Suffolk solo sailor

The Daily Sail spoke to the highly confident Nick Bubb about his transistion from dinghies to the Mini Transat

He's as confident as you like, seems to be able to pull funding out of thin air, is one of the UK's best prospects for this year's Mini Transat and - annoyingly - is just 23 years old.

Nick Bubb is an impressive individual despite his tender years. A lifelong dinghy sailor from Suffolk, he's done the rounds in Laser, Larks and Laser 5000s. While studying engineering at Exeter University he won the British Universitys dinghy championships and the Europeans, before graduating up to the Z Spars works boat 707. Bubb has now embarked on a rather different campaign that will, if all goes according to plan, see him set off singlehanded across the Atlantic in the 70 strong Mini Transat fleet this September.

"I left university and was applying for 'proper jobs; as my parents would call them, when I was working for a friend in his boatyard," says Bubb of how he got enticed towards his latest project. "He used to sail with Paul Peggs and while Paul was off doing the 2001 Mini Transat we ended up following Paul. Then when he got back there were a few phone calls and I thought ‘this sounds quite cool’. So it was all a bit of an idea really. And then I went to see the bank. I never thought they’d lend me the money and they lent me £15,000."

With this he bought a Mini similar in its design to Ellen's Le Poisson from a Dutchman who had lost interest in it. Although conceived in 1991, the boat was not built until 1993 and Bubb spent the winter before last working on it, between his time working in the boatyard. He also did all his RYA Yachtmaster theory exams because, he admits, he'd never sailed offshore before. (In the process Bubb subsequently won RYA Yachtmaster of the Year and had an award presented to him by Princess Anne at the boat show in January).

Meanwhile he was receiving a lot of advice and help from members of the East Coast sailing fraternity. Of particular help was Dave White, owner of Z Spars. "Dave sorted me out with a bit of money and a bit of kit and put me in contact with John Parker from Quantum Sails. He’s been fantastic - he sorted me out with a free set of sails and gave me a lot of advice, because he was involved with Josh Hall’s campaigns and he taught me a lot of stuff."

To start with the boat was a disaster. "Every time I went sailing I broke something," he recalls. "I got through four bowsprits! The plan was to sail down to the start of the Mini Fastnet in June, but I will still fixing the boat. So in the end I borrowed the Z Spars 4x4 and towed the boat down [to Lorient]. I hadn't sailed the boat for more than an hour without breaking something and in the prologue we port tacked everyone and were third. And I thought 'not too bad'. In the end in the Mini Fastnet we finished 28th out of 57 boats. So I was pretty chuffed with that. We had quite a lot of breeze, up to 35 knots, and it all went really smoothly and I thought ‘I quite like this’".

He then went on to take part in the two handed three stage Open Demi-Cle with National 12 builder Nigel Waller. "It was a tight reach all the way to Cork and I didn’t have a code zero but we finished 12th. Cork to Baltimore was light airs upwind and we got the best start again and we were in the lead by 25 miles and then three guys got past. It was 50 miles to the Fastnet, and we were third round it and we finished 4th. Then on the last leg we left Baltimore to the Fastnet and then on down to Lorient. It was 15 miles upwind and we were in the top 3 and then broad reaching and everyone just pissed passed us and I was going mad at this point!" He still came 10th out of 35 - a promising result in one of the slowest boats taking part.

At this point Bubb realised that he hadn't sailed the boat solo, so he set off in company with fellow Brit competitor James Bird on his 1,000 mile qualifier for the Mini Transat. "I left Lorient and had the tiller tied up with elastic as I was down below getting the autopilot working! But eventually I got it working. And I finished my 1000 mile trip just like that. We had 40 knots in the Irish Sea and I hit something and it pulled one of the rudders off. So I sailed 100 miles with water pissing into the boat and having to bail out. I got the boat craned out in Penzance and patched it up and finished my qualifier."

After this he and fellow Mini sailor Liz Wardley were sailing the boat back to the east coast. Liz was talking about getting her new Mini built. This started the grey matter working. "I thought maybe I should get a new boat too. Liz was saying "how can you stand getting good starts all the time and seeing guys sail past you?" And I said, "well I can’t really". So I spoke to a few friends of mine and basically found someone to put up the money to pay for a new boat."

The most sought after design to have in the Mini fleet is one by Sebastien Magnen. Something of a guru within the class (in much the same way as Michel Desjoyeaux used to be in the Figaro) Magnen is a qualified naval architect and is a two time winner of the Mini. In short, his Minis rock.

Having vetted Bubb prior to the Demi Cle, Magnen agreed to do a design for him which since September the aspiring Mini-ist has been building in a barn in Suffolk with the help of Nigel Waller who has overseen the build. "It takes nearly 2,000 manhours to build a Mini. By the end of it I’ll do 1,200, Nigel 500 and a load of friends do the rest. Since Septempber all I've been doing is working on the boat," says Bubb.

Funding has come from a sailing friend called Richard Wolf who runs a company called Majestic Security. "I haven't got tied down to him, so I can still get a title sponsor. He's paid for it and he owns it and at the end he'll sell it. It is an investment for him, because essentially my labour for free which is the big cost of building the boat and in return for building the boat I get to charter it for three seasons." A smart way of going about it.

The new boat was launched at the Suffolk Yacht Harbour in Levington on 28 February, christened Northern Exposure. She has a swing keel and is not radically different from Magnen's Mini winner, Karen Liquid. "The hull shape has changed a little, the sheer line has dropped fractionally. The biggest difference is in the sails. John Parker and Peter Kay are doing quite a lot of development there. You’ve got to have a Dacron mainsail, so it is about sail shapes rather than material. We won't have the huge amount of roach. We had a small roach on my last boat so we were really fast upwind. The French guys - their roaches are just all over the show."

During the last season his sails caused quite a stir. "We had a grey Solent. It was dyed black Pentex - it was a nightmare, we spent ages trying to persuade them it wasn't carbon."

Below: Northern Exposure goes through her inversion testing. Note the canting keel and centreline daggerboard.





Right now Bubb is racing to get qualified so that he can get one of the 70 places in September's Mini Transat. Because he has changed boats he must requalify by sailing 1,000 miles in Northern Exposure as well as taking part in a further 1,000 miles in official Mini races. Today he is setting off on the former of these voyages and he plans to then trail the boat to the Med where he will race in the grandly named Odyssey of Ulysses race from Antibes to Tunisia and back on 6-20 April and then on to the Roma per Due at the end of April. Both races are two handed.

His long term plans include hanging on to the Mini until the 2005 race. "I want to do two Minis, because I’m not going to do my justice with such a rushed campaign. So I plan to stay in class until 2005. The massive advantage is that after this Mini I can have some time off as I won’t have to requalify again."

In the interim he says he wants to get some more experience on bigger boats with a view to ultimately ending up in his own Open 60. "On the East Coast there is nothing like this. Josh Hall did a little bit up there. Having sailed for the last 16-17 years up there I know a lot of people. There has been massive interest about what I am up to at the moment. So I think it is realistic to get the money."

We will watch with interest.