Another thousand miles
By Jesse Rowse
It’s hard to believe that it’s been an entire month since I last wrote my last blog update. On the other hand as I sit and collect my thoughts on all the sailing (and travel) I have done in the past month, it’s not at all hard to see why I didn’t have the time to sit down and write. I really just have the tiniest bit of free time even to write this as I’m traveling, yet again, after spending only one night at home in Newport since arriving back in the U.S. from France where I am campaigning my Classe Mini. I’m now off to NYC to prepare a 40-foot trimaran for the Marblehead to Halifax ocean race before delivering the boat up to the start and then racing to Halifax.
My last month in France involved one thousand miles of sailing, two offshore races, a Fastnet rock rounding in a Force-8 gale and even a trip to Belgium by land to earn some money towing a Mini back to France with my van. Being back in the States is really a great setting to reflect back on the past month as I realize even more how amazing of a trip it has been when I am no longer surrounded by people doing the same thing.
The MAP, 200 miles single-handed, and the Mini Fastnet, 650 miles double-handed, were both fabulous and difficult races, as most all the sailing tends to be in Brittany. The MAP was an excruciatingly long 200-mile race in light air lasting a touch over 50 hours and included many tactical points where local knowledge was a key factor. The Mini Fastnet served up everything from being becalmed for most of a night to an eight-hour period of 35-40 knot wind in the Celtic Sea including our Fastnet rounding at 0200 in zero visibility and driving rain.
My finishes of 23rd out of 74 boats in the MAP and 20th out of 75 boats in the Mini Fastnet may seem to not be the greatest positions but for my old boat I feel they are respectable finishes. Many of the other sailors seem to agree.
The experiences from the racing, as well as the great times spent with the other sailors in the Mini fleet, have been one of a kind and I will always appreciate the time I have been able to spend living out this adventure. I feel like I have been sailing well and keeping pace considering I have one of the oldest boats in the fleet. Most importantly, after all of the modifications and work I have done to my boat, I had no major breakages and am feeling prepared for the Mini Transat, which starts on September 13th. 
The massive fleet of Minis assembled in Douarnenez for MAP and Mini Fastnet.
I seem to always be talking about the speed difference between my old boat and the new prototype Minis, so I think it’s only fair that I shed a little light on the advancements in the class since my boat was designed and built in 1997. It is important to understand that the Classe Mini has always been the testing ground for almost all the technology that we see today in the most advanced offshore-racing boats. Canting keels, asymmetrical and jibing daggerboards, kick up rudders, water ballast, and chined hull forms have all been implemented in the Classe Mini well before they made their way into the Open 60s and other larger racing classes like the Volvo Open 70.
My boat is an early example of a full carbon-fiber prototype mini with a fixed keel, 200 liters of water ballast on each side, and a small retractable daggerboard forward. All told, she weighs in around 1,765 pounds.
The newest prototypes have amazingly powerful hull forms, canting keels and water ballast, advanced asymmetric daggerboards, and kick-up rudders. The lightest boats are now rumored at weighing only 1,500 pounds. My boat’s hull form is not very powerful (doesn’t provide much stability) and I struggle greatly in all reaching conditions when the new powerful canting-keel boats are barely heeled over, carrying a cloud of sail and maintaining average speeds in the double digits.
Since I have owned my boat, I have used everything I have learned from working as a yacht designer and from my sailing experience to make my boat as fast and reliable as possible. The largest of the modifications I have made to the boat was designing a new carbon-fiber mast with an entirely different layout than the old aluminum stick and rigged it with PBO standing rigging. This has had a vast impact on the boat’s stability by reducing weight aloft as well as allowing me to carry a larger overlapping headsail, improving the balance of the boat and allowing me carry more sail in heavier wind while still maintaining control.
I have also done loads of smaller modifications over the years I have owned the boat that are too numerous to list here. I have kept my own website, www.realitydailing.com, relatively up to date with some of the more technical aspects of my campaign and if you are interested, I have documented many of these projects.
I will be spending the rest of July working on the logistics side of my campaign from home, and getting in a bit of racing on some boats that help me appreciate ocean racing without quite the level of abuse received when racing my Mini. I arrive back in France the first week of August and will be set to go full speed ahead to finish my preparations for the Mini Transat start on September 13th. 
Here is a fine example of two modern prototype minis. The boat on the right sports a canting keel, water ballast, twin asymmetric daggerboards, kickup rudders and a rotating wing mast that has not just a massive adjustment in rake but also can be canted side to side (this is one of the fastest boats in the fleet).
