The Mini Transat sends sailors solo across the Atlantic in just 6.5-meter boats, relying on minimal technology — no onboard computer routing, no Expedition, and no Starlink. Success depends on preparation beforehand and the sailor’s own decisions at sea.
When I first met Nienke Mullink in November 2024, the project was still just an idea. We had both just joined The Magenta Project’s acceleration program, and during my very first visit to Metstrade she generously hosted me at her parents’ home in Haarlem. A late dinner following my arrival quickly turned into long conversations about sailing, ambition, and the kind of careers we hoped to build in sailing.
A year later we unexpectedly crossed paths again at Metstrade. This time it was for the Magenta graduation ceremony. By then, in just twelve months Nienke had moved from concept to campaign. She had secured an investor, bought a Mini 6.50, and was preparing to relocate to Lorient in France. When we caught up again in March, she had already begun training. Her campaign was no longer an idea. It is now a reality.
Finding the Mini Track
Before the Mini project, Nienke was racing offshore in fully crewed campaigns. The boats were big and the teams even bigger. Her role on board was focused on trimming and helming, which gave valuable experience but left limited room to develop the full skill set required to lead a boat offshore.
“I was racing on a 60 foot boat with a big team,” she explains. “Your role on board becomes quite small. I really wanted to grow and become more of an all around offshore sailor.”
That search led her to the Mini 6.50 class. The French offshore class is built around six and a half meter boats that race solo and double handed along the Atlantic coast. Every two years the campaign culminates in the Mini Transat, a solo transatlantic race that has launched the careers of many of today’s leading offshore sailors.
“The more I looked into it, the more I saw that sailors I really look up to all started in the Mini,” Nienke says. “It felt like the most natural pathway.”
She chose to compete in the series class rather than the prototype fleet. The decision was deliberate. Series boats follow stricter rules, with aluminum masts and simpler construction. The boats are closer in performance, which places the focus firmly on the sailor.
“If there’s a speed difference, it’s not the boat,” she says. “It’s how you trim, how you sail, how you make decisions.”
With the support of an investor who believed in the project early on, she was able to purchase a boat and begin building her campaign toward the 2027 Mini Transat.
Learning in Lorient
The project truly began on January 1st 2026 when Nienke drove to Lorient to collect her boat. The mast was still wrapped from transport and the systems had to be reassembled before she could even think about sailing.
“The boat arrived after the last transatlantic race,” she says. “We had to prepare everything again before the first training.”
The previous owner joined her for the first sessions on the water, sharing the small details that make a difference when racing a Mini. The first training sail took place mid January, less than two weeks after she arrived.
Lorient has become the center of her learning curve. Through the Lorient Grand Large training centre she now trains alongside other Mini sailors, including the powerful Maxi scow boats in her class.
“You change the boat bit by bit while you train,” she says. “You experience something on the water, you adjust it, and then you test it again.”
The transition from double handed sailing to solo racing happens step by step. Early sessions are often sailed double handed before moving to what the class calls “fake solo”, where the skipper performs every maneuver alone while another sailor remains on board for safety. Solo training will follow later this spring.
Racing in the Mini class also means adapting to a stripped down form of offshore sailing. Technology is limited by design. Skippers navigate primarily with GPS and pre programmed waypoints rather than full computer routing systems.
“You don’t have a computer or Starlink on board,” Nienke explains. “You really have to prepare everything beforehand and rely on your own decisions.”
The simplicity is intentional. It keeps the class accessible and forces sailors to master the fundamentals of offshore racing.
The Route Towards Becoming the Youngest and Second Female Dutch Mini Transat Skipper
Nienke’s first race of the season started on April 9 with the Plastimo Lorient Mini, a 250 mile double handed race along the coast of Brittany. Just three weeks later she will line up for her first solo challenge of the year, the 300 mile Pornichet Select.
Finished 12th in the series class and 17th overall.”
If everything goes according to plan, she will race up to eight events this season, adding thousands of offshore miles to her qualification tally for the Mini Transat.
The long term goal remains clear. In 2027 she hopes to stand on the start line of the Mini Transat as one of the youngest Dutch sailors ever to attempt the race.
“With this campaign I want to grow as a sailor,” she says. “And I also want to show that there are pathways for young sailors outside the Olympic track.”
Her project is also opening doors for others. Young Dutch sailors are joining parts of the campaign, from double handed races to boat preparation, creating a small ecosystem of learning around the boat.
From a conversation in a kitchen in Haarlem to the docks of Lorient, the journey has moved fast. The next chapters will be written offshore, one nautical mile at a time.
Read more about the Mini Class at: www.classemini.com
Follow Nienke at: www.instagram.com/nienkemullink
