Transat 6.50 Dominik Lenk 2011

Originally called the Mini Transat, the race was conceived by Englishman Bob Salmon as a cost-effective alternative to the OSTAR, which kept seeing bigger (and more expensive) boats at the start.

Today the Transat 6.50 brings the largest fleet of short-handed offshore racing yachts to the startline. (84 sailors, representing 14 nationalities will set off in 2009.)

Map of the Transat 6.50 course

The 4200 mile long race starts in La Rochelle, France and finishes in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil after a short pitstop in Funchal, Madeira.

For over a month, competitors will have to navigate a 6.5m nutshell in a range of conditions ranging from the storms of the Bay of Biscay to the calms of the Doldrums.

They will have to accustom the body to twenty minute naps, freeze dried food and living in the confines of a wet 4m³ box stuffed with sails and other equipment.

Water is carried in jerrycans lashed to the windward side of the boat, freeze dried food is prepared in a cooker dangling from the ceiling and a bucket serves all other needs.

Competitors spent most of their time in the cockpit steering, trimming, keeping watch. Otherwise the autopilot takes over.

Navigation is done on your knees and weather charts are drawn by hand from the long wave radio forecast. Competitors have to be completely self-reliant, making the Transat 6.50 a very tough race mentally.

And the level is high: Most of the fleet will sail their boat across the Atlantic as if they are competing in an inshore dinghy race, continuously pushing their boat and themselves to the limit. In fact, the race has already seen talents such as Sébastien Josse, Isabelle Autissier, Michel Desjoyaux or Ellen MacArthur.

To cut things short, in the words of the race organisation, the Transat 6.50 has become the “out-of-the-ordinary famous race”.