M65- Minisinamerica-Marblehead, MA

12 October M65

BOAT: M65 
OWNER: Minisinamerica.com, Marblehead, MA http://www.minisinamerica.com/
DESIGNER: Owen Clarke Design, Dartmouth, England http://www.owenclarkedesign.com/
BUILDER: Porta Fiberglass, Edgewater, FL http://www.portafiberglass.com/
LENGTH: 21 feet [6.5 meters]
YEAR: 2009
HULL: Hand laid Fiberglass
HISTORY: The Mini, or Open 6.5, is the smallest of the Open Class, ocean-racing sailboats. They look and perform like miniature Open 60 monohulls which is not surprising as much of the technology and materials deployed on the big Open 60s – twin rudders, canting keels, water ballast, carbon fiber – was first developed and prototyped on Minis. Likewise, many of the world’s top offshore racing skippers – Ellen MacArthur, Michel Desjoyeaux, Yves Parlier, Isabelle Autissier, Bernard Stamm, Jean Luc Van Den Heede, Bruno and Loick Peyron – began their sailing careers in Minis. Minis are to Open 60s what go karts are to Formula One racing. In baseball parlance, they are the farm leagues of Major League Baseball.
 Until just recently, most minis were one off custom built boats- and not part of a mainstream production run. During the past five years, Jeffery Dingle of Marblehead, MA has developed the first high tech production mini - made in America – that is ready to buy and sail.
 Designed for use as fleet racing boats near shore or as training rockets for long distance offshore racing- the all new M65 was in Newport briefly, but has since moved on to Annapolis for the boat show.