David Raison Wins Mini 6.50 Transat With Innovative Design.

Innovative prototype Mini 6.50 Transat Winner

You don’t have to have an IMOCA 60 or Volvo Ocean Race campaign to innovate the future of offshore yacht racing. Many designs that have been testes as prototypes in the 6.50 Mini Class.

As with all innovation, selling the concept is helped greatly by winning and David Raison has won the singlehanded Transat 6,50 on his innovative boat TeamWork Evolution.

David Raison crossed the arrival line at 18 :43 UT; he sailed the 3120 miles long second leg between Madeira and Salvador de Bahia in 17 days, 6 hours and 13 minutes, at an average speed of 7,53 knots. The skipper from Lorient beat the previous record on this course by twenty minutes.

David Raison took the lead soon after the Cape Verde Islands. He sailed superbly and kept the lead since crossing the Doldrums. He crossed the arrival line 130 miles ahead of his direct opponent, Thomas Normand, and 330 miles ahead of the pack.

David’s boat, with her strange looking round nose, has proved to be excellent on this difficult course, and especially when sailing between 60 and 90° from the true wind, where she was simply unbeatable, achieving speeds up to one knot superior to her opponents.

David Raison said after arrival:

When I saw that I was ahead of the fleet coming out of the doldrums, I thought “this race is for you! Don’t mess it up, don’t fall in the water, don’t break the boat. This boat is fast and exceptional; she helped to compensate some tactical mistakes. Sometimes, I was even slowing down because the boat was banging hard. I slept better last night. I wanted to be in good shape today, I didn’t want to miss the arrival… This was my fourth transatlantic race and my last goal was to finish before nightfall and see Bahia under the sunlight. Tonight I can enjoy a nice big piece of meat in the restaurant; it’s fantastic!”

David’s victory is in line with the history of the Mini Class, who has seen innovations such as canting keels, ballasts or carbon masts, used today on all race boats. Nobody knows yet whether this type of boats will be seen on other, bigger classes in the future; yet one thing is sure: everyone is going to have to think about it.

Philippe Rey-Gorrez, the President of TeamWork, travelled from Geneva in order to welcome the winner.

We already came for Alex Pella’s stopover victory in 2005 under TeamWork’s colours. It is always a wonderful moment and we are hugely happy. We are pleased to have been able to contribute to this success and no, we wait impatiently for Etienne David’s arrival. His goal in his first transatlantic race is to finish in the top ten. He currently fights in the top group and can get a great result following his superb fourth place in the first leg.”

Whether we will see such design in bigger offshore boats remains to be seen.

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