5.80 MINI - 6.50 MINI, COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE IN A TRANSAT

I have already talked here about the 5.80, a new class of offshore racing sailboats designed by a Polish yacht designer, Janusz Maderski, sold in plans and home built by the racers. One wonders about the need for a class smaller than the mini-transat class (6.50 mini), but even if many of these 6.50 mini are built by the ones that are going to race them, the point is that some find them too expensive.

Well,  the 5.80 is certainly not expensive, built with plywood, over plans that cost 300€. They say if it is entirely home-built a completely equipped boat would cost about 20 000€. It seems too optimistic to me, but it would be certainly much less expensive than a completely equipped mini 6.50 racer, even if home-built.

The design has nothing to do with the one of a mini transat racer, that follows the design line of other transat racers, like the 40class and IMOCA class, yachts designed to be easy on the autopilot, with a downwind maximized performance and a big hull form stability.

The 5.80 design is odd, I would describe it as outdated. If one looks at the boat sideways, it seems modern, but the side view is contradicted by a bird's view, or by the hull design. The design can have to do, at least partially, with the intention of having an easier boat to build and a less expensive one, and what counts in a racing boat is the performance not if the design seems outdated or not.

The 5.80 has a considerable ballast even if the draft is small (1,40m), compared to the 6.50 mini-transat racers, but even so, the 5.80 should be relatively seaworthy, considering the small size and displacement, but not as seaworthy as a 650 mini, that has a considerably superior overall stability.

Due to being a bit smaller ( less 70cm) and with a less technical building, the 5.80 is going to be slower, but how much slower is the question. On the mini racers, we have seen that the differences in performance between the Protos (much more technically developed) and the Series ( production boats) are many times small, notwithstanding the huge difference in complexity and price. 

Will something similar happen between the 5.80 class and the 6.50 Series class? Will that outdated look be just a look, without a big influence on boat performance? Let's have a look:

As you probably know the last edition of the 6.50 mini Transat finished recently, without safety problems, even if many boats chose to take shelter on the Spanish coast due to 50kt winds. Anyway, the French Sailing Federation and the Mini Transat organizers, as usual, found it necessary to accompany the transat with several support boats, in case there were problems with the small racers, due to the possibility of heavy seas and winds.

The 5.80 Transat, that is being raced, has not that safety measure, that seems unnecessary to the organizers since the boats are supposedly designed for the Globe Race, a circumnavigation race that will happen in 2024, and will have far worse conditions than the benign ones that you will find in the South Atlantic at this time of the year. 

This race is just a kind of preparation for the big event and the boats, contrary to the 6.50minis, are not specifically designed for a Transat, but for a circumnavigation race.

I will not repeat on this post what I think about the suitability of the 5.80 for a circumnavigation race (you can read it on the posts linked below).

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2020/03/class-mini-580-inexpensive-boat-to.html

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2021/03/5-vendee-globe-for-poor.html

In this post, besides calling attention to this Transat, which is a big adventure, I will try to compare the performance of the two mini-classes, the 5.80 and the 6.50, while racing a Transat. When the race finishes we will have more information, and I will post it in the comments, but by now we have already some information for making that comparison.

The 6.50 mini-Transat started with 90 racers, a  number limited for safety reasons by the organization (there was a waiting list), and it was raced in two categories, the Protos (25), that as the name indicates are one-off, more technically developed and more expensive sailboats and the Series (65), that are boats made by shipyards, production sailboats.

From the Protos, 3 have abandoned the race, from the Series there was also 3 abandons, but due to the larger number of participants the finish rate was better, and 95.4% of the Series completed the race. That is an incredibly high rate for any race, much more for a Transat.

The 5.80 Transat started 23 days ago, sailing out of the South Portuguese Coast to the Canary Islands, with 6 racers, all having already finished the first leg, which serves also as qualification for the 2nd leg. The fastest boat took about 4 days 20 hours 55 minutes to make it, averaging a 4.85 kt speed. For this unexpected high speed contributed the last 36 hours were they got winds between 20 and 30kt gusting 40kt with the boats being able to plan, and making double-digit speeds.

On the Mini Transat first leg they sailed from the Atlantic coast of France to the Canary  Islands, but almost all looked for shelter (due to 50kt winds) on the coats of Spain, for 24 hours or more, and, among the Series, the only one that has not done that was a single racer, not a top one, but that due to it was the first among them to arrive at the Canaries. As the 2nd leg showed, that racer was far from being among the fastest, in the Series class finishing 22nd.

If things had been normal, the 5.6kt average speed of the first among the Series would have been way higher. The first Proto averaged 7.80kt. On the 2nd leg, the differences between the average speed of the first Series and the first Proto were more "normal" (6.70kt to 7.70kt).

Looking at this data we can see that a 5.80 class for being as fast as a 650 mini proto would have to be 57% faster, and for being as fast as a 650 mini Series (production), would have to be 37% faster, and this for a 28% difference in hull length. It seems that the 5.80 are not only outdated in what regards looks but also in what regards performance.

If the 5.80, on the Transat, maintain an average of 4.85kt they will make the crossing in 20 days 9 hours and 30 minutes, but on the first 6 days of the 2nd leg, they averaged only 2.7kt of boat speed. I hope they can get a better average after passing Cabo Verde (they are midway), if not this is going to be a very long Transat and even if they can make a better average I don't know if the small boats have enough water and food for a 30 day passage and I am quite sure that some of the boats will take more than that.

At the final of the race, with more miles sailed, we can have a better idea about the relative performance between the two racers, the 5.80 and the 6.50. I will add that information to the post.

Certainly, this is an adventure and a race.....but even if the boats are not 40 years old designs, like on the Golden Globe Race, the comparative performance to modern boats is no better. We will see how many will manage to finish the race. One of them has already given up and is not doing the 2nd leg. They are now 5 boats racing this Transat:

http://yb.tl/globetransat2021#