Displaying items by tag: Mini 650

31st January 2022

National Yacht Club Offshore Sailor Launches Mini 650 Campaign with 2023 Transat Ambition

With a target of this season's 220 nautical mile French Solo Trophée Map race, Dublin Bay offshore sailor Mark O'Connor has launched a Mini 650 campaign.

The 23-year-old UCD engineering student has entry into the 2023 Mini Transat as the main aim of his solo move.

A regular crewman racing on Chris Power Smith's J122 Aurelia in the ISORA Series, O'Connor learned to sail in the National Yacht Club junior section where is he is now an active member of the East Pier club's U25 section.

Mark O'Connor's new boat is an American built Pogo 2 type Mini 650, hull number 840 Mark O'Connor's boat is a Pogo 2 type Mini 650, hull number 840 that is now on the water in Dublin Bay

O'Connor's boat is an American built Pogo 2 type Mini 650, hull number 840. It was purchased in Barcelona and transported to France before travelling by ferry to Dublin.

O'Connor plans to work on 'learning the boat' and how to sail it, before competing in the mini regatta series with the aim of qualifying for the Mini Transat.

O'Connor's Mini 650 on her way to Dublin The new NYC-based Mini 650 on her way to Dublin

Published in Solo Sailing

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Mini 650

Helicopter Salvages Yacht off Beach

#solosailing – It seems there's nothing a helicopter can't handle in terms of recovery, even in a worst case scenario like the one above.This successful salvage lift of a Pogo 2 Mini 6.50 was completed at Bovisands beach on the east side of Plymouth Sound in Devon, England. That's a 430 kilogram keel too!

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About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour