Who am I?
Julian Adamson - 27 years old
I'm a languages graduate, a qualified accountant, a squash player, a paddler and this is more or less how I caught the Mini bug:
2004 / 1st time sailing - St Aubin's Fort in a Laser Pico
2014 / 1st Offshore Race - Jersey to La Rochelle (400 nm) on Morrina IV (Bavaria Match 35)
2015 - Centre d'Entrainement a la Régate (SUI) coached by and raced with ex-Mini sailor Nicolas Groux.
2016 - RYA British Keelboat Academy Offshore Squad coached by ex-Mini sailor Nikki Curwen
2017 - Attended start of Mini Transat in La Rochelle to support fellow CER member Valentin Gautier
Oct 2019 - Attended start of Mini Transat again in La Rochelle this time looking for my future boat
Nov 2019 - Signed the Sale & Purchase Agreement for Mini Skippy in Le Marin, the finish of the 2019 Mini Transat
What is Mini Skippy?
Mini Skippy is a Maxi 6.50 yacht designed by David Raison and built by Idbmarine. She is built to the Classe Mini rules and is optimised for the Mini Transat, a primarily downwind race across the the North Atlantic following the Trade Winds route.
She was launched in 2018 and has already competed in the Mini Transat once with Florian Quenot as skipper. During this race, Florian and Mini Skippy won the 24h sailing record with 215 nm sailed in one day!
What is the plan?
To compete in the Mini Transat which will leave from Les Sables d'Olonne. The first stop is La Palma in the Canaries and after a few weeks rest, Leg 2 will leave heading to St Francois in Guadeloupe.
Return from Le Marin, Martinique
The transat passage West to East is rather a different beast to the Trade Winds passage East to West since it involves sailing with depressions and their associated cold fronts which can be extremely violent.
There is no Classe Mini race back across the Atlantic and so the Minis generally return all together on a cargo ship.
Mini Skippy made it back to La Rochelle in time for Christmas, unfortunately as you'll see below, it wasn't quite plain sailing because.....
Repair Work at Idbmarine
During the Mini Transat race 2019, Mini Skippy unfortunately hit a UFO (unidentified floating object) and this caused a considerable amount of damage to the bow section and to the stringers insider the forward reserve buoyancy tank.
Once the insurers had seen the boat and signed off their reports, Idbmarine got cracking to repair the damage. They cut out the damaged sections and made a mould to allow a new replacement section to be built. This was then married up and scarfed together - they did such a good job that if you hadn't seen the photos, you would never have known!
COVID stops play
The repair work was going well and I was able to monitor progress in France while looking for a place to call home base however, a global pandemic had other ideas....
I returned to Jersey to take my E permit which was going to allow me to tow Mini Skippy and after some great tuition from Gary Powell (www.powellsdrivingschool.com), I passed !
Unfortunately, only a few days later, lockdown was imposed.
What followed was a seriously intense few months of online training and lectures.
I completed my RYA Yachtmaster Offshore and Ocean theory certificates online with my instructor, Peter Dance from Sailtrain Ltd on the Navathome platform (sailtrain.org.uk). I received great support and really enjoyed my courses.
I also got to know the visio platform very well since it was put to good use by Lorient Grand Large who organised an amazing selection of online courses covering everything from sleep management to historical weather analysis.
Mini Skippy arrives in Jersey
Because of lockdown, I couldn't go to France so I put my trust in Condor and she came from St Malo unaccompanied.
She spent a weekend on the tarmac before the office opened again and I could go and collect her. I was slightly impatient so I went to have a look over the ferry compound walls and I snapped this photo!
With a little help from my friends, Darren, Jimmy, Tom and Malcolm, I managed to put the puzzle together and Mini Skippy was ready for re-launch!!
Credits:
Julian Adamson