The M65 initiative was conceived and developed by The Mini Store LLC (TMS), headquartered in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Formed in 2004 to bring the Mini 6.5 to North America, TMS has been developing an online Mini community where Mini enthusiasts in the US and Canada can find a resource of information on all things Mini. In Q4 2008, TMS will be launching a sister website at ministoreusa.com, which will offer just about anything one needs to own, build, sail or race a Mini. TMS is also working on the development of Mini races in North America, but it won't be until 2008 at the earliest before the first races are held as there are less than ten Minis currently sailing in US and Canadian waters. Jeffrey Dingle is the Founder and President of TMS.

Owen Clarke Design (OCD) is a UK-based naval architecture firm and the designers of the M65. OCD exists to continually advance yacht design, fulfilling sailors' passions for fast and beautiful boats. The people at OCD believe in driving innovative thinking and pushing technological frontiers to achieve design excellence in cruising and racing. Size doesn’t matter – speed does. Performance is everything. From 21 ft to 70 ft plus, Owen Clarke racing designs are stunning, thrilling - and very fast! OCD has designed some of the most successful offshore racing boats to include Ellen MacArthur's Open 60 Kingfisher, Mike Golding's new Open 60 Ecover 3 and American Kip Stone's Open 50 Artforms. They have also designed five proto Minis. OCD's partners are Merfyn Owen and Allen Clarke. Tim Sadler runs their Auckland, New Zealand office.

VECTORWORKS MARINE

www.vectorworksmarine.com

TMS selected Vectorworks Marine (VMI) to build the hull plug. VMI, located in Titusville, Florida, provides specialized engineering, tooling, and manufacturing services to produce state-of-the-art marine vessels for Military, Commercial, Sport and Recreational use. They have one of the largest five axis machining centers with 25,000+ cu. ft. of milling envelope available for machining plugs and limited production molds for the composites industry. VMI also produces full production molds as well as complete boats for customers as a private label manufacturer.

CNC DESIGN
AUTOMATION

fhightechcomposites.com

CNC Design Automation (CDA) is fabricating the deck plug. CDA, located in Melbourne, Florida, provides complete tooling and build capabilities, from 3D CAD / CAM and CAE 5-Axis Milling to molds to complete fabrication of composite structures.

Porta Fiberglass is building the molds and the complete M65 composite structure. They have been fabricating custom tooling and composite structures for more than ten years at their 20,000 square foot facility located in Edgewater, FL. They currently fabricate on a private label basis the complete and assembled hull structure for two models of high performance boats (34' and 38' long).

SUPPLIER PARTNERS

TMS has developed strategic supplier partnerships with vendors in key equipment categories. Current vendor partners and OEM suppliers for the M65 are US Spars (spars), Doyle (sails) ,Lewmar (deck hardware), Samson (running rigging), Gill (foul weather gear and clothing, Genasun (solar charge controllers and lithium ion batteries), IQSolar (solar panels) and Wichard (stainless steel hardware). TMS will be adding electronics, safety gear and other strategic supplier partners soon.