On Sunday 18th October 2008, 35 solo sailors met at the pontoons of the Reial Club Marítim de Barcelona, to sail the Mini Barcelona, something that pleasantly surprised organisers and fans. This regatta followed another successful event, the Mini Empúries two-handed race,  new in the international calendar with 25 boats on the starting line. The Mini Barcelona has been an example of the current strength of the class. A lot of the sailors who are preparing projects for the Mini-Transat in the coming year have sailed the Mini Barcelona to accumulate qualification miles. 

Powerful projects

For this purpose there have already been some very developed projects, especially in the prototype class. The Frenchman Thomas Ruyant, winner of the Mini-Fastnet with his powerful Finot-Conq design, competed in the Barcelona Mini with his compatriot Rémi Aubrun, who came fourth in the Mini-Fastnet with his design from Manuard.  Amongst the Spaniards with their sights on the Mini-Fastnet, is Juan Carlos Oliva who competed in the Mini following his excellent third position ranking in the Two Oceans. Juan Carlos came to Barcelona in the middle of the preparation of his boat, the powerful ex-Activa, with which Yves Le Blévec won the Mini Barcelona of 2006 and the Mini-Transat of 2007. 

Anna Corbella with her boat Ulises, another of the Spanish sailors with aspirations of the Mini-Transat classic trans-Atlantic crossing, aspires to be the first Spanish woman to start and finish the race. The Spanish fleet also had one of its big specialists Bruno García, the recent winner of the Mini Empúries, with his brother Willy and the swift Sampaquita on board for the Mini Barcelona. Completing the list of important figures in the world of Mini racing are, the Frenchman Oliver Avram, winner of the last UK Fastnet, The pole Kizysztof Kotokowski and also the Frenchwoman Fabienne Robin. Gerard Marín and Toni Weijl will not be present this year as they are still preparing their boats for sailing. In the production boat class, the Majorcan Hugo Ramón set off as favourite aswell as with figures such as the Frenchman Sébastien Rogues, Beltrand Castelnérac and François Amaury. 

Hard night of easterly wind and final duels

The course consisted of the habitual 300 miles from Barcelona back to Barcelona again passing the island of Menorca starboard side. The start had conditions of  E-NE at 15 knots with continuous storms. Albert Bargués, one of the driving forces of the class in Spain, after the Barcelona World Race became the first Spanish navigator to sail around the world two-handed, non-stop, had the honour of letting off the starting signal at the Mini Barcelona.

After turning at the the first mark in front of the Besós mouth, they were already outlining the favourites as Thomas Ruyant, Rémi Aubrun and Bruno García. During the first night the wind blew from the east and increased to 25-30 knots and made the minis sail against the waves. The storms were frequent and in a lot of cases accompanied by lightning. The difficult conditions soon took its first victims. From the prototypes, Juan Carlos Oliva was forced to retire due to a fractured finger and from the production boat class, Regir García and the Frenchman Richard Olivier faced the same fate due to problems with an automatic-pilot and batteries respecatively. Bruno García broke the Solent traveller and Jordi Garriga, the major halyard and furthermore Anna Cobella was forced to retire to repair a diagonal with a jury rig. Finally the Frenchwoman Caroline Rebuffat dismasted forcing her to retire to Ciudadela.

In the middle of the night, the wind decreased to 10 knots whilst the fleet got closer to Menorca tacking against a wind of ESE of 15 knots and a more manageable sea. After the turn of the Isla del Aire in the prototype class, the fight was between Thomas Ruyant, Rémi Aubrun, Oliver Avram and Bruno García and in the production boat class, Hugo Ramón came in fourth position one hour ahead of Sébastien Rogues. The return course to Barcelona was very tactical and involved many exciting down-wind fights. Thomas Ruyant finally won after a hard fight with the brilliant Bruno García who came second and Rémi Aubrun, third. Between the production boat class Hugo Ramón made a magnificent leap  by surpassing Sébastien Rogues at the finishing line by only six minutes, putting an emotional end to a fantastic race.

División Protos
1. Thomas Ruyant / Faber France 47 h. 8 m. 51 s.
2. Bruno García / Sampaquita a 2 h. 34 m. 34 s.
3. Rémi Aubrun / Profil Composite a 4 h. 50 m. 30 s.

División Serie
1. Hugo Ramón / Volkswagen 55 h. 12 m. 4 s.
2. Sébastien Rogues / Solent a 6 m. 42 s.
3. Beltrand Castelnérac / No War a 36 m. 34 s.