to Charles Euverte for organising the training in Pornichet and looking after the boat for me, as well as the intelligent suggestions for changes and upgrades to the basic specification; also, many thanks to Mike and Yann for helping me out this season with the two handed races and subjecting themselves to my not so tender mercies; and thanks to James Tingle for letting me to crew for him on the Demi Cle, and his help on the delivery – and getting me hooked on a Mini in the first place. Finally, an huge vote of thanks to K for letting me spend the money in the first place! Geoff D AUS 659 "Mad Spaniel"
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