Mini Transat - A Mini Built In America . . . By Kids.

On the shores of Lake Erie in Erie, Pennsylvania, there's a new Mini taking shape. A very unique Mini. By the time she sets sail, sometime in June 2004 if all goes well, more than 1,000 kids will have taken part in her build.

The project is the brainchild of Mini Class US members David Hyland, a professor at nearby Mercyhurst College - mercyhurst.edu - and Jim Stewart, Executive Director of the Bayfront Center for Maritime Studies (BCMS) in Erie - bayfrontcenter.org. Dave is an avid sailor with a lot of Great Lakes distance events along with the Newport-Bermuda race and Annapolis-Newport Race under his keel. Dave has been a long-time follower of the Mini Transat and traveled to La Rochelle in 2001 for the start of the race. Rounding out the build team are Richard Eisenberg, Director of Boat Building at BCMS and educator Ramon Mancha.

A year ago, Dave approached Jim with a plan to do enter the 2005 Mini Transat. Expecting Jim to be receptive to the idea but not prepared to get behind it, Dave was more than a little bit surprised when Jim said "Great idea. Let's build it here". That's where the kids come in.

The mission of the BCMS is to design and deliver unique, maritime-based educational, vocational, and recreational opportunities for the local community. BCMS provides programming for all the juvenile placement facilities in Erie County and seventeen public school districts in northwest Pennsylvania. In six years, BCMS has provided programming for nearly 11,000 youth. These participants have built 65 boats including canoes, kayaks, wherries, skiffs, and the Erie Boat, an authentic replica of the two-masted cat-ketches that used to fish the waters of Lake Erie.

If a Mini was to be built at BCMS by kids, it had to be fabricated out of wood, as that is their primary area of expertise. Enter Dudley Dix Yacht Design of South Africa - dixdesign.com - who offers the only kitted Mini design in the world made out of wood. Last fall, Dave purchased the plans from Dudley and the kit from CKD Boats in Hout Bay, South Africa - it shipped on Christmas Eve, arrived in Newark in early January, and finally arrived at BCMS on February 12. Construction began the following week.

Over the upcoming months, Mini Class US will be following the progress of Reaching Kids - Ocean Racing and Education, as hundreds of kids help build a Mini in America. We'll be posting updates regularly, along with a photographic account from start to finish. One of the dates Dave and Jim have on their calendar, which all agree will be a challenge to meet, is July 1st, 2004, the start of the inaugural Boston Bermuda Mini Race. We will all be thrilled should their new Mini be at the starting line. But we're already thrilled there's a Mini being built in America by kids!

For more information, please check out their site:
http://www.miniclassus.com/build/Dix/dix_build.htm