The Mini-Transat Race

starts from Brest, in France. The first leg takes the boats to Santa Cruz de la Tenerife, in the Canaries. After a fortnight's or so recovery, the solo sailers continue on their 2700 miles single-handed Atlantic crossing, in a 6.5 m boat to Martinique, in the French Caribbean.

The race is run every second year. This year (1997) it started in at the end of September, and the fastest boats are expected to Martinique in the first days of November.

Click on a "hot spot" on the image to the left to see what makes a Mini-Transat 6.50 tick. You can see a little hint at the bottom of your browser window when on a spot. There should be some 21 different spots - try to find them all!

Articles about the building of the Mini-Transat boat Tremco

At the bottom of some pages you will find quotes (in blue) by Mark Turner, an Englishman doing his first Mini-Transat race on "Carphone Warehouse". These comments, dictated during the first leg of the 1997 year's race, reveal better than anything the true nature of the race. Mark's own page can be found at >http://www.spinlock.co.uk/mini_transat.