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Big Beachcats: Bol D'Or Rolex - 40 Big Catamarans at Lake Geneva

Added by damonAdmin on Jun 13, 2006 - 01:23 PM

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.

 
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