Tom Braidwood headed for finish in Mini Pavois

by Tom Braidwood's team on 30 Apr 2007
Well the little Wombat has made it to Gijon, Spain and is now headed back up to La Rochelle.

At 11:10pm CET (27th April) Tom rounded the mark in Gijon in 22nd place. Although I think Tom will be happy to be still out there (over 20 boats have retired form the race so far) I think he'll be hoping to pick up some places on the way back up the coast.

It is hard to tell from the updates if Tom has had any problems or how his boat speed is comparing to the other competitors. I do know that his plan was to make sure he could finish. For Tom to compete in the Mini Transat he needs to complete 1000 miles of racing, this event gives him 550 or those vital miles and means that Tom's main goal needs to be to finish the course.

I know that with the expected conditions, Tom was wishing he had more sail area, most of the boats seem to have bigger spinnakers than Tom and also big luff curves in their head sails. These are things you need to learn when starting in a new class. The guys from Norths, Sydney are doing a great job helping Tom develop new sails in order to close the gap.

Tom Addis believes that Tom will be reaching back up the coast today and reaching La Rochelle some time Sunday.

Background: Tom Braidwood and Wombat set out in the Mini Pavois on the 25th of April. It is a 550 mile solo race and a qualifier for the Transat 650, to be run from France to Brazil in September this year.

Tom's website: www.tombraidwood.com