Three years ago it was a good idea, a dream , a goal….
Today it is reality……
The RG 650 series mini began the extremely hard road to become eligible as an official `Series Mini´ three years ago – you might say “yes and” …..
To become a `Series Mini ´the project has to meet very strict guidelines, probably the toughest in the world. The first an most important thing of course is to measure within the box rule which we did. So we then embarked probably the hardest thing – to be eligible you have to build 10 full boats – deck and hull. The boat must be ready to accept its fittings , put the mast in and go sailing…….
It truly is a test of patience and determination….. Alongside this one boat has to race 2000 miles in official Classe Mini races.
So the story goes as of August 18 this year our RG 650 #816 will complete the 2000 miles set by the class, last week all the paperwork went in to be officially documented and Hull #10 will be glued together in the last week of September.
The team at RG 650 are set to be eligible for their first race in the series division; this means we will be able to race against other series boats instead of lining up against Prototype mini`s which can weigh up to 300 kg lighter and have canting keels, can be made from Carbon Fibre to name a few performance criterias that sets the two divisions apart.
The most amazing thing about the RG 650 story is that the will race its first ever race in `Series´division in none other than the Mt Everest of mini races – The Mini Transat 2013.
This year the race goes from Douarnenez (North of France) to Lanzarote (Canary Islands) and from there to Guadelope (Carribean)……It is 4000 miles of solo sailing on a 6.5mt racing yacht with no computers, chart plotters , internet or even HF radios. The boats can have a GPS, VHF Radio and of course very strict safety requirements.
It is very tough – probably the toughest in the world becuase of the size of the boats…….
The RG 650 will be the first ever project from the Southern Hemisphere to make `Series´ although based in Valencia Spain, the designer is from Argentina, the boats are built in Argentina and the project manager is Australian……. It is a French dominated class but the world is closing in them. They are no doubtedly the best mini sailors in the world but the class is attracting more international interest and the RG 650 is proof – did I mention the skipper of the boat is Australian………..
That right Richard Hewson who last year took out a record 12 of the 15 legs of the Clipper around the world race is chasing his next dream of winning the Mini Transat Race…..
We are delighted to have an Austalian racing on what has turned out to be a huge success and has turned some heads within the class……….
You can follow the rest of the campaign at www.RG650europe.com , www.hewsonracing.com or keep up to date on the RG 650 series min facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RG650seriesmini?ref=tn_tnmn