The Lorient Bretagne Sud Mini will start on April 9th from Lorient La Base, sounding the opening of the season of the Mini 6.50 class. For this 3rd e edition, the course will change to become a 150 mile loop starting and finishing in Lorient. New sailors are entering the race, but the old ones will have to be counted on, especially the winner of the last Mini-Transat (2015), Ian Lipinski, who will be sailing for the season on a prototype, the Maximum, and will be accompanied by Davy Beaudart.
In the series, there will be many new boats: Pogo Verdier, the Ofcet 6.50 and newcomers on the circuit.
Key figures
76 is the number of boats at the start of the Lorient Bretagne Sud Mini 2016, a record number!
2 is the number of categories (prototypes and series) represented in the Mini class
10 is the number of nationalities represented in 2016: France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, England, Spain, Australia, Hungary, Brazil, Tahiti.
13 is the number of girls who will participate in the Lorient Bretagne Sud Mini 2016, including 6 skippers in series boats and 2 duos entirely female.
What course?
The Lorient Bretagne Sud Mini starts from Lorient for a 150 miles course in the south of Brittany. The sailors will approach the Glénans before going down to the Morbihan islands (around Belle-île and the Teignouse passage) and then back to Lorient.
2 courses are proposed to the competitors. Depending on the weather conditions, the race direction will choose one or the other a few hours before the start. Depending on the weather conditions, it will take between 24 and 30 hours to complete the first course of the season.
Who is participating?
This 150-mile race is open to a very special category of boats, the Mini 6.50, 6.50 m sailboats. These are the smallest boats in the offshore class whose favorite race is the Mini-Transat (which takes place every two years) and whose class was born in 1977. This class is also known as the laboratory of offshore racing as new prototypes are regularly built. But the class also includes production boats, such as Ofcet and Pogo 3 (homologated in 2015.)
On the Lorient Bretagne Sud Mini there will be two categories of boats, 14 prototypes and 62 production boats.
What's special about it?
Organized for 3 seasons, the Lorient Bretagne Sud Midi is the first race of the Mini 6.50 season. It takes place in parallel with the Orient Nautic, a show dedicated to yachting that takes place in Lorient La Base from April 8 to 10, 2016. A great way to mix yachting and ocean racing.
Photo credits: Th.Martinez/Sea&Co/
