Tom Braidwood update and Mini Transat turns thirty

by The Wombat Team/Mini Transat media/Sail-World on 19 Jun 2007 Tom Braidwood has been back to school. Tom's latest campaign is The Mini Transat Race held biannually.

The 4,000 mile Mini Transat Race starts in the Bay of Biscay, France and finishes in Bahia, Brazil and will test all of Tom's skill as a sailor. It has been a long held dream of Tom's to complete The Mini Transat Race. Tom qualified for the Transat in September via the Pornichet Select race. Just for a change, Tom has recently been sailing on Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo.

News from Tom's Mini Transat campaign:

Yes you read right, Tom went back to school, well OK the school was the mini school in France and the lessons were all about how to sail your mini...

At the end of May Tom attended the mini school in Lorient, where he sailed along side some of the top minis and learned alot about his boat and the best way sail it. During this time he also tried to come up with his final sail wardrobe and designs for the transat race.

Tom headed back to La Rochelle (France) on the 6th June and then off to do some regattas on the Alfa Romeo. After he gets back to La Rochelle the Wombat is going to have a refit and go on a bit of a diet.

www.tombraidwood.com

About The Mini Transat Class

(Open 650 aka Transat 650 aka Mini) A 21-ft long boat that is raced solo across the Atlantic Ocean. It is the smallest Open Class yacht and very spectacular. It brings the largest fleet of offshore racing yachts on the starting line, up to 98 (Mini Fastnet 06 record) the same kind of boats. The level is from pure amateur up to professionals.

The Mini is thirty. It's already been three decades that the idea of crossing the Atlantique in competition on a 6,50 sailing rocket that almost could lay in the family house was born. And all of this still in the old way, with paper charts, pens and no communication with land.

Thirty years of success, competitions and adventure that have made the Classe Mini the most important and international class of sailors in the world.

http://www.minitransat650.com/