The most competitive Transat ever

This Mini Transat completely lived up to the expectations. It was viciously hard race, ultra-competitive, with amazing pace, but due to its nature despite immaculate preparation of the top boats, still completely unpredictable. We saw obvious favorites fail and some other less expected sailors putting in an amazing performance, all playing the old game of 'the first to the finish is the winner...' For Andraz and me this was our second consecutive Mini Transat. With already one (and for me a very painfull) Transat experience under our belts, we did not want to just compete but were aiming for the top, which is easier said than done. This Mini Transat proved to be the most competitive race ever. Normally you have one or two competitors sticking out as clear favorite, but this time you had about 10 guys (and a girl!) that could win the race, all having new or heavily upgraded boats and all having finished at least one Mini Transat previously, while Sam Manuard, Yves Le Blevec and Alex Pella were going for the third time. With ten competitors capable of making the top five, the stage was set for a great show. The start was the usual mayhem with 89 boats on the line, but almost everyone took great care in avoiding each other. A group of press boats got a bit too curious wandering really close to the first turning mark, with several of the competitors (me included) nearly missing them, passing to left or right of them. Andraz and his SLO 510 were less lucky - when he rounded the buoy; he switched on the pilot as he hoisted his Code 5 only realising that there is a big press boat right in front of him. Too late to do anything about it, he crashed right into