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image 300 x 158Mistral 650 built in the South of France. Photo : J.Dubois

Serie Mini

Is the Pogo being under fire of new serie designs ?

Mistral 650, Ti Zef and a new Magnen design follow the way of the Super Câlin

vendredi 30 novembre 2001Christophe Guigueno, Leo Voorneveld

Mistral 650, TiZef, a Magnen design are the new designs that tries to follow the SuperCalin. They will try to break the supremacy of the Pogo. Jerome Dubois of the AMC Marine Marine Marine nationale yard, is underway in the construction of his first Serie Class Mini. In the same time Ollivier Bordeau of the Latitude 4824 yard, known as the builder of Rolland designs, is promoting his new Serie Class Mini. Together with the progress in the Magnen and the already existing SuperCalin (Super Cuddle) the hunt for the best Serie Mini is on.

Is the mini going partly back to his roots ? In the beginning and early eighties we did see a lot of production boats in the Transat The Transat #thetransat #ostar 650. Boats like the Muscadet, Serpentaire and the Coco. The Pogo is now the reigning design in the production class. The reason behind this is according to Ollivier Bordeau is that when the Classe Mini announced in February 2001 that 50% of the starting places of the Transat The Transat #thetransat #ostar 650 would be for the Serie Class.

The competitors quickly understood that the ProtoClass was filling rapidly, and so decided to compete in the Serie Class. In this Class the only available boat in numbers was the Pogo, it was a proven design and enough on the buyers market. The design had proven itself too in previous Transats.

In the rankings of the Trophy SeaSailSurf.com des Minis, which ranks all the active sailors of the Mini season, the Serie Class had 62 competitors and the Proto Class 66. So the numbers are almost even. It shows that the Serie class is as attractive to sailors.

And there are more reasons to sail a Serie Mini. The Challenge Business is preparing a race for dublehanded Serie designs. And in France the Pogo has his own racing circuit with the National Championship as the big event. Then the budget reasons, a Serie Mini cost half the price of a competitive prototype.

Due to all those reasons the Serie Class is attracting more sailors, designers and builders.

One serie design already proven itself and three new Serie designs under construction.

Although the Pogo is the reference is for the Serie Mini, the Super Calin is successfull this year. Loic Le Bras sailed one SuperCalin to a fourth place in the Serie Classement. And before is abandon il leg one Jean Marie Vidal sailed a good race. The SuperCalin is a Jean-Pierre Magnan design, and is now an official Serie Mini. According to the rules a Serie Mini has first to prove its design competing in the Proto Class and have to finish the race.

The new kids on the block are :

The first Mistral 650 of AMC Marine is nearing completion. Jerome Dubois is building a plywood hull with a composite deck. The design is of Bernard Nivelt, co designer of the successfull design of Bestaven, Boissieres and Guerin. "The design is a plywood hull with glass/epoxy structural reinforcements and the whole hull is glassed and epoxied." The keel is a iron body with a lead bulb. The price will be around 23664 Euro and in the Mediterranean there is interest for this boat.

And a the Atlantic coast another Serie design is being build by Ollivier Bordeau, named TiZef - shipyard Latitude 48° 24’. The design is based on the proven design of the Hakuna Matata, the plywood Mini who sailed to a good 4th place in the 1997 Mini Transat. It is a design of Rolland. The hull will be the same, but the deck will be of the modern Rolland designs like the Dingo, Crealine etc). The deck will be of Airex/polyester and glass.. That will create a roomy boat.

The third project, it will be a Magnen design, the boat will be build in Normandy and six of them are already sold. A fourth one is the Naus 6.50 with already 8 minis built.

It looks like there will be enough choice in the Serie Classe in the future.


Dans la même rubrique

Mini 2002 programm : Second edition of the Select 650 in may

image 300 x 158Start of the 2001 edition. Photo : Ch.Guigueno

Transat 650 Charente Maritime Bahia : The double wins edition for Yannick Bestaven and Olivier Desport

Transat 650 Charente Maritime Bahia : Three minis still at sea

Transat 650 Charente Maritime Bahia : Denis Hugues’ balance


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