I started the 2023 season by taking part in the last training stage organised by CEMC (Centre d’Entraînement Mini 6.50 de Concarneau) and Pole Mini Roscoff at the beginning of April. This was the last training before the first mini race, Plastimo Lorient, that I had registered for, and I really wanted this time to do the entire training. Last year I took part in only one session, together with one of my very experienced friends from Concarneau, Maxime Dagorne, and the pace of the training was too fast for me. I was a complete novice at that time, plus I was just discovering my boat at the start of the 2022 season. After a couple of hours in 2022, I was completely exhausted, and always the last on the water. Then I decided to give it up and do my training much slower, with the help of Max and Victor Mathieu.

However, this year I was determined to do the entire training. The full session consisted of 3 days of solo-training and 3 days of double-handed training. I felt that if I am not capable to do the entire week, I might never be able to do a solo Mini race. I needed to accomplish this not only to gain sailing experience, but to prove myself that I am able to do this kind of racing, that I can sail more than 24 hours without any outside help.

In the first day of the training we did an offshore race of 23 miles. The wind was generally light and it took me about 5:30 hours to complete it. I finished at the back of the fleet, but in close proximity to a few other Minis. The start of the week was promising 🙂 Nonetheless, after the first day I was already sore. I had travelled from Bucharest two days prior, jumping from my office desk job to solo ocean racing over the weekend. Quite a drastic change for my body. This first day of training had been the first one on a boat since September 2022! Somehow I found my sea legs quite fast, but I was a few speeds slower than all the other mini skippers.

At the end of the first day, our coaches Francois Jambou (CEMC) and Damien Cloarec (Roscoff), both of whom have enormous ocean racing experience, presented us the program for the second day… an offshore race of about 150-miles that should take us around 24 hours. The main goal was to train not only on boat handling, weather analysis and race strategy, but also on managing ourselves for 24 hours. That implied setting and following an eating and resting schedule. Damien went to great lengths about the importance of following a routine of active rests of 15-20 minutes during the night. The third day, when we finished the race, he came in a RIB and looked at each of us to see how we looked after 24 hours of racing, checking our physical and mental condition. Which we further discussed during the debrief on the 4th day.

But coming back to the race announcement, I was hesitant whether to take part. I always had the excuse that I was kind of beaten up after the first day. Plus the weather was supposed to be stronger over the night, with winds of around 20 knots. The middle point of the race was the Occidentale de Sein cardinal mark, to the west of Ile de Sein. This area is notorious for strong current, which together with the stronger wind, can cause a rough, confused sea. No one enjoys this area in particular. It has the reputation of being one of the most challenging on the entire French Atlantic coast. And there we were supposed to sail the following night.

The motto of Francois Jambou, winner of the 2019 edition of Mini Transat, is “hard training, easy battle”. He always trains hard and pushes the mini skippers to their limits, which makes them well prepared for the Mini races. Furthermore, in the mini circuit you are not consdered a truly mini skipper unless you sailed at least 24 hours solo and spent a solo night at sea. After 2 years of racing in Classe Mini I really wanted to think of myself as a mini skipper, to be part of this awesome group of experienced sailors. I was afraid to do the race, not being confident in my skills and preparation. And I was also afraid not to do the race – bailing out now might have meant giving up my hopes of racing in the single-handed races.

Thus the second morning came, and I didn’t change my mind. I would start the race, take it slower, focus on maneuvers, do everything properly, not hasty, take care of myself and of the boat. I knew that if I applied everything that I had accumulated over the past 2 years, I would finish the race. It was time to prove myself that I can do this, after dreaming about it for 10 years!

This short movie captures some of the moments of this first solo race.

When I returned to Concarneau during the 3rd day of the mini training stage, I felt I made a significant progress. I was now a Mini skipper, at least in my mind, and I could take part in any race 🙂 A very nice and optimistic start of a new season, given the races that I wanted to do this year. But for now I still had 3 days of double-handed training and was looking forward to sailing with my co-skipper Charlotte Laffargue with whom I was racing in Plastimo Lorient the following week.