Mini Transat 6.50

The Classe Mini conceiver around the Mini Transat race is run bi-annually and first took place in 1977. The race is a solo transatlanticyacht race. The class rules focus on this event and encourage development while controlling both costs and design and fitout safety requirements. The size of the boat allows for more experimentation in design without the costs of larger classes.

The class association is an owner led organization that administers the rules and co-ordinates a series of single and double handed events for the class. In response to the perceived challenge of sailing small high-performance boats the class has created rigorous trials, equipment, and inspection requirements to add promote safety. The mini Transat class is largely French in its makeup but the class has tried to encourage international entries.

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  Note the width of the sterns
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  Typical cockpit
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  Pogo
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  2011 Mini Transat Winner
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  2011 Mini Transat Winner

Due to the downwind nature of the racing across the Atlantic Ocean designs tend to be beamy, being nearly half as wide as it is long. The wide flat stern is designed to promote planing similar to a surfboard. As a consequence of the wide beam twin rudders are pretty much standard so that one rudder remains in the water when heeled.

The class led the way with canting keels – due to their small size there is a design requirement for them to be self-righting when capsized.

The constraint of the box rule led to the introduction of the Scow hull form when David Raison's Mini used the hull shape to win 2011 victory, which may in fact, revolutionize open ocean racing if not sailing altogether.^[2] This design trend has now influenced the design of both the Class40 and IMOCA 60 class.

El Magnum comenzó con un scow 'semivolador' aún más radical que utiliza una serie de trucos de diseño, incluyendo alas/foils y una quilla basculante telescópica , un bauprés retráctil y un spinnaker asimétrico , ha sido diseñado en Francia. ^{[ 3 ]} Esto ha llevado al lanzamiento de barcos totalmente foil con un mini transat foil de producción de pogo que se lanzó en 2020.

La división de prototipos es más flexible en cuanto a dimensiones, como la profundidad de la quilla y la altura del mástil, y permite el uso de tecnologías avanzadas como quillas basculantes y mástiles de fibra de carbono. La clase de prototipos es aproximadamente un 7 % más rápida.

Los barcos de producción utilizan diseños aprobados y materiales relativamente conservadores. ^{[ 4 ]}