Andrew Wood's 2007 Mini Transat Campaign

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GBR 500

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I spent the 2005 season racing an older generation glass fibre mini, which for me, turned out to be a great move as not only did it confirm my desire to compete in this demanding circuit, but also taught me a fantastic amount about the boats and the skippers driving them.

Racing and socialising with the guys and girls who were getting their last few races in before the 2005 transat, gave me some really invaluable insights into what conclusions they had drawn from their two or more years campaigning. It also enabled me to see what designs were winning in which conditions, what innovations had been implemented in order to simplify the running of the boats and most of all, study the mentality behind the skippers.

The latter part of the season I spent deliberating between two boats in particular and eventually narrowed my hunt down enough to put a deposit on Nick Bubb’s Rogers designed GBR 500. She’s an all carbon British design, with a canting keel capable of sliding fore and aft by 800 mm, a canting dagger board and a carbon wing mast. She’s an extremely versatile and innovative design, that was meticulously constructed and race prepared in the UK by Nick himself.

I believe ‘Voliteo’ strikes the perfect balance between speed and ultimate reliability, especially in the adverse weather conditions which can so often plague this dangerous race. She’s light and fast enough to keep pace with the best French designs, not only demonstrated by Nick and his highly successful 2004/5 campaign, but also in 2003, when a sister to GBR 500 unluckily snapped her mast in 1st position only 100 miles from the transat finish line. The old adage of ‘you’ve got to cross the finish line in order to win’ has resounded loud in my design criteria!

The 2005 transat was generally blessed with consistent, fair winds, this isn’t always the case, but either way, after implementing a few modifications ideas from both Nick and myself, GBR 500 is my ideal weapon of choice for the 2007 mini transat.

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