SINGLE-HANDED SAILING
By: Clark Thompson
NEW ORLEANS – Some recent interest allows us to throw a spark towards some of the most challenging and competitive racing our sport allows.  Ryan Finn will attempt to compete and win the single-handed race to Hawaii and Clark Thompson is contemplating a Mini Trans-At- race. Take a look at Clarke’s design and information he has provided for us in regards to this part of the sport we no so little about:
Those who follow single-handed sailing know that 24 years have passed since an American last won the Mini Trans-At race. Inspired by a Brit, dominated by the French, and revolutionized by American Tom Wiley; the race runs from France to the Canaries, then to Brazil, in November of each odd numbered year.
The Mini Trans-At is the proving grounds for the skippers and the boat developments that guide tomorrows Open 40’s, 50’s and 60’s.
The main obstacle to most competitors for the Americas in competing in this event is the almost total lack of events in the U.S. geared towards single-handed offshore sailing. Even with the oldest of single-handed races, the Bermuda 1-2 starting from U.S. waters, few of those sailors go on to race the Europeans.
A second obstacle to successful U.S. competition in the Mini is the lack of similar boats. Not since Tom Wiley’s 1979 “American Express†introduced modern water ballast has an American designed and built boat been raced in the Mini Trans-At.
I hope to change that in 2005, with the design of my own Mini 650. This boat is designed to the Mini 650 Trans-At class rules. Here are images of the computer model of the design. She stretches the rule to the limit, but is carefully balanced to ensure easy fast steering under autopilot.
As you will note from the 80 sq. m. spinnaker and wide flat bottom, the boat is optimized for light airs downwind. But don’t be fooled. The centerline water-ballast tanks can give the boat punch upwind through chop, and the leeboards give terrific pointing ability. The keel cant’s 35 degrees to counterbalance that huge main…skippers usually do reef in 12 knots of breeze. But it’s downwind where these boats really shine. If you slide the keel aft, and add some water ballast to your stern tanks you can carry up to a 100 sq. m. chute. One day average speeds of over 10 knots are not unusual.
Obviously, this is not a boat for everyone, or a race for everyone, but we Americans have our own history of single-handing. In addition to the Bermuda 1-2 there is the single-handed trans-pac, and I have heard whisperings around the bar about plans for double-handed Mexico race. Our own single-handed round the lake race has a long history.
So here is my American designed boat for the Mini Trans-At. Hopefully, she will function as designed and exceed all of my expectations. I’ll keep you posted.
Clark Thompson
(About the author: Clark Thompson is not your typical Southern Yacht Club member. Best described as a free spirited, creative and accomplished sailor. Clark’s successes include a second in the Collegiate Sloop National Championship, a second place finish in the Prince of Whales and he received the very prestigious Navigators Trophy for the Regatta Del Sol. Clark is a Graduate of the University of New Orleans with a B.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.)
