The fascinating transatlantic marathon Mini-Transat is complete. Of the 87 participants (including eight women) who started on the 5th of October 2019 in La Rochelle, not everyone reached the finish line at Le Maren – 9 skippers, about 10% of all participants, retired. Four were forced out at the first stage (Jonathan Chodkiewiez, Jean-Baptiste Ternon, Yann Blondel and Pavel Rubal) and three at the second (Irina Gracheva, Thomas Gaschignard and Matteo Serricano). In addition, Hendrick Witzmann from the United Arab Emirates did not sail, and Joe Lacy, UK, was officially declared as out of the race due to getting assistance.

The results of the Mini-Transat have been announced as follows:

In proto division:
1. Francois Jambou (865), France, with the result of 12 days 02 hours and 27 minutes
2. Axel Tréhin (945), France
3. Morten Bogatsky (934), Germany

In the serial division:
1. Ambrogio Beccaria (943), Italian skipper. His time is 13 days 01 hour 58 minutes.
2. Nicolas D’Estes (905), France
3. Benjamin Ferre (902), France

Unfortunately, Ullman Sails sponsored Irina Gracheva dismasted in the middle of Atlantic and could not reach the finish line this time. But she had not lost her courage and is going to make another attempt next year. We catch up with her to find out exactly what happened:

My experience sailing in the Alantic

“Now I am in Martinique, I am very grateful for a warm welcome and moral support. This year, the Mini-Transat turned out to be very difficult. First of all there was a long wait for the start in La-Rochelle, two cold fronts and 300 miles of tacking in the Biscay, strong winds along the Portuguese coast and delamination of the transom of my boat during the first leg. In the second leg, I experienced an acceleration zone along Gran Canaria, winds of 20-25-30 knots all the time after the start, then squalls under clouds with gusts of 35-45 began to arrive in the middle of Atlantic and continued all the way to Martinique.

My mast collapsed in complete darkness on the 3rd day of squalls on the 11th of November at about 7 am. That night was calm at first, and I could rest a bit. But by early morning, the clouds arrived again. Their outlines were visible, but not completely. Between the clouds, the wind fell as much as 12 knots. Carrying the middle spinnaker and mainsail, I could see the outline of a cloud passing from the leeward side. It brought with it a wind shift and acceleration. I saw a cloud passing from the windward but in front of me and got an expected wind shift with an increase in pressure to 25 knots. After that, everything calmed down.

Then, a big squall came up quickly and suddenly, with a force of 30 knots, which the boat and I were able to successfully overcome. A downpour then arrived with even stronger wind, on which I broached. Then the sound came, and the mast broke half a meter above the boom. There were 1,170 miles left to go.

Dismasting in the Mini-Transat

It took me about 5 hours to free all sails and the mast, having high waves and squalls. The board was almost entirely undamaged, and later I was able to position the mast along the side at three attachment points with slings, which allowed me to safely manipulate the mast. The mainsail broke during the manipulations – it was incredibly difficult to pull the huge mainsail with battens from the damaged profile. I thought to raise the mast onboard, but it was difficult to do it alone, and it was pointless.

The first escort boat came to assist. They immediately offered to evacuate me, but I refused, intending to install jury rig and fix the autopilot. The entire NKE electronics system went into a full blackout after the crash.

A few more hours were spent on disconnecting the remains of the mast, installing a boom in its place and setting up halyards and sails. The boom was 50 cm longer than the rest of the mast, which made it possible to set the sails. I started with a storm staysail, but very quickly managed to hoist a jib. In gusts it was possible to accelerate right up to 5 knots …. but not in the right direction. Anyway, the task of being on the move before dark was completed.

Tired, my whole body hurt. After a terrible night, I started fixing the autopilot. I managed to arrange a supply of electricity, but only on one of the three displays worked, which informed me that we had a short circuit on the data cable. All devices, lights, and battery charging were functioning normally and I tried all the combinations on the three NKE junction boxes but failed to identify the cable with the short circuit.

All the time I counted miles, speeds, received forecasts (two days ahead only) and calculated days, food and risks. Realizing that the autopilot could not be repaired, and it was predicted that the wind would change direction and decrease in speed, I called to the race organizers for the nearest escort boat. It was a Ti Ble catamaran 100 miles behind me. I had one more day to meditate in a drift and think about my decision.

I had drifted for almost 3 days when the catamaran arrived, and the final decision to leave the boat was very difficult. There were many aspects to making such a decision and I thought it over very carefully and weighed it. The rescue operation was carried out on 14 November at about 4am.

The boat was left afloat. To sink down any contemporary boat is almost impossible, and a half-sunken boat is a big danger. The Yellow Brick tracker was put into report mode every 6 hours to save the battery. An emergency VHF antenna was installed on the top of the emergency mast. AIS was left on to make the boat visible to passing ships. The visibility range was 1-1.5 miles. The solar panel was installed and connected. The EFOY fuel cell wa charged with a new cartridge. Everything was made for an unlimited supply of electricity and maintenance of AIS. Running lights and lights were left on for better night visibility.

What is next for Irina?

I had some fears when I started the Mini-Transat in La-Rochelle because it was not clear what I would do after the finish. The project took up a huge part of my life and I was almost feeling a big hole in my soul. But right at the moment then my mast fall down I thought: “It has become clear what I will do with the next two years – I will prepare for the new Mini-Transat, because the work that has been started must be completed!” Now I have a lot of work to do to rescue the boat and start preparations almost from the beginning, but I believe, it will make me stronger!