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June 13, 2006- Great festival of speed
The Bol d'Or Rolex has always attracted the most extreme boats, each attempting
to make the best of the typically light, but fickle conditions found on Lake
Geneva.
The 40 or so multihulls competing in this year's Bol d'Or Rolex, are mainly
catamarans. The Décision 35s (or D35s) are now universally admired for
their state of the art design and high tech carbon fibre construction. They
are the fastest boats on the lake and with owners such as Ernesto Bertarelli,
the man behind Switzerland's successful challenge on the last America's Cup
and famous skippers such as Alain Gautier and Loïck Peyron, they are also
the most high profile. Winner of last weekend's Genève-Rolle-Genève'race,
Peyron is returning to try to defend Bol d'Or Rolex title after his victory
last year on Nicholas Grange's Okalys. For the D35s, the Bol d'Or Rolex also
forms part of their championship for the Julius Baer Cup.
Another smaller class of high speed one design catamaran really booming in
Switzerland is the M2. This class originates from the former F class multihull,
the rule being reworked, adapted and simplified to make boats that are attractive,
fast and spectacular, while remaining within a tight budget. This formula seems
to be highly successful: on the start line of the Bol d'Or Rolex last year
were 20 examples and of these eight were new. This year 29 M2s are entered.
Of these 19 are the latest breed of Ventilo M2.
Over the last two seasons a new breed of superfast multihull has come to
do battle at Switzerland's premier regatta. This year there will be around
40 such multihulls fighting for supremacy on Lac Léman (as the local
people call this 72km long crescent-shaped stretch of water) for the 68th
edition of this annual regatta.
Divided into two Classes, the M1 and M2, the competition between the multihulls
promises to be thrilling, unpredictable and spectacular in the extreme. The
Décision 35s and their smaller M2 catamaran siblings, will be displaying
their amazing capacity to sail in all types of wind - an essential requirement
for coping with conditions on Lake Geneva where the wind is usually light in
the extreme, but where violent gusts can bowl down from the surrounding mountains.
Rodolphe Gautier, head of the M2 class association explains why this class
is booming. "First, we are not bothering ourselves with too many rules. We
have a gentleman's agreement between all the owners so that all boats delivered
by the yard will remain exactly as they are, so they are equal. The design
is beautiful, it is easy to sail, and the price is not too much - about 90,000
Euros the same as a cabriolet! All those factor are leading people to want
to sail them."
If the wind is very light for Saturday's race as the forecast at this stage
is predicting - less than 5 knots - then there is good chance the M2s will
be giving the Decision 35s a run for their money.
In the wake of the faster multihulls will be more than 500 monohulls, setting
sail from the same start line off Geneva at 0900, Saturday 17 June, where amateur
sailors will race alongside international stars of the professional racing
scene. The monohull fleet is divided into seven different classes by size.
In Class 1, the largest are the three extreme Psaros 40s, each featuring a
canting keel, water ballast and trapezes for the crew and a performance not
far short of the multihulls. Yet these will take the start alongside 8-10m
cruising boats, such as the ever popular Surprise and Grand Surprise yachts.
At the other end of the spectrum many boats are entered with more classic lines,
with varnished wooden hulls and rigs, such as Christine Smith's beautiful La
Belle Poule in Class 7.
Coming out of a long, hard winter, competitors are impatient to start the
race, something felt all along the banks of Lac Léman. Alec Tournier, General
Secretary of the Société Nautique de Geneve and organiser of
the Bol d'Or Rolex, is delighted with the keen interest of the Swiss and other
nearby countries in his club's annual race from Geneva to the turning mark
at Bouveret at the opposite (eastern) end of Lac Léman and back. "The
Bol d'Or Rolex is the most important sailing event in Switzerland. All the
winter, sailors on Léman wait impatiently for it to happen. As with
past year we are expecting 500-600 entries," he says.